Myth - a tradition that periodically appeared in preliterate society.They tell about the life of ancestor, the exploits of heroes, deeds of gods and spirits.The concept of myth has Greek roots and comes from the word «mytos», which means "legend."
first mention of the myths
totality of myths in ceremonial rituals acquired verbally speaking, one of the specific ways to organize information about the surrounding reality.On the other hand, the narrative about the nature of the origin of the universe and of man in it a number of important functions: religious, ideological, philosophical, historical, scientific.
The special features of the myths include arbitrary approach to the compilation of stories, the personification of natural phenomena, zoomorphism.
emergence of ideas about the supersensible basis around the time of occurrence of the first graves.Through ancient burials found a set of elementary forms of art.
Provenance myths
In the Upper Paleolithic there is a steady formation of syncretic complex: the myth - image - ritual.Maintaining this structure throughout the history of humanity shows its versatility.It reflected many centuries and the beginning of a rational and the irrational cultural core.
Paleolithic images and are myths, and their creation - rituals."Signified" and "signifier" in the myths of primitive man existed in the absolute unity.
myth concept in many sciences there are different interpretations of the concept of "myth".The meaning in this case is formulated from different perspectives, which results in the presence of many vague and contradictory definitions.Among them interpretations that are given in encyclopedic dictionaries, naming myths fantastic narrative of national origin.
also found detailed modernized versions, stating that myth - a syncretic understanding of the world, expressed sensory-specific personifications and animate beings, who are identified with reality.Philosophical views on the interpretation of this concept are repelled from the understanding of myth as imaginative scheme of the world, to explain and prescribe specific sequence of actions.
What does the word myth?This question can be answered by synthesizing sense-components from different approaches.So it is possible to formulate a complete and accurate definition of this concept: the myths considered the texts and images that demonstrate syncretic reflection of reality in the different epochs of human development.And each culture has a peculiar, emphasizing the many aspects of a particular society.
Typology myths
The curriculum consists of myths that can easily be called the ancient, biblical and other ancient tales.They tell us about the events connected with the creation of the world, committing acts of ancient (mostly Greek and Roman gods and heroes).
historical mythology Researchers note that in a great many works of different nationalities, many basic themes and motifs recur.That is the origin of the myths not all determine their contents.For example, one of the oldest and most primitive are the stories of the animals.The earliest of these symptoms describe a naive fauna.And in the ancient Australian myths, for example, widespread theory of the origin of animals from people.But other nations of the world, though not so obviously, spread in their mythological tales idea that man was once an animal.Examples of such myths: the ancient Greek legend about a girl, the nymph Daphne, a hyacinth, narcissus and other on.
origin of celestial bodies also often sanctified in myths.In the so-called solar, lunarnyh and legends astral sun, moon and stars are often portrayed by people who once lived on earth, and for various reasons, then climbed into the sky.Such a myth - a fictional alternative to the formation of the people of the universe.Another common theme - a description of the process of creating the Sun by a supernatural being.In this case, not a heavenly body is spiritualized.
Central collectively myths of many countries occupied the work, describing the creation of the world and the universe, and man.Otherwise, they are called cosmogony and anthropogonic respectively.Culturally backward peoples little narrated on these topics.In particular, the Aussies only briefly mentioned that before the surface of the Earth was different, but questions about her appearance never staged.
Polynesians, Native Americans, the peoples of the Ancient East and the Mediterranean considered cosmogonic process in two ways.One of them was based on the idea of creation (creationism), and the other - on the idea of development (evolution).According to the creationist theory, God created the world, God, sorcerer or another supernatural being.In the myths built on the theory of evolution, the world gradually develops out of a primitive existence.It may be chaos, darkness, darkness, etc.
In cosmogonic myths often intertwine and the story lines of the process of origin of gods and men.The most common view on the issue was the miraculous birth of the person.After a few centuries of myths appeared the first mention of the fate afterlife.
How are myths
Through its speech patterns myth demonstrates something unknown, new and in the course of the story shows how this new appeared.It can be an action hero, ancestor, or acts of God.There are also a series of myths, when something new was introduced in one of the works, and further develop the plot based on the occurred event, of which the following legends just mentioned.That is, they are taken for granted a priori.
Examples modern myths
Modern myths that have appeared in Russia in the second half of the twentieth century, mostly have the same orientation.The central figure has always been a relic being.
It is not a coincidence, the first brick in the foundation of the myths laid the science fiction writers.Probably one of the most striking works of steel creations of Arthur Conan Doyle ("The Lost World") and Obrucheva ("Pluton").Let the storylines are quite different, but both works of fiction written in the same style and they are based on the same idea.
Far from civilization, in the forgotten corner of the world there is a place where by coincidence, all the surrounding reality resembles Earth's distant past.This climate, flora and fauna.That this assumption was the basis of a series of myths about the plants and animals that have been preserved in its original world from ancient times.A striking example of this kind of myth - the legend of the monster named Nessie, living in Loch Ness.
Also there are many mythological stories about sea creatures (monsters), which saw the sailors, hikers and fishermen.
Modern myths and science
essence of the problem lies in the fact that the broadcasting of the myth as scientific fact difficult.We can confidently say that it is a component of the mythology.He refers to the secondary level of consciousness, which covers the ideological, cultural, scientific and processed information.In this context, the myth - is artificially created by man the legend, which is based on assumptions and legends, gradually changing under the influence of ideological and scientific factors.
two directions of mythology
appearance of the myths associated with the appearance, formation and development of a nation.That's how people form their individual origin story.Later in the myth-making works appear destined for the masses (which creates the elite), and stories by the people themselves.Thus, we can talk about two ways of mythology: closed and open.
