Myths

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Myths
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What is a Myth?

• A story handed down through history, often
  through oral tradition, that explains or gives
  value to the unknown
• Myths are often stories told by particular people
  such as Indians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and
  others.

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What is a Myth continued

• Especially linked to religious beliefs and
  rituals.
• Invoked a type of magic that would aid growth in
  crops, insure successful wars, help achieve
  prosperity or make choices and promote stability
  in land

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Myths

• Myths also insured personal success
• Songs, poems, and stories help to explain how
  people acquired basic things like speech, fire,
  grain, wine, oil, honey, agriculture, metalwork,
  and other skills

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Myths Continued

• They also attempt to explain certain customs or
  practice of a human society (i.e. religious
  rite), or a natural process (daily motion of the
  sun across the skies).

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Example Greek Myths

• Greeks saw a god (Apollo) driving a golden
  chariot drawn by fiery horses and dragging the
  sun across the sky.
• Deserts and snow capped mountains were created
  when his son, Phaeton, took the chariot for a
  ride and could not control the strong horses.

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Myths

• Used to teach humans behavior that helped people
  live in concert with one another.
• example Narcissus keeping pride in check
• Excessive pride (hubris) was the worst offense
  and deserved the worst punishment

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Myths Characters

• Stories about certain characters gods,
  goddesses, men, women, and heroes
• Stories about adventures (win or lose), tales of
  honor, tales of vengeance.
• Passed down by storytellers from generation to
  generation

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Myths Today

• George Washington and the cherry tree
• Never truly happened, but it illustrated a moral
  truth about young Georges character
• Other examples Ben Franklin, Abraham Lincoln
  Paul Bunyan, John Henry, and The Little Engine
  That Could (great things can be accomplished
  through self-confidence)

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Myths Ancient

• Gods are immortal
• Gods reach out and touch the lives of moral
  humans (threatening, punishing, or helping them)
• Topics for great art, literature, and music
• Used in advertisements, political cartoons, names
  of organizations or businesses (Pegasus)