Mythology is a collection of stories, telling people’s believes and history. Some major issues are the origin of humanity and its traditions and the way in which the natural and human world functions. Most often the deities’ daily activities are described in mythology, their love affairs, pleasures, jealousy, rages, ambitions and skills. In the times of the Celts different kinds of mythological narrations appeared.
Kinds of Mythological Narrations:
· Legends:
Unlike many myths legends do not have religious or super natural context. Now we might still gain a philosophical and moral meaning from a legend. An example of a legend is the ‘Tale of Atlantis’.
· Folklore:
While legends and myths might be embraced as true stories, folk tales are known to be fictitious. They are often told only within limited geographical area. Sometimes rather small, such as a town, a mountain range but more often it’s a country.
· Fables:
The emphasis of a fable is always on a moral. It’s a short story, which has animals as main characters.
· Primitive myths:
They were, generally, stories about nature, usually told by primitive clergymen (priests), such as shamans.
· Pagan myths:
These were like the Greek and the Roman tales of the interplay between deities and humans.
According to the themes raised in myths they can be divided into four main groups:
· Cosmic Myths: include narratives of the creation and end of the world;
· Theistic myths: portray the deities;
· Hero myths: give the accounts of individuals, such as Achilles and Guises;
· Place and object myths: describe certain places and objects (all the Myths of Camelot).
Purpose of Myths
· Myths grant continuity and stability to a culture. They foster a shared set of perspectives, values, history and so on. By means of these communal tales we are connected to one another.
· Myths present guide lines for living. When myths tell the readers about the activities and attitudes of deities the moral tone implies society’s expectations for our own behavior and standards. In myths we see typical situations and the options which can be selected in those situations.
· Myths justify a culture’s activities. Through their authoritativeness myths establish certain customs, rituals, laws, social structures in any culture.
· Myths give meaning to life within all the difficulties: e.g. the pain becomes more bearable because people believe that all the trials have a certain meaning.
· Myths explain the unexplained. They reveal people’s faith in life after death, show the reasons for crises and miracles and other puzzles and yet they retain and even encourage the aura of mystery.
· Myths offer role models. For example, children usually pattern themselves after heroes of comic books, cartoons and: so on, which depict lots of typical characters (the superman, for example).
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