Global Mythology – An Introduction

Lesson 13

What is mythology and why do we use the term “global mythology”?

A myth is often defined as an accepted belief that is unsubstantiated by fact.

Some people consider any belief system that is not their own to be myth. For many, mythology may just be the stories of the ancient Greeks and Romans.

Cadbury

by Brian Edward Rise

 
An Iron Age hill fort in Somerset near the village of South Cadbury. Never a true castle in the medieval sense, Cadbury Castle dates from the last centuries BCE. An eighteen acre enclosure is ringed with four lines of earthwork defenses rising to a plateau where a village stood until captured and cleared by the Romans.

Latvian mythology

by Aldis Putelis

 
There is no mythological system in the Latvian tradition resembling that of Greeks or Romans. All the bulk of facts entitled this way is just a derivation from the Latvian folklore material, and mostly – song texts. This makes all the study on it just speculation. Not much clarity is added by the written documents of the ancient days. All of these accounts are analyzed in the book Letto-Preussische Goeterlehre by the outstanding mythologist Wilhelm Mannhardt (prepared 1870, published in Riga, 1936).