MYTHOLOGY DEFINITIONS ELEMENTS AND USES WHAT IS MYTHOLOGY

MYTHOLOGY DEFINITIONS, ELEMENTS, AND USES

WHAT IS MYTHOLOGY? • A story of unknown authorship that people told long ago in an attempt to answer serious questions about how important things. • Mythology is an attempt by a society to define what it believes about how the world was created, how the world works, and why things happen.

BASIC TYPES OF MYTHS Creation Myths Explanatory Myths • Creation myth attempt to explain how the world and the elements in the world are created. • Explanatory myths attempt to explain WHY something in the world occurs the way it does. • Creation myths generally answer the following: • Explanatory myths generally answer the following: • what is being created? • what physical elements make that new object possible? • what natural phenomena is being explained? (why are people afraid of the dark? why do certain animals fear the water? ) • what physical and emotional things are make the new thing understandable?

MYTHOLOGY AND MORALITY • Myths are also used by a society to teach values. The characters, relationships, and events of myths can teach about what a society thinks is important, what a society values in a person, and what parts of life a society believes are the most important.

MYTHOLOGY AND MORALITY Greek Lovers • Stories about lovers teach moral lessons about relationships. • These stories answer the following: • what is the nature of the relationship? are people for or against it? does their opposition or support make us view the relationship favorably or unfavorably? what lesson about relationship are we meant to learn from this story? Greek Heroes • Stories about heroes always involve a journey. Along the journey the hero is used to display the values and morals of the society from which they come. • Hero stories attempt to answer the following: • what characteristics does the hero display? what value might that characteristic represent?

GREEK MYTHOLOGY PRESENTATION AND NARRATIVE WRITING ASSIGNMENT • Taking what you have learned about the function of each type of myth, you will be generating two different products: • A presentation on an assigned myth in which you identify the type of myth • A narrative writing in which you choose a type of myth and, using the presentations and the elements of your chosen type, create a myth of your own