B) Myths: hylistic mythological research

1    Definition of „myth“

***aus CZ, English

A myth is an entity “behind” a text, image, dance or film: a myth is a narrative material.

2    Characteristics of myths

2.1  Structural characteristics

A myth typically consists of three parts:

problem  problem handling  problem solution (not aporia)

See C. Zgoll 2019, 154 and 402.

2.2  ***Cultural/Semantic/Functional characteristics

Myths are often thought to be conveyed by the gods themselves, i.e. religiously significant and therefore narratives ‘with an implicit claim to relevance for the interpretation and mastering of the human condition’.

(see myth definition C. Zgoll 2020, p. 76)

2.3  Historical/Cultural characteristics

 Significance (→ LINK: Cultural/semantic characteristics), based on divine origin, leads to long tradition and constant reworking

 Long tradition leads to general cultural valence (beyond specific religious significance) and to further revisions

 resulting in the existence of different variants of a mythical narrative (in different narrative variants) = polymorphy of myths

 resulting in the combination of different layers of variants within one specific narrative variant = polystratic nature of myths

 This causes significant challenges for the analysis and understanding of myths (LINK stratification analysis, challenge)