The Grosser Mythen (also ''Grosse Mythe'') is a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

in the Schwyzer Alps of

Central Switzerland Central Switzerland is the region of the Alpine Foothills geographically the heart and historically the origin of Switzerland, with the cantons of Uri, Schwyz, Obwalden, Nidwalden, Lucerne and Zug. Central Switzerland is one of the NUTS 2 s ...

. The mountain lies in the

canton of Schwyz The canton of Schwyz ( ; ; ; ) is a Cantons of Switzerland, canton in central Switzerland between the Swiss Alps, Alps in the south, Lake Lucerne to the west and Lake Zürich in the north, centred on and named after the town of Schwyz. It is one ...

, to the east of the town of

Schwyz Schwyz (; ; ) is a town and the capital of the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland. The Federal Charter of 1291 or ''Bundesbrief'', the charter that eventually led to the foundation of Switzerland, can be seen at the ''Bundesbriefmuseum''. The of ...

, and to the south of the village of Alpthal in the valley of the river Alp. It is accessible from the Holzegg by a hiking trail which is opened during the summer months only. Geologically the Mythen is a penninic Klippe. The name is pronounced �miːtən it is in origin the plural referring to the Grosser and Kleiner Mythen collectively, each of which had the name ''Mythe'' (feminine) in the singular. The name is unrelated to the now-homographic German word for "myth"; Weibel (1973) derives it from Latin '' meta'' "cone, pyramid". Until the late 19th century, the name of the mountain was still feminine, ''die Grosse Mythe''; after c. 1870, the masculine gender became increasingly common in written German although dialectically the feminine remains current.Viktor Weibel, 'Namenkunde des Landes Schwyz. Die Orts- und Flurnamen in ihrer historischen Schichtung und dialektologischen Relevanz'. In: ''Studia Linguistica Alemannica'' vol. 1, Frauenfeld, 1973. Use of ''y'' for ːin Swiss toponyms is widespread (as e.g. in ''

'' itself) and arises with a ligature '' ij'' as used 15th-century handwriting.

References

External links

*
Grosser Mythen on Hikr

Mountains of the Alps Mountains of Switzerland Mountains of the canton of Schwyz One-thousanders of Switzerland {{Schwyz-geo-stub