Language can be slippery, and few words illustrate this better than the word myth. In modern usage, when we call something a “myth” we usually mean it is a falsehood—a mistaken belief that only the naïve could hold. In this sense, a myth is nothing more than an illusion.
But this is only one layer of meaning. Myth also refers to a specific story within a cultural tradition: the myth of Theseus in Athens, or the myth of Loki among the Norse. Each is part of a larger body of stories, a mythology. Children often meet such tales with a direct question: “Did this really happen?” The expected answer is “No.” On the surface, they are not factual records of past events.
Yet to dismiss myth as mere fantasy is to miss its heart. Myths are not primarily about historical fact; they are vessels of meaning. They use symbol, paradox, and story to reveal truths too subtle to be caught by logic alone. A myth of descent into the underworld, for example, may describe the journey every human being faces in times of real transformation. A tale of gods in conflict may reveal the tensions of a soul awakening, or the forces at play in the cosmos itself.
This is why children—and adults—are drawn to myths. Something in us recognises the resonance. Myths remind the soul of truths it has forgotten, truths that do not readily appear on a television screen or a social media feed. They clothe spiritual reality in human speech. If myth is the story, mythology is the system in which such stories belong. A mythology is the narrative fabric of a civilisation, through which its deepest spiritual vision is expressed. The Ramayana and the Mahābhārata form such a system in India. The sagas of Odin and Thor belong to the Norse. The Greek myths, and their Roman continuations, together shaped an ancient world’s understanding of the divine, the human, and the cosmos.
To call mythology a collection of “falsehoods” is itself a myth—and a shallow one at that. Mythology is a cultural scripture in story form. It is one of the oldest and most enduring ways humanity has carried truth.
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