LESSON 1: Intro to Mythology
What is a myth?

Definition from www.m-w.com:
     1. a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold
         part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural    
         phenomenon
     2. a popular belief or tradition that has grown up around something or someone
     3. a person or thing having only an imaginary or unverifiable existence
     4.  the whole body of myths

For this class, we will be using the first definition.  Next, we need to talk about what mythology is.  
Mythology is, according to m-w.com:
     1.  an allegorical narrative
     2.  a body of myths
     3.  a branch of knowledge that deals with myths
     4.  a popular belief or assumption that has grown up around something or someone

The word
mythology comes from French or Late Latin, French mythologie, from Late Latin mythologia interpretation of myths, from Greek, legend, myth, from mythologenin to relate myths, from mythos + logos speech.

The following are some of the different types of myths:

CREATION MYTHS: The creation myth is usually the most important myth of the culture because it relates how the entire world came into being.

                                
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