mythos |
Working Definition:
The mythos is the story structure of tales that are retold with variations in content. Mythoi are the various retellings or analogs containing the same story structure albeit with different variable content.
Disciplinary Definitions:
I use this term as a synonym of narrative structure
Comments:
The mythos of a story is created the moment someone retells it. A story’s mythos is not a permanent or fixed structure. Once a story is retold, not merely repeated in the same words as a previous version, the elements common to the telling and the retelling(s) are its mythos. When the story is retold in different words with the same motives, states, and acts that change the initial state into a final state, then its mythos reveals itself. However, the mythos is dynamic in the sense that the mythos can evolve as the retellings shift to suit different situations. This is reflected in the circumstance that stories associated with particular titles can be shown to have very different story structures. A named story may be told initially as one in which the hero dies in the end and then later retold (retaining many of its story elements) but in which the hero lives. Although this circumstance may seem to make mythography impossible, it doesn’t. To believe that it would confuses the name of a story with a story structure. When the mythos of a named story changes substantially, a different story is being told. It is of considerable cultural interest to mythographers that stories with the same name change their story structures. This suggests that some change in the culture is reflected in the changing mythos, a different “myth” is required.
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last revised:
June 13, 2007
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