A mythographer, or a mythologist, according to a strict dictionary definition, is a compiler of myths. Mythography is then the rendering of myths in the arts. These are rather restrictive definitions, which can be said to fail to take into account the large body of twentieth century work on myth from many angles. The compilation of myths assumes some field work; and the aim may be to produce something of value to cultural anthropology, religious studies, or a myth theory, rather than simply as raw material for transformation into artistic productions. The word mythology (from the Greek μυολογία mythología, from mythologein to relate myths, from mythos, meaning a narrative, and logos, meaning speech or argument) literally means the (oral) retelling of myths – stories that a particular culture believes to be true and that use the supernatural to interpret natural events and... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s The 20th century lasted from 1901 to 2000 in the Gregorian calendar (often from (1900 to 1999 in common usage). ... Field work is a general descriptive term for the collection of raw data in the natural and social sciences, such as archaeology, biology, ecology, environmental science, geology,geography geophysics, paleontology, anthropology, linguistics, and sociology. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Religious studies is the designation commonly used in the English-speaking world for a multi-disciplinary, secular study of religion that dates to the late 19th century in Europe (and the influential early work of such scholars as Friedrich Max Müller, in England, and Cornelius P. Tiele, in the...

Myth theories

Already in the nineteenth century there was a tendency to produce large-scale myth theories, such as those of Max Müller, Andrew Lang, Wilhelm Mannhardt, and James Frazer. Scholars such as Carl Jung, Georges Dumezil, and Claude Levi-Strauss have continued this tradition in the twentieth century. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Max Müller as a young man Friedrich Max Müller (December 6, 1823 – October 28, 1900), more commonly known as Max Müller, was a German philologist and Orientalist, one of the founders of Indian studies, who virtually created the discipline of comparative religion. ... For the former National Basketball Association player, see Andrew Lang (basketball). ... Wilhelm Mannhardt (1831- 1880) was a German scholar and folklorist. ... Sir James George Frazer (January 1, 1854, Glasgow, Scotland – May 7, 1941), was a Scottish social anthropologist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion. ... “Jung” redirects here. ... Georges Dumézil (March 4, 1898 - October 11, 1986) was a French comparative philologist best known for his analysis of sovereignty and power in Indo-European religion and society. ... Claude L vi-Strauss (born November 28, 1908) is a French anthropologist who became one of the twentieth centurys greatest intellectuals by developing structuralism as a method of understanding human society and culture Biography Claude L vi-Strauss was born in Brussels and studied law and philosophy at the...

It has been a consistent strand of Romanticism, to insist on a level of validity of myth, and these arguments have often connected myth with the creative imagination. These notions come together in the concept of mythopoeic imagination, which has been articulated in the anthropological work of Jadran Mimica (Intimations of Infinity, 1988), among others. Theories with an academic basis which support this thinking have been popular, in the sense of receiving much attention; without ever being able to support claims of reliability acceptable to more rationalistic perspectives. Romantics redirects here. ... Mythopoeic literature is literature that involves the making of myths. ...

Mythography is the study of the study of myths (the study of myths itself being mythology), as well. In examining how mythology has been studied, one can see the differences and similarities readily, as evidenced by William Doty's Mythography: The Study of Myths and Rituals. William Doty William G. Doty is an American scholar of myth and religion. ...

Myth criticism

Besides the anthropologist's reason — better understanding of a particular culture in its own terms, that is, for the purposes of cultural anthropology — there are very varied reasons behind the interest of the mythographer. The origins of Greek drama were the immediate cause of the rise of the myth-ritual school, of Jane Harrison, Gilbert Murray and others. Karl Kerenyi, also involved in Greek mythology, was an associate of Carl Jung, who adopted mythological material in his psychological theories. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Greek theatre or Greek Drama came into its own between 600 and 200 BC in the ancient city of Athens. ... The Cambridge Ritualists were a recognised group of classical scholars, mostly in Cambridge, England, including Jane Harrison, Gilbert Murray (in fact of the University of Oxford) , A. B. Cook, and others. ... Jane Ellen Harrison (September 9, 1850–April 5, 1928) was a ground-breaking English classical scholar and feminist. ... Gilbert Murray (or George Gilbert Aime) (January 2, 1866 - 1957) was a British classical scholar and diplomat. ... One of the founders of modern studies in Greek mythology, Karl (Carl, Károly) Kerényi (January 19, 1897 - April 14, 1973) was born in Hungary but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1943. ... The bust of Zeus found at Otricoli (Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican) Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the Ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. ... “Jung” redirects here. ...

