Welcome to our Myth 101!
We know that we might sometimes take for granted how much we know about myth – it’s totally an accident, we promise; we usually just get too excited to realise we may be missing out little key bits of information about what myth is.
That’s why we created this little taster, so that you can just spend 25 minutes or so understanding what we mean when we talk about myth. The best thing is – internet come through! – that you can come back to it whenever you want as well. If you find us glossing over the key concepts that make up the rich tapestry that is myth (lovely little Arachne joke there, for those who want to look her up), you’re welcome to come here and let us atone for our sins by explaining it in our Mythchief Managed episode.
Here, we talk about the four main purposes of myth in the Ancient World: for entertainment, as moral framework, religion and history. And we hope to give a little taster about why we think it’s worth talking about today!
We define the abstract concepts and the group of gods that we’ll be coming back to in each episode, and the rich literary heritage that comprises ancient myth as we know it.
Within, you’ll find recommendations for translations: both books, and online resources.
We hope that this is an enjoyable 25 minutes, that makes it a little clearer what the hell we’re gabbling about. If you think we’ve missed anything off our intro, let us know and we can include it in our next episode.
Enjoy!