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The word '''''mythology''''' (from [[Greek language|Greek]] ''μυθολογία''<ref>From the [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] {{lang|grc|μυθολογία}} ''mythología'', meaning "a story-telling, a legendary lore", from  {{lang|grc|μυθολογείν}} ''mythologein'' "to relate myths", from {{lang|grc|μύθος}} ''mythos'', meaning "narrative, speech, word, fact, story" + {{lang|grc|λόγος}} ''logos'', meaning "speech, oration, discourse, quote, story, study, reason, argument".</ref>) refers to a body of [[folklore]]/[[myth]]s/[[legend]]s that a particular [[culture]] believes to be true and that use the [[supernatural]] to interpret natural events and to explain the nature of the universe and humanity. '''Mythology''' also refers to the branch of knowledge dealing with the collection, study and interpretation of myths, also known as [[mythography]].

The word '''''mythology''''' (from [[Greek language|Greek]] ''μυθολογία''<ref>From the [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] {{lang|grc|μυθολογία}} ''mythología'', meaning "a story-telling, a legendary lore", from  {{lang|grc|μυθολογείν}} ''mythologein'' "to relate myths", from {{lang|grc|μύθος}} ''mythos'', meaning "narrative, speech, word, fact, story" + {{lang|grc|λόγος}} ''logos'', meaning "speech, oration, discourse, quote, story, study, reason, argument".</ref>) refers to a body of [[folklore]]/[[myth]]s/[[legend]]s that a particular [[culture]] believes to be true and that use the [[supernatural]] to interpret natural events and to explain the nature of the universe and humanity. '''Mythology''' also refers to the branch of knowledge dealing with the collection, study and interpretation of myths, also known as [[mythography]].

==Characteristics==

==Characteristics==

Historically, the important approaches to the study of mythological thinking have been those of [[Giambattista Vico|Vico]], [[Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling|Schelling]], [[Schiller]], [[Carl Jung|Jung]], [[Freud]], [[Lévy-Bruhl]], [[Levi-Strauss]], [[Northrop Frye|Frye]], the [[Soviet school]], and the [[Myth and Ritual School]].<ref>Guy Lanoue, Foreword to Meletinsky, p.viii</ref>

Historically, the important approaches to the study of mythological thinking have been those of [[Giambattista Vico|Vico]], [[Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling|Schelling]], [[Schiller]], [[Carl Jung|Jung]], [[Freud]], [[Lévy-Bruhl]], [[Levi-Strauss]], [[Northrop Frye|Frye]], the [[Soviet school]], and the [[Myth and Ritual School]].<ref>Guy Lanoue, Foreword to Meletinsky, p.viii</ref>

==Myths as depictions of historical events==

==Myths as depictions of historical events==

As discussed above, the status of a story as myth is unrelated to whether it is based on historical events. Myths that are based on a historical events over time become imbued with symbolic meaning, transformed, shifted in time or place, or even reversed. One way of conceptualizing this process is to view 'myths' as lying at the far end of a continuum ranging from a 'dispassionate account' to 'legendary occurrence' to 'mythical status'. As an event progresses towards the mythical end of this continuum, what people think, feel and say about the event takes on progressively greater historical significance while the facts become less important. By the time one reaches the mythical end of the spectrum the story has taken on a life of its own and the facts of the original event have become almost irrelevant. A classical example of this process is the [[Trojan War]], a topic firmly within the scope of [[Greek mythology]]; the extent of a historical basis in the Trojan cycle is regularly disputed (see [[historicity of the Iliad]]).

As discussed above, the status of a story as myth is unrelated to whether it is based on historical events. Myths that are based on a historical events over time become imbued with symbolic meaning, transformed, shifted in time or place, or even reversed. One way of conceptualizing this process is to view 'myths' as lying at the far end of a continuum ranging from a 'dispassionate account' to 'legendary occurrence' to 'mythical status'. As an event progresses towards the mythical end of this continuum, what people think, feel and say about the event takes on progressively greater historical significance while the facts become less important. By the time one reaches the mythical end of the spectrum the story has taken on a life of its own and the facts of the original event have become almost irrelevant. A classical example of this process is the [[Trojan War]], a topic firmly within the scope of [[Greek mythology]]; the extent of a historical basis in the Trojan cycle is regularly disputed (see [[historicity of the Iliad]]).