In general literary criticism, myth criticism was put forward by Maud Bodkin, Philip Wheelwright, and others such as Francis Fergusson, Leslie Fiedler, and G. Wilson Knight. The critic Northrop Frye, working from Blake and the Bible as fundamental, always wished to distinguish himself from the myth-ritual school, but is often seen as in some sense having summed up the whole tendency. Robert Graves was interested in poetic theory, and supported his celebrated White Goddess with analysis harking back to Müller and Frazer, as well as the myth-ritual tendency. Literary criticism is the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. ... Amy Maud Bodkin (1875-1967) was a British classical scholar, writer on mythology, and literary critic. ... Philip Ellis Wheelwright (1901-1970) was an American philosopher, classical scholar, and literary theorist. ... Francis Fergusson (1904–1986) was an American academic and critic, known as a theorist of drama, and for his interest in mythology. ... Leslie Aaron Fiedler (March 8, 1917–January 29, 2003) was an American literary critic, known for his interest in mythography and his championing of genre fiction. ... George Richard Wilson Knight (1897-1984) was an English literary critic and academic, known particularly for his interpretation of mythic content in literature, and his essays The Wheel of Fire on Shakespeares drama. ... Herman Northrop Frye, CC, MA, D.Litt. ... William Blake (November 28, 1757 – August 12, 1827) was an English poet, visionary, painter, and printmaker. ... This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library. ... Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English poet, scholar, and novelist. ... The author and poet Robert Graves study of the nature of poetic myth-making, The White Goddess, first published in 1948, and revised, amended and enlarged in 1966, represents a tangential approach to the study of mythology from a decidedly idiosyncratic perspective. ...

Mythographic schools

There were numerous other mythographic 'schools' in the first half of the twentieth century. Ernst Cassirer's approach was through philosophy, specifically the so-called Marburg School of Kantian thought; it had a direct influence on Susanne Langer, and has been traced as an influence on Mikhail Bakhtin. Ernst Cassirer (July 28, 1874 – April 13, 1945) was a German-Jewish philosopher. ... The philosopher Socrates about to take poison hemlock as ordered by the court. ... Neo-Kantianism means a revived or modified type of philosophy along the lines of that laid down by Immanuel Kant in the eighteenth century. ... Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (April 22, 1724 – February 12, 1804) was a Prussian philosopher, generally regarded as one of Europes most influential thinkers and the last major philosopher of the Enlightenment. ... Susanne Langer (1895 - 1985) was an American philosopher of art, a follower of Ernst Cassirer. ... Mikhail Bakhtin. ...

The direction of comparative religion is represented by Mircea Eliade, and also to some extent by the literary critic René Girard. The French sociological school has argued in terms of myths having social function. The Major religious groups of the world. ... Mircea Eliade (March 13 [O.S. February 28] 1907 – April 22, 1986) was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. ... René Girard is a French philosopher, historian and philologist. ...

Universal myth theories

The old idea of a universal myth theory, derided by Voltaire, is in modern times most famously represented by Joseph Campbell. There were many books written in the seventeenth century purporting to explain all myths. But Voltaire was deriding a Christian myth theory, while Campbell proposes a psychological one. For the singer of the same name, see Voltaire (musician). ... For other uses, see Joseph Campbell (disambiguation). ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ...

The philosophes, such as Voltaire, were interested in dispelling myths, not explaining their existence. While the basic understandings of the Western world were informed by Christianity in all areas of study, the term mythographer referred to someone who attempted to explain pagan myths in terms of misremembering the events of the Old Testament or wilfully altering them. Some of the theories of explanation from classical times were also used, such as the apotheosis of a local hero. This was before the Enlightenment, or, speaking more precisely, before the arrival of historicism. The philosophes (French for philosophers) were a group of intellectuals of the 18th century Enlightenment. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Christianity is... Pagan and heathen redirect here. ... Note: Judaism commonly uses the term Tanakh to refer to its canon, which corresponds to the Protestant Old Testament. ... Look up Apotheosis in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Enlightenment (French: ; German: ) was an eighteenth-century movement in European and American philosophy, or the longer period including the Age of Reason. ... For historicism as a method of interpreting biblical apocalypse, see Historicism (Christian eschatology). ...

With the arrival of social science, and the understanding that the thought patterns of human beings can change over historical time, this interest faded. It is still possible to think such thoughts; and believers might elaborate them somewhat. They could not expect to be taken seriously, in today's marketplace of ideas. The social sciences are groups of academic disciplines that study the human aspects of the world. ...

Perhaps the last work which employed this earlier use of the term mythography was George Eliot's novel Middlemarch. Its character Casaubon was involved in such a project in the mid-nineteenth century. The story tells of a woman who proved unable to finish the project after his death and abandoned it. Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880), better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist. ... See also Middlemarch, New Zealand. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...

See also

• Religion and mythology
• Comparative mythology
• Allegory in the Middle Ages
• Myth and ritual

Religion and mythology differ, but have overlapping aspects. ... Comparative mythology, related to comparative religion, is a field of study which is technically part of anthropology but more usually regarded as part of the subject of ancient history. ... Noah and the baptismal flood of the Old Testament (top panel) is typographically linked (prefigured) by the baptism of Jesus in the New Testament (bottom panel). ... In traditional societies, myth and ritual are two central components of religious practice. ...

External links

• PhilWeb: Mythology/Mythography