What is Mythology?

Man has always wondered why the world is the way it is. He has tried to explain to himself why things happen as they do. Today, we have scientific explanations for things that happen in the universe. But in earlier times, man had to make up his

"explanations".

Just consider all the strange things he couldn't understand. Why did the snu rise and set so regularly? Why were there different seasons? What were the stars, and why did they move as they did?

Then there were all the events in man's personal life to consider. Why did unpredictable events happen? Why did men dream? Why did people get sick? Where did people come from and where did they go after death? How was the world and everything in it created?

All primitive people have asked these questions and tried to answer them. Different tribes of people in various parts of the world have had different explanations. But their "explanations" somehow accounted for the events of their world. The fanciful stories which contain these explanations are called "myths". All the myths of a people taken together from a mythology.

By their myths, early men tried to "humanize", or "personalize" their world. That is, they imagined the objects around them to be persons like themselves,thoughtful beings, some with great power. All these objects, animals, plants, stars, rivers, the sun and the moon, came to be gods with magic powers. Some of these gods were thought to be good and kind, some were evil and brought pain, hunger, and death.Because they thought all these objects, or gods, were intelligent beings, they felt they could appeal to them. Since the sun has a mind, they could beg him to send his rays so that plants would grow. They could pray to the rain god for rain and the rain god could understand them.

This led to all kinds of rituals, or ceremonies. There was a certain way to appeal to a god, and if you did it the wrong way the god would be angry. The purpose of these ceremonies and rituals was to keep men on good terms with their god. In that way, men believed they were able to direct and control events and live happier lives.

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