In the broadest sense a myth can refer to any traditional story, although folklorists prefer to use the term to refer to a sacred narrative that validates a religious system. Normally, myth transpires outside or before human time. Mythic events within human history are often termed legends. Origin myths concern the origins of the world, and explain how the world and the creatures in it came to have their present form, whereas founding myths (Greek aition) are the etiological myths that explain and justify the origins of a ritual or the founding of a city. A political myth can represent a particular interpretation of a historical experience or policy, or some acknowledged historical antecedents, invoked in the present to justify a certain policy.
Mythology denotes a body of myths or their study.
Myth may also refer to:
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