What are the classification of mythology?

Answer 1

You really are asking a big question. Since the beginning of time, or at least when the first 'biped men' (Homo Erectus which is Latin for 'Upright Man") roamed the world approximately two million years ago they have been trying to understand the world around them. They tried to make sense of the four elements: fire, water, earth and air and the vagaries of these elements eg. Why did it rain and where did it come from? Similar questions were probably posed about the other elements and how they affected their lives. At this point, I would like to say fire was probably the most mystifying of all the elements because, more than likely, fire came as a result of lightning and could be used for a number of purposes eg. warmth, keeping wild animals away from their encampments and eventually cooking. When they moved to other hunting areas they carried the coals of the last fire with them. The person who carried the embers came to be looked on as very special indeed as they carried a ' gift from the unknown'. The fire bearer was most likely the first type of 'priest' or 'shaman' to walk the earth. Once that belief took root in their minds, the door had been opened to a 'spiritual world' where the gods lived, a world which they could only guess at. At the instigation of the first 'priests', a hierarchy of other 'priests' developed to further explain the world around them. It is believed that at this point in history Man began to create gods in their own image. This is the beginning of the first type of mythology, the existence and 'lives' of the gods.

Every ancient civilization created gods and in most if not all cases, developed intricate stories of their lives ie. mythologies. For example the ancient Egyptians, developed their own mythology which the priests dutifully rewrote when a new pharaoh came to the throne to include that particular pharaoh in the stories of the gods. In conclusion, every ancient people wrote their own mythologies, too many to list on these pages.

The mythologies of ancient civilizations eg. the Romans and the Greeks created gods in their own image. As a result, their gods were trivial, playful and capricious like human beings. Even Christianity can't be allowed to escape with hints of mythology in the form of pious beliefs which have no foundation in fact. The Roman Catholic Church and the orthodox Christian churches are amongst the worst offenders in this area. After the second Vatican Council during the late 1960s early 1970s, they purged the calendar of saints because there was in most cases absolutely no foundation in fact for the stories of the lives, or if indeed they actually existed at all.

Answer 2

Myth tells of:

History

Nature

Natural Phenomena

Ritual

Humanity