The Myths Portal
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since the term myth is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrative as a myth can be highly controversial: many adherents of religions view their own religion's stories as true, and therefore object to those stories being characterized as myths, while seeing the stories of other religions as being myth. As such, some scholars label all religious narratives as myths for practical reasons, such as to avoid depreciating any one tradition because cultures interpret each other differently relative to one another. Other scholars avoid using the term "myth" altogether and instead utilize different terms like "sacred history", "holy story", or simply "history" to avoid placing pejorative overtones on any sacred narrative.
Myths are often endorsed by secular and religious authorities and are closely linked to religion or spirituality. Many societies group their myths, legends, and history together, considering myths and legends to be true accounts of their remote past. In particular, creation myths take place in a primordial age when the world had not achieved its later form. Other myths explain how a society's customs, institutions, and taboos were established and sanctified. There is a complex relationship between recital of myths and the enactment of rituals.
The main characters in myths are usually non-humans, such as gods, demigods, and other supernatural figures. However, others also include humans, animals, or combinations in their classification of myth. Stories of everyday human beings, although often of leaders of some type, are usually contained in legends, as opposed to myths. Myths are sometimes distinguished from legends in that myths deal with gods, usually have no historical basis, and are set in a world of the remote past, very different from that of the present. (Full article...)
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Anu, Anum, or Ilu (Akkadian: đ’€đ’€ DAN), also called An (Sumerian: đ’€ AN, from đ’€ an “Sky”, “Heaven”), is the divine personification of the sky, supreme god, and ancestor of all the deities in ancient Mesopotamian religion. Anu was believed to be the supreme source of all authority, for the other gods and for all mortal rulers, and he is described in one text as the one "who contains the entire universe". He is identified with the part of the sky located between +17° and -17° declination which contains 23 constellations. Along with his sons Enlil and Enki, Anu constitutes the highest divine triad personifying the three bands of constellations of the vault of the sky. By the time of the earliest written records, Anu was rarely worshipped, and veneration was instead devoted to his son Enlil. But, throughout Mesopotamian history, the highest deity in the pantheon was always said to possess the anĂ»tu, meaning "Heavenly power". Anu's primary role in myths is as the ancestor of the Anunnaki, the major deities of Sumerian religion. His primary cult center was the Eanna temple in the city of Uruk, but, by the Akkadian Period (c. 2334–2154 BCE), his authority in Uruk had largely been ceded to the goddess Inanna, the Queen of Heaven.
Anu's consort in the earliest Sumerian texts is the goddess Uraš, but she is later the goddess Ki and, in Akkadian texts, the goddess Antu, whose name is a feminine form of Anu. Anu briefly appears in the Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh, in which his daughter Ishtar (the East Semitic equivalent to Inanna) persuades him to give her the Bull of Heaven so that she may send it to attack Gilgamesh. The incident results in the death of Enkidu. In another legend, Anu summons the mortal hero Adapa before him for breaking the wing of the south wind. Anu orders for Adapa to be given the food and water of immortality, which Adapa refuses, having been warned beforehand by Enki that Anu will offer him the food and water of death. In ancient Hittite religion, Anu is a former ruler of the gods, who was overthrown by his son Kumarbi, who bit off his father's genitals and gave birth to the storm god Teshub. Teshub overthrew Kumarbi, avenged Anu's mutilation, and became the new king of the gods. This story was the later basis for the castration of Ouranos in Hesiod's Theogony. (Full article...)Did you know? -
- ... that the legend of Sumbha and Nisumbha, demons from Hindu mythology, is used as a warning against the dangers of seduction in Shashi Tharoor's novel The Great Indian Novel?
- ... that in Chinese mythology, Wu Gang had to chop down a tree on the moon that always healed itself, forcing him to keep trying forever?
- ...that according to Muisca mythology, Bochica (statue pictured) saved his people from a flood by creating the Tequendama Falls with a strike from his staff?
- ...that in Greek mythology, Antiope was the only Amazon known to have married?
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![](https://web.archive.org/web/20220601144756im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/Kyyj%C3%A4rvi.vaakuna.svg/220px-Kyyj%C3%A4rvi.vaakuna.svg.png)
The serpent, or snake, is one of the oldest and most widespread mythological symbols. The word is derived from Latin serpens, a crawling animal or snake. Snakes have been associated with some of the oldest rituals known to mankind and represent dual expression of good and evil.
In some cultures, snakes were fertility symbols. For example, the Hopi people of North America performed an annual snake dance to celebrate the union of Snake Youth (a Sky spirit) and Snake Girl (an Underworld spirit) and to renew the fertility of Nature. During the dance, live snakes were handled, and at the end of the dance the snakes were released into the fields to guarantee good crops. "The snake dance is a prayer to the spirits of the clouds, the thunder and the lightning, that the rain may fall on the growing crops." To the Hopi, snakes symbolized the umbilical cord, joining all humans to Mother Earth. The Great Goddess often had snakes as her familiars—sometimes twining around her sacred staff, as in ancient Crete—and they were worshiped as guardians of her mysteries of birth and regeneration. (Full article...)General images
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- Help with the Myth and folklore missing articles project.
- Apply mythology-stubs on stub-articles on "demons", "ghosts", "monsters", mythology, and "reclaim" those from Wikiproject Paranormal.
- Help assessment at Wikipedia:WikiProject Mythology/Assessment. Note: currently, end of October, 2013, most of the unassessed articles are in the area of Chinese mythology.
- Place the project banner {{WP Mythology}} on the talk pages of all relevant articles (if not already within the scope of the known sub-projects).
- Check the recent changes for recent improvements, vandalism, and other changes.
- Answer requests for mythology experts: Category:Mythology articles needing expert attention
- Expand on comparative mythology articles, such as: Comparative mythology, death deity, lunar deity, sky father, solar deity, and Thunder god.
- Sort out similarities in info, and possibly merge articles: Snakes in mythology and Serpent (symbolism).
- Expand on the articles of different deities and entities. Important deities that need attention are Ra, Poseidon, Mercury, and Minerva.
- Explain the preferred use of "myth", and rename such misnamed articles as Mythology of Final Fantasy X, Scientific mythology, and Tornado myths.
- Explain on the Fakelore-article which deities(for example Belobog, Lado, and Jofur), are thought to be fakeloric (invented or misinterpreted, and never have been worshipped, historically).
- Salvage the various info on mythology and legends from articles such as: List of fictional dogs, and List of fictional swords.
- AND/OR assist mythology subprojects WikiProject Hindu mythology, WikiProject Japanese mythology, WikiProject Korean mythology, and WikiProject Spirituality.
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