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Ancient Greek folklore includes genres such as
Ancient Greek folklore includes genres such as mythology
Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...
(Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...
), legend
A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess certain qualities that give the ...
, and folktales. According to classicist William Hansen: "the Greeks and Romans had all the genres of oral narrative known to us, even ghost stories and urban legend
Urban legend (sometimes modern legend, urban myth, or simply legend) is a genre of folklore concerning stories about an unusual (usually scary) or humorous event that many people believe to be true but largely are not.
These legends can be e ...
s, but they also told all kinds that in most of the Western world no longer circulate orally, such as myths
Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...
and fairytales."
Specific genres of folklore have been the topic of scholarly examination, including ghostlore
Ghostlore is an intricate web of Tradition, traditional beliefs and folklore surrounding ghosts and List of reportedly haunted locations, hauntings. Ghostlore has ingrained itself in the cultural fabric of societies worldwide. Defined by narrative ...
. For example, classicist Debbie Felton notes that "the Greeks and Romans had many folk-beliefs concerning ghosts", and highlights a variety of instances of the genre in the Classical record.
Historically, classicists rarely delved into folklore studies
Folklore studies (also known as folkloristics, tradition studies or folk life studies in the UK) is the academic discipline devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currency in the 1950s to distinguish the ac ...
.
See also
* Modern Greek folklore * Roman folkloreNotes
References
* * *Folklore
Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...
Greek folklore
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