There are many ways of thinking about myths, but I like best the following definition from the great Swiss scholar of Greek religion, Walter Burkert:  "Myth is a traditional tale with secondary, partial reference to something of collective importance" (Structure 23).  This definition may sound vague, so let's develop it:

a traditional tale:  Myths develop over many years as part of a vibrant cultural tradition.  Myths originate in cultures without writing (called oral cultures), and they are passed down by word of mouth. Since they are traditional, myths are created by a collective cultural process and not by one author. Moreover, myths must be tales, or stories, and not simply religious concepts or practices.

with secondary, partial reference to something of collective importance:  Myths may refer, however, to religious concepts or practices like rituals, to natural events like the seasons or floods, to hidden psychological archetypes, to historical, political, or legendary events like the deeds of a famous hero, to cosmological patterns, to the folklore of a particular culture, or to universal folktale patterns. For some more interesting attempts to define myth, read "Definitions of Myth."

This is a tricky question to answer, but in general, myths are metaphorically and symbolically true, but factually and literally false. When people believe that a myth is literally true, they can be said to have a certain kind of religious belief.  In any case, in this class we will interpret and analyze myth stories as if they were fictional. We will look at these stories for symbolic, metaphoric truths about human character and origins, the spiritual realm, and culture. Some myths also claim to answer great and not-so-great scientific, philosophical, and spiritual questions (e.g., how did the earth get here? Who are the gods? Where did that rock come from?).

Read them carefully; let them settle in your mind and heart. Italo Calvino wrote:

With myths, one should not be in a hurry. It is better to let them settle into the memory, to stop and dwell on every detail, to reflect on them without losing touch with their language of images. The lesson we can learn from a myth lies in the literal narrative, not in what we add to it from the outside. (4)

a) learning how to read and interpret mythic metaphors and symbols,
b) comparing and contrasting significant characters, events, and actions (called motifs) in one story with similar events in another story, and
c) learning about the culture that produced the myth.

Start with William Bascom's definitions.  In his article, "The Forms of Folklore:  Prose Narratives," William Bascom gives the following definitions of folktale, myth and legend:

* "Folktales are prose narratives which are regarded as fiction."

* "Myths are prose narratives which, in the society in which they are told, are considered to be truthful accounts of what happened in the remote past."

* "Legends are prose narratives which, like myths, are regarded as true by the narrator and his audience, but they are set in a period considerably less remote, when the world was much as it is today."

Bascom differentiates among Folktale, Myth, and Legend by focusing on the original audience's views of the fictionality, time period, setting, religious importance, and divine or human statues of the main characters.  He provides the following handy chart of his views:
 

FORM	BELIEF	TIME	PLACE	ATTITUDE	PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS
Myth	Fact	Remote Past	Different world:  other or earlier	Sacred	Non-human (often gods)
Legend	Fact	Recent Past	World of today	Secular or sacred	Human (heroes)
Folktale	Fiction	Any Time	Any Place	Secular (non-sacred)	Human or non-human

* Folktales are non-sacred fictional stories that occur "once upon a time" and feature both human and non-human characters.  Example:  "Little Red Riding Hood."

* Legends are considered true stories primarily about human heroes that occurred in the recent past and may feature some religious references.  Example: Odyssey.

* Myths are considered true sacred stories that occurred in the remote past and have non-humans (gods, monsters) as the principal characters.  Example: Theogony.

• Bascom, William. "The Forms of Folklore: Prose Narratives" Journal of American  Folklore 78 (1965): 3-20.  Reprinted in Alan Dundes, ed. Sacred Narrative.  Berkeley: U of California P, 1987. 5-29.
• Burkert, Walter. Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual. Berkeley: U of  California P, 1979.
• Calvino, Italo. Six Memos for the Next Millennium. New York: Vintage, 1993.

LINKS

• Gods and Men in Greek Religion
• Myth FAQs
• WWW Myth Links