It helps you to identify the major types of Mythology

1. MAJOR TYPES OF MYTH

2. ~MYTHS OF ORIGIN
-Cosmogony and creation
myth are used as synonyms.
Cosmogony is a preferable
term because it refers to the
origin of the world.
Whereas "creation Myth"
implies a creator and
something created.

3. MYTHS OF ESCHATOLOGY AND
DESTRUCTION
~Myths of eschatology
deal with "the end". The
end conceived of as the
opposite of the
cosmogony; it means
first and foremost the
origin of death but also,
in a wider sense, the end
of the world.

4. MESSIANIC AND MILLENARIAN MYTHS
~The hope of a new world
surges up from time to
time in many civilizations.
Many each religious
movements have flourished
in the 20th century in a
Malaysia, Africa, south
America and Siberia.

5. MYTHS OF CULTURE HEROES AND
SOTERIOLOGICAL MYTHS
~ A great many nonliterate
traditions have myths about a
culture hero (most notably
one) who brings new
techniques or technology to
mankind -e.g. Prometheus,
who supplied fire to mankind
in Greek mythology.

6. MYTHS OF TIME AND ETERNITY
~The apparent regularity of
the heavenly bodies long
impressed every society. The
sky was seized as the very
image of transidence, and
what seemed to be the orderly
course of sun,moon, and stars
suggested a time that
transcended man's - in short,
eternity.

7. MYTHS OF PROVINCE AND DESTINY
~In attitudes to the idea of a link
between human activity and the
stars, the most familiar example
or which is probably astrology,
there is abroad range of mythical
motifs between astrological
calculations and devotional self-
surrender.

8. MYTHS OF REBIRTH AND RENEWAL
~Myths of archaic traditions
generally imply a conception of
the world, nature and man in
terms of cyclic time. According to
Australian aboriginal myth, man
is reincarnated into profane life
at the moment of his birth. At his
initiation he reenters sacred
time, and through his burial
ceremony he returns to his
original "spirit" state.

9. MYTHS OF MEMORY AND FORGETTING
~Some of the ordinary medicine
men claim to remember their
prenatal existence. Such memory
according to their mythology is
lost in ordinary people.
Similar myths of memory and
forgetting are related to the
heirarchy that exist in all archaic
societies. Myths of memory can
take the form of collective
nostalgia.

10. MYTHS OF HIGH BEINGS AND
CELESTIAL GODS
~The sky seen as sacred
entity is an all but
universal belief. Is it
often related to or
identical with the
highest divinity.

11. MYTHS CONCERNING FOUNDERS OF
RELIGION AND OTHERS RELIGIOUS FIGURES
~Founders of great religions
(Confucius, Zoroaster, the
Buddha, Moses, Jesus, Mani
and Muhammad) are
generally concededto have
actual existence, information
about them is couched in
legendary terms that have
many mythological features.

12. MYTHS OF TRANSFORMATION
~Countless stories exist
concerning the origin of peculiar
rocks,properties of
animals,plants, stars, or other
features in the world. In
addition to such etiologic tales
there are several myths that
speak at cosmic changes
brought about at the end of
primordial times.

13. THEORIES RELATED TO THE STUDY OF
MYTHOLOGY
•RATIONAL MYTH THEORY
•FUNCTIONAL MYTH THEORY
•STRUCTURAL MYTH THEORY
•PSYCHOLOGICAL MYTH
THEORY

14. ~FUNCTIONAL MYTH THEORY
• The rational myth theory
states that myths were
made to better understand
natural events and forces
that occurred in the
everyday lives of people.
• This theory also explains
that the gods and
goddesses controlled all of
these happenings of nature.
Examples of this type of
myth are creation myths
from different cultures.
• myths told about what
types of things should and
shouldn't be done, and the
consequences for those
wrong doings.
• The functional myth theory
also states that myths were
created for social control
and served the function of
insuring stability in a
society.
~RATIONAL MYTH THEORY

15. ~PSYCHOLOGICAL MYTH THEORY
• Myth is language,
functioning on an especially
high level where meaning
succeeds practically at
'taking off' from the
linguistic ground on which
it keeps rolling.
• The psychological myth
theory states how myths
are based on human
emotion and that they
come from the human
subconscious mind.
• Cultures all around the
world had similar fears,
questions, and wishes
which, to them, were
unexplainable.
~STRUCTURAL MYTH THEORY