Myth is a
folklore genre
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging f ...
consisting of
narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or
origin myths
An origin myth is a myth that describes the origin of some feature of the natural or social world. One type of origin myth is the creation or cosmogonic myth, a story that describes the creation of the world. However, many cultures have stor ...
. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not
objectively true, the identification of a narrative as a myth can be highly controversial. Many adherents of religions view their own religions' stories as
truth
Truth is the property of being in accord with fact or reality.Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionarytruth 2005 In everyday language, truth is typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise correspond to it, such as beliefs ...
and so object to their characterization as myth, the way they see the stories of other religions. As such, some scholars label all religious narratives "myths" for practical reasons, such as to avoid depreciating any one tradition because cultures interpret each other differently relative to one another. Other scholars avoid using the term "myth" altogether and instead use different terms like "sacred history", "holy story", or simply "history" to avoid placing pejorative overtones on any sacred narrative.
Myths are often endorsed by secular and religious authorities and are closely linked to
religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural ...
or
spirituality. Many societies group their myths, legends, and history together, considering myths and legends to be true accounts of their remote past.
[ Simpson, Jacqueline, and ]Steve Roud
Steve Roud (; born 1949) is the creator of the Roud Folk Song Index and an expert on folklore and superstition. He was formerly Local Studies Librarian for the London Borough of Croydon and Honorary Librarian of the Folklore Society.
Life and ...
, eds. 2003. "Myths." In ''A Dictionary of English Folklore''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. . In particular,