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Euhemerism Main article: Euhemerism See also: Herodotus One theory claims that myths are distorted accounts of real historical events.[23][24] According to this theory, storytellers repeatedly elaborated upon historical accounts until the figures in those accounts gained the status of gods.[23][24] For example, one might argue that the myth of the wind-god Aeolus evolved from a historical account of a king who taught his people to use sails and interpret the winds.[23] Herodotus (5th century BC) and Prodicus made claims of this kind.[24] This theory is named "euhemerism" after the mythologist Euhemerus (c.320 BC), who suggested that the Greek gods developed from legends about human beings.[24][25] Allegory Some theories propose that myths began as allegories. According to one theory, myths began as allegories for natural phenomena: Apollo represents the sun, Poseidon represents water, and so on.[24] According to another theory, myths began as allegories for philosophical or spiritual concepts: Athena represents wise judgment, Aphrodite represents desire, etc.[24] The 19th century Sanskritist Max Müller supported an allegorical theory of myth. He believed that myths began as allegorical descriptions of nature, but gradually came to be interpreted literally: for example, a poetic description of the sea as "raging" was eventually taken literally, and the sea was then thought of as a raging god.[26] Personification See also: Mythopoeic thought Some thinkers believe that myths resulted from the personification of inanimate objects and forces. According to these thinkers, the ancients worshipped natural phenomena such as fire and air, gradually coming to describe them as gods.[27] For example, according to the theory of mythopoeic thought, the ancients tended to view things as persons, not as mere objects;[28] thus, they described natural events as acts of personal gods, thus giving rise to myths.[29] Myth-ritual theory See also: Myth and ritual According to the myth-ritual theory, the existence of myth is tied to ritual.[30] In its most extreme form, this theory claims that myths arose to explain rituals.[31] This claim was first put forward by the biblical scholar William Robertson Smith.[32] According to Smith, people begin performing rituals for some reason that is not related to myth; later, after they have forgotten the original reason for a ritual, they try to account for the ritual by inventing a myth and claiming that the ritual commemorates the events described in that myth.[33] The anthropologist James Frazer had a similar theory. Frazer believed that primitive man starts out with a belief in magical laws; later, when man begins to lose faith in magic, he invents myths about gods and claims that his formerly magical rituals are religious rituals intended to appease the gods.[34] |
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