Myth is a legend that periodically appeared in preliterate society. They tell about the life of the ancestors, the exploits of heroes, the deeds of gods and spirits. The very concept of myth has Greek roots and comes from the word "mytos", which means "story".
First mention of myths
The totality of myths in ritual rituals acquired a verbal form, acting as one of the specific ways of systematizing information about the surrounding reality. On the other hand, narratives about the nature of the origin of the Universe and man in it performed a number of important functions: religious, ideological, philosophical, historical, scientific.
The features of myths include an arbitrary approach to plotting, personification of natural phenomena, zoomorphism.
The appearance of ideas about supersensible principles falls on the time of the appearance of the first burials. Thanks to ancient burials, many elementary forms of fine art have been found.
History of the origin of myths
In the Upper Paleolithicthere is a stable formation of a syncretic complex: myth - image - ritual. The preservation of this structure throughout the history of mankind speaks of its universality. It reflects for many centuries both the rational principle and the irrational cultural core.
Paleolithic images were myths, and their creation was rituals. "Signified" and "signifying" in the myths of primitive people existed in absolute unity.
Myth concept
In many sciences there are different interpretations of the concept of "myth". The meaning of the word is formulated from different positions, which leads to the presence of many vague and contradictory definitions. Among them are the interpretations that are given in encyclopedic dictionaries, calling fantastic narratives of folk origin myths.
There are also detailed modernized versions, which say that a myth is a syncretic understanding of the surrounding world, expressed by sensually concrete personifications and animated beings who are identified with reality. Philosophical views on the interpretation of this concept are based on the understanding of myth as a figurative scheme of the world that explains and prescribes a specific algorithm of actions.
What does the word myth mean? This question can be answered by synthesizing the meaning-forming components from various approaches. This is how one can formulate a complete and precise definition of this concept: myths are texts and images that demonstrate a syncretic reflection of the surrounding reality in differentera of human development. Moreover, each culture has its own identity, emphasizing the numerous aspects of the development of a particular society.
Typology of myths
The school curriculum includes myths that can easily be called ancient, biblical or other old fairy tales. They tell about events related to the creation of the world, the commission of ancient deeds (mainly by Greek and Roman gods and heroes).
Researchers of historical mythology note that in a great variety of works of different nationalities, many of the main themes and motifs are repeated. That is, the origin of myths does not determine their content in everything. For example, one of the most ancient and primitive are stories about animals. The earliest of them only naively describe the signs of fauna representatives. And in ancient Australian myths, for example, the theory of the origin of animals from people is widespread. But other peoples of the world, albeit not so clearly, spread in their legends the mythological idea that man was once an animal. Examples of myths of this kind: ancient Greek legends about the nymph girl Daphne, about hyacinth, about narcissus and others.
The origin of heavenly bodies was also often consecrated in myths. In the so-called solar, lunar and astral tales, the Sun, Moon and stars were often portrayed by people who once lived on Earth and, for various reasons, subsequently ascended to heaven. Such a myth is an alternative to the formation of the Universe invented by the people. Another common plot is a description of the process of creating the Sun by somesupernatural being. In this case, the heavenly body was not spiritualized.
The central place in the totality of the myths of many countries was occupied by works describing the creation of the world and the universe, as well as man. Otherwise, they are called cosmogonic and anthropogonic, respectively. Culturally backward peoples spoke little on these topics. In particular, the Australians only casually mentioned that the Earth's surface used to look different, but questions about its appearance were never raised.
Polynesians, North American Indians, peoples of the Ancient East and the Mediterranean considered cosmogonic processes from two points of view. One of them was based on the idea of the creation of the world (creationist), the other - on the idea of its development (evolutionary). According to the creation theory, the world was created by a creator, a god, a sorcerer, or some other supernatural being. In myths built on evolutionary theory, the world is systematically developing from some primitive being. It can be chaos, gloom, darkness, etc.
In cosmogonic myths, storylines about the process of the origin of gods and people are often intertwined. The most common view on this issue was the miraculous birth of man. A few centuries later, the first mentions of fate, the afterlife, appeared in myths.
How myths are formed
With the help of its speech structures, the myth demonstrates something unknown, new, and in the course of the development of the plot shows how this new appeared. It can be the actions of a hero, deedsancestor or god. There are also series of myths when something new is introduced in one of the works, and then the plot develops on the basis of past events, which are only mentioned in the following legends. That is, they are taken a priori as a given.
Examples of modern myths
Modern myths that appeared in Russia in the second half of the twentieth century, basically had the same focus. The central figure has always been some relic creature.
And this is not an accident, the first bricks in the foundation of such myths were laid by science fiction writers. Probably, one of the most striking works was the creations of Arthur Conan Doyle ("The Lost World") and Obruchev ("Plutonia"). And even though the storylines are completely different, both fantastic works are written in the same style and are based on the same idea.
Far away from civilization, in a lost corner of the Earth, there is a place where, by coincidence, the whole surrounding reality resembles the distant past of the Earth. This is the climate, and the animal and plant world. It was this assumption that formed the basis of a series of myths about plants and animals that have been preserved in the primeval world since ancient times. A vivid example of this kind of myths is the legend of a monster named Nessie, who lives in the Scottish Loch Ness.
There are also many mythological stories about sea creatures (monsters) seen by sailors, travelers and fishermen.
Modern myths and science
The essence of this problem lies in the fact that to broadcast about the myth asscientific fact is difficult. It is safe to say that he is a component of mythology. At the same time, it belongs to the secondary level of consciousness, which covers ideologically, culturally and scientifically processed information. In this context, a myth is a legend artificially created by man, which is based on assumptions and legends, gradually changing under the influence of ideological and scientific factors.
Two directions in the development of mythology
The appearance of myths is associated with the emergence, formation and development of some people. This is how people form their individual origin story. Later in the creation of myths, works intended for the masses (created by the elite) and legends created by the people themselves appear. Thus, we can talk about two directions in the development of mythology: closed and open.
