Mythology

For other uses, see Mythology (disambiguation), and Myth (disambiguation).

Prometheus (1868) by Gustave Moreau. The myth of Prometheus, first attested byHesiodus, later became the basis of a trilogy of tragedy plays, possibly by Aeschylus, consisting of Prometheus Bound,Prometheus Unbound and Prometheus Pyrphoros

The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body of myths.^[1] For example, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures,^[2] whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece. In the academic field of folkloristics, a myth is defined as a sacred narrativeexplaining how the world and humankind came to be in their present form.^[3][4][5] Many scholars in other fields use the term "myth" in somewhat different ways.^[5][6][7] In a very broad sense, the word can refer to any traditional story.^[8]