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Mythologist

Definition: Mythologist

Mythologist

Noun

1. An expert on mythology.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "mythologist" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1855. (references)

Etymology: Mythologist \My*thol"o*gist\, noun. [Compare to the French expression mythologiste.]. (references)

 

Specialty Definition: Mythology

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

A mythology is a relatively cohesive set of myths: stories that comprise a certain religion or belief system.

What is Mythology?

Myths are generally stories based on tradition and legend designed to explain the universe, the world's creation, natural phenomena, and anything else for which no simple explanation presents itself. Not all myths need have this explicatory purpose, however. Likewise, most myths involve a supernatural force or deity, but many are simply legends and stories passed down orally from generation to generation.

Mythology figures prominently in most religions, and most mythology is tied to at least one religion. Some use the words "myth" and "mythology" to portray the stories of one or more religions as false, or dubious at best. The term is most often used in this sense to describe religions founded by ancient societies, such as Roman mythology, Greek mythology, and Norse mythology, which were nearly extinct at one time. However, it is important to keep in mind that while some view the Norse and Celtic pantheons as mere fable, others hold them as a religion (See Neopaganism). By extension, many people do not regard the tales surrounding the origin and development of religions like Christianity, Judaism and Islam as literal accounts of events, but instead regard them as figurative representations of their belief systems.

People within most religions take offense at the characterization of their faith as a group of myths, for this is tantamount to claiming that the religion itself is a lie. However, most people concur that each religion has a body of myths that have developed in addition to scriptures.

For the purposes of this article, therefore, we use the word "mythology" to refer to stories that, while they may or may not be strictly factual, reveal fundamental truths and insights about human nature, often through the use of archetypes. Also, the stories we discuss express the viewpoints and beliefs of the country, time period, culture, and/or religion which gave birth to them.

Stories from scripture are usually not referred to as mythology except in a pejorative sense, but one can speak of a Jewish mythology, a Christian mythology, or an Islamic mythology, in which one describes the mythic elements within these faiths without speaking to the veracity of the faith's tenets or claims about its history.

Many modern day rabbis and priests within the more liberal Jewish and Christian movements, as well as most Neopagans, have no problem viewing their religious texts as containing myth; they see their sacred texts as indeed containing religious truths, divinely inspired but delivered in the language of mankind. Others, of course, disagree.

Modern Mythology

Television and book series like Star Trek and Tarzan have strong mythological aspects that sometimes develop into deep and intricate philosophical systems. These items are not mythology, but contain mythic themes that, for some people, meet the same psychological needs.

An excellent example is that developed by J. R. R. Tolkien in The Silmarillion'\' and The Lord of the Rings''. However, copyright law restricts independent authors from extending modern story cycles.

Some critics believe that the fact that the core characters and stories of modern story cycles are not in the public domain prevents the modern story cycles from sharing several essential aspects of mythologies. Fan fiction goes some distance to relieving this problem.

Fiction, however, does not reach the level of actual mythology until people believe that it really happened. For example, some people believe that fiction author Clive Barker's Candyman was based upon a true story, and new stories have grown up around the figure. The same can be said for the Blair Witch and many other stories.

Mythology is alive and well in the modern age through urban legends and many other ways.

Book Title

Mythology is the title of a 1942 work by Edith Hamilton detailing Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology with their sources.

Mythologies

Africa

Australia & Oceania

American mythology

(non-Native American)

North American

South America and Mesoamerica

Asia

Europe

Middle-Eastern

Other

Mythological Archetypes

Mythological Creatures

List of Mythic Creatures

To see role-playing related races, see: Fantasy bestiary

Books on Mythology

see also: List of deities, Fantasy bestiary, Legendary creatures, Mythical place

External link

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Mythology."

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Crosswords: Mythologist

English words defined with "mythologist": Campbell ♦ Joseph Campbell ♦ Mythologer, Mythologian. (references)

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Mythologist

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day

mythologist

88

10 mythologist

2

1010 mythologist

2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Mythologist

Language Translations for "mythologist"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Dutch

  

mytholoog. (various references)

   

Esperanto

  

mitologiisto. (various references)

   

French

  

mythologue. (various references)

   

Greek 

  

μυθολόγοσ (storyteller). (various references)

   

Italian

  

mitologo. (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

ythologistmay.(various references)

   

Thai

  

ผู้เล่าตำนาน. (various references)

   

Turkish

  

mitoloji uzmanı. (various references)

   

Vietnamese 

  

nh thần thoại học, nh nghiên cứu thần thoại. (various references)

   

Welsh

  

chwedlonydd. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Mythologist

Derivations

Words beginning with "mythologist": mythologists. (additional references)


Misspellings

"Mythologist" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: mythologers, mythologys, mythopoeist. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Mythologist"

Words rhyming with "mythologist" (pronounced 'My*thol"o*gist'): Aerologist, Agist, Agriologist, Agrostologist, Algologist, Analogist, Anthologist, Anthropologist, Apiologist, Apologist, Appanagist, Arachnologist, Archaeologist, Areopagist, Assyriologist, Atmologist, Bacteriologist, Battologist, Bibliopegist, Biologist, Bromatologist, Bryologist, Campanologist, Carpologist, Cetologist, Chirologist, Climatologist, Conchologist, Cosmologist, Craniologist, Crustaceologist, Crustalogist, Decalogist, Ecclesiologist, Fumifugist, Fungologist, Galactophagist, Galvanologist, genealogist, Geologist, Geophagist, Gist, Glottologist, herpetologist, Hierologist, histologist, horologist, ichthyologist, ideologist, Legist. (additional references)

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Anagrams: Mythologist

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Words within the letters "g-h-i-l-m-o-o-s-t-t-y"

-2 letters: histology, lithotomy.

-3 letters: misology, otoliths, sitology, smoothly, toothily.

-4 letters: ghostly, glottis, moistly, ologist, ooliths, otolith, sightly, smoothy, soothly, sootily, thistly, thymols, tightly, timothy.

-5 letters: ghosty, glooms, gloomy, golosh, goyish, holism, holist, homily, hostly, igloos, isolog, lights, lithos, lottos, mights, mighty, mostly, mottos, mythoi, mythos, oolith, ostomy, sholom, slight, smithy, smooth, stithy, thiols, tholoi, tholos.

 Words containing the letters "g-h-i-l-m-o-o-s-t-t-y"
 

+1 letter: mythologists.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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INDEX

1. Definition
2. Crosswords
3. Expressions: Internet
4. Translations: Modern 		5. Derivations
6. Rhymes
7. Anagrams
8. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.