January 2008:    Just when you think you've got everything under control...

Please read these definitions, but don't worry about the links.  Most of them don't work.  

I obviously had too much time on my hands one December...

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What is a myth? 

Asking Google gets you a great variety of answers -- some for one purpose, some for another. 

Which do you think best serves our purpose?

·  a traditional story accepted as history; serves to explain the world view of a people
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

·  A myth is often thought to be a lesson in story form which has deep explanatory or symbolic resonance for preliterate cultures, who preserve and cherish the wisdom of their elders through oral traditions by the use of skilled story tellers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth

·  Legendary narrative, usually of gods and heroes, or a theme that expresses the ideology of a culture.
usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/oal/gloss.htm

·  An improbable story, almost always including incredible or miraculous events, that has no specific reference point or time in history.
www.organtransplants.org/glossary.html

·  something not true, fiction, or falsehood. A truth disguised and distorted.
www.carm.net/atheism/terms.htm

·  (mith): any story that attempts to explain how the world was created or why the world is the way that it is. Myths are stories that are passed on from generation to generation and normally involve religion. MH Abram refers to myths as a “religion in which we no longer believe.” Most myths were first spread by oral tradition and then were written down in some literary form. Many ancient literary works are, in fact, myths as myths appear in every ancient culture of the planet. ...
www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/general/glossary.htm

·  A narrative in which some characters are superhuman beings who do things that "happen only in stories"; hence, a conventionalized or stylized narrative not fully adapted to plausibility or "realism."
www.sil.org/~radneyr/humanities/litcrit/gloss.htm

·  A popular belief that is false or unsupported by facts.

www.plimoth.org/learn/history/glossary.asp

·  a common or shared historical experience
oregonstate.edu/instruct/anth370/gloss.html

·  Stories that explain the origins of current phenomena. They may be believed literally or figuratively, or as metaphorically moral truths about the workings of the world.
www.lpb.org/programs/swappingstories/glossary.html

·  like allegory, myth usually is symbolic and extensive, including an entire work or story; though it no longer is necessarily specific to a single culture and pervasive in that culture — individual authors may now be said to create myths — there is still a sense that myth is communal or cultural, while the symbolic can often be private and personal
www.indiana.edu/~bestsell/glossary.html

·  All plots in Greek tragedy were taken from their myths. Poets could not invent their own plots, but could alter the myths according to their needs.
lilt.ilstu.edu/drjclassics/ih/IH51/Greeks/DramaTerms.htm

·  Mythology [from Greek mythos a secret word, secret speech] An occult tale or mystic legend; the modern use varies from an allegorical story to pure fiction. Myths are after all ancient history and are built on facts or on a substratum of fact, as has proved true in the case of Troy and Crete. ...
www.theosociety.org/pasadena/etgloss/mp-mz.htm

·  a legend, usually made up in part of historical events, that helps define the beliefs of a people and that often has evolved as an explanation for rituals and natural phenomena
www.iclasses.org/assets/literature/literary_glossary.cfm

·  An ill-founded belief, usually based on limited experience, given uncritical acceptance by members of a group, especially in support of existing or traditional practices and institutions.
www.gecdf.com/diversity/glossary.html

·  For some myth is seen as a device to cloak or conceal a knowable reality (ie ìfacts evaporate into mythî). For others, it is the way the unknowable can be understood. Claude Levi-Strauss wrote that a myth is a device to think with -- a way in which reality is classified and organized. Roland Barthes stated that a myth is a type of speech, so that everything can be a myth provided it is conveyed by a discourse. ...
www.umass.edu/polsci725/Glossary.html

·  (Greek: mythos, "story." ) A myth is a story with an ambiguous sense of time and space ("A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...") that recounts extraordinary deeds done by extraordinary beings for the purpose of telling why things are as they are. Perhaps few capture the spirit of myth making better than Chief Bromden in Ken Kesey's novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. ...
www.nmhschool.org/tthornton/world_religions_working_definiti.htm

·  "stories drawn from a society's history that have acquired through persistent usage the power of symbolizing that society's ideology and of dramatizing its moral consciousness--with all the complexities and contradictions that consciousness may contain." (Slotkin 5).
web.nwe.ufl.edu/~gulmer/s03/zwhalen2/definitions.html

·  an anonymous story designed to explain the mysteries of life, generally with larger than life awe-inspiring characters.
www.ed.psu.edu/americareads/Resources/glossary.htm

·  A narrative that tells of origins--not necessarily "an untrue story." We often undertake to understand myths by understanding the patterns and structures by which they organize their material and give it meaning.
jamesfaulconer.byu.edu/definitions.htm

·  usually a traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief or natural phenomenon. (Instructor's note: notice the relationship between this word and "archetype" and "symbol").
www.artsymbolism.com/definitions.html

·  A fanciful or fictive story dealing with a god or goddess or with supernatural occurrences. Often myths explain the origins of natural phenomena.
www.groton.k12.ct.us/curric/lacurric/lagloss.htm

·  A story often about gods and spirits which was told to explain things about the world.
myweb.tiscali.co.uk/temetfutue/glossary/glossaryM.htm

·  a story that has been told and re-told for centuries and which seems rooted in universal human experiences that people want to re-experience in new forms again and again (your textbook describes myths as stories that are “more than true”).
www.austin.cc.tx.us/sbramme2/Glossary.htm

·  A sacred story that conveys a religious worldview. Especially, a story about primeval times that involves supernatural figures and events.
ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rels/002/terms/

·  a traditional tale of unknown authorship involving gods and goddesses or other supernatural beings. A myth often attempts to explain some aspect of nature. There are, for instance, myths about the creation of the world, the seasons, and animals in nearly every culture of the world.
homepages.moeller.org/fminnick/literary_terminology.htm