Mythos
Pronunciation
- RP IPA: /ˈmɪθɒs/, /ˈmʌɪ-/
- GA IPA: /ˈmɪθoʊs/
- Hyphenation: myth + os
Origin
Borrowed from , from .
The plural form mythoi is from , and the form mythoses from mythos en + - + es.
Full definition of mythos
Noun
- Anything transmitted by word of mouth, such as a fable, legend, narrative, story, or tale (especially a poetic tale).
- 1760, Marchant, A New Complete English Dictionary, Peculiarly Adapted to the Instruction and Improvement of Those who have not had the Benefit of a Learned or Liberal Education, ... Chapter POLY′MYTHY, POLY′MYTHY (Substantive) in Poetry, a fault in an epic poem, when inſtead of a ſingle mythos, or fable, there is a multiplicity of them.
- A story or set of stories relevant to or having a significant truth or meaning for a particular culture, religion, society, or other group; a myth, a mythology.
- 1845, David Friedrich Strauss, The Life of Christ, or A Critical Examination of His History: ... Translated from the German, and Reprinted from an English Edition Chapter Natural Explanation of the Rationalists—Eichhorn—Paulus, The critics above named, define in a general manner a mythos as the exposition of a fact, or of a thought, under the historical form—it is true; but yet, under the form stamped upon it by the symbolical genius and language of antiquity, so full of warmth and imagination. At the same time, mythoses have been distinguished into different kinds. The mythoses of history, that is to say, the recital of real events colored only by the ancient opinions, which confounded the divine with the human, the natural with the supernatural,—also the philosophic mythoses, those in which a simple thought, a speculation contemporaneous, or a novel idea are enveloped.
- 1887, William Torrey Harris, The Spiritual Sense of w, But the most highly gifted of all peoples in poetic insight were the Greeks. They possessed supreme ability in the interpretation of nature as expression of spirit. They have countless mythoses to express the immortality of man and his after-life.
- 27 October 2017, Alex McLevy, Making a Killing: The Brief Life and Bloody Death of the Post-w, Hollywood studios had largely stopped producing the horror subgenre, save for the odd hybrid vehicle (the sci-fi slasher of w:Species (film)
- (by extension) A set of assumptions or beliefs about something.
- (literature) A recurring theme; a motif.