myth

myth 1 Myth, legend, saga all mean a story which has come down from the past, which ostensibly relates a historical event or events, and of which the origin has been lost or forgotten.

Myth varies considerably in its denotation and connotation depending on the persuasion of the user. Often the word is used to designate a usually fanciful and imaginative story that explains a natural phenomenon or a social practice, institution, or belief

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the old myth, imported hazily from the East, which represented the cat-moon devouring the gray mice of twilight— Repplier

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It is also used to designate a story, belief, or notion commonly held to be true but utterly without factual basis

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the doubts that women have about themselves are man-made, and most women are so enslaved to the myths of their own inferiority they are unable to see the truth for the myths— Ashley Montagu

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The word may be used with wide comprehensiveness in general writing or with narrow exclusiveness and specificity in more limited use

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myths may be subdivided into such classifications as origin myths, ritual myths, incidents involving the lives of the gods, stories of culture heroes, trickster tales, journeys to the other world, human and animal marriages, adaptations of old world myths, and retellings of biblical stories— L. J. Davidson

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myths are said to be expressions or objectifications of "collective wishes" which are personified in the "leader" who is endowed by a given society with powers of social magic to fulfill the collective wish— Kroeber

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Legend is likewise used with latitude, but in its most typical use it is likely to apply to a story, incident, or notion attached to a particular person or place that purports to be historical and often has or seems to have a basis in historical reality although as a whole it is either incredible or unverifiable

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the medieval legends of the saints

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the wrecking of the Palatine which, according to legend, did not sink but rose flaming into the sky— Zimmer

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the violent deaths of several slaves quartered in them gave rise to a legend that this part of the house is haunted— Amer. Guide Series: Md.

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Saga may refer to a long, continued, heroic story that is action-packed but not especially romantic, that deals with a person or group, and that is historical or legendary or both

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the Saga of Burnt Njal

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the building of the railroad in the North-west was one of the great sagas of man's enterprise— Le Sueur

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Analogous words: *fiction, fable, fabrication, figment: invention, creation (see corresponding verbs at INVENT)

2 *allegory, parable, fable