Mythology
I hate that word.
Actually, no. I love that word. I love that subject. I just hate what connotations it has.
Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, gives the following definitions for mythology:
- a body of myths, as that of a particular people or that relating to a particular person: Greek mythology.
- myths collectively.
- the science or study of myths.
- a set of stories, traditions, or beliefs associated with a particular group or the history of an event, arising naturally or deliberately fostered: the Fascist mythology of the interwar years.
Those are all fine. But most people I meet think of myths as false stories, as fake little things that we can point to as examples of how silly and unsophisticated the people who told them were.
Excuse me?
This is why I’ve started telling people I study religions, not mythology. Truth is, I’d prefer to say I’m studying mythology. Why?
I’m interested in the stories.
I’m only tangentially interested in the religious rituals and rites, and liturgy as liturgy. I’m more interested in the myths as stories, and what those stories tell – about the world and beings in them, the world and culture and time they were written and told in, and the lives and minds of the people who created and shared them.
I inadvertently insulted the hell out of one person when I referred to the Bible as a book of myths.
My definition of mythology, according to practically everyone, is overbroad. What am I talking about when I say I study mythology?
Religions, ancient and modern. Mythology in the standard sense. Epics. Legends. Cultural tales. Folklore. Fairy tales. Ghost stories. Urban legends. Esoteric quasi- or extrareligious belief systems and writings. Quite a large chunk of philosophy. A good chunk of literature, up to and including modern stories. More than a little history. Some psychology. And more besides.
Let’s put it this way: not interested in any of the above? Don’t stick around.
Still here? Then welcome.
