神话(myth)
表面是历史事件的传统故事，用於呈现一个民族部分的世界观，或解释一种行事、信念与自然现象。神话与外在於一般人类生活、但为其根本的神或超自然的事件、情境或作为有关。这些事件设定在一个全然异於历史时间的时间中，通常是在创世之初，或在史前的早期阶段。一个民族的神话通常与他们的宗教信仰和仪式紧密相连。现代对神话的研究起於19世纪早期的浪漫主义（Romanticism）。曼哈特（Wilhelm Mannhardt）、弗雷泽，以及其他後起的研究者，都多半采用一种比较方法的研究取径。弗洛伊德视神话为遭到压抑的观念的表现；这种观点後来由容格在他的「集体潜意识」以及起源於集体潜意识的神话的原型的理论中加以扩充。马林诺夫斯基强调神话如何发挥共同的社会功能，并提供一个人类行为的模型和「宪章」。李维－史陀则在全世界的神话的形式关系与模组中区辨出潜在的结构。埃利亚代和奥托（Rudolf Otto）则认为，神话必须单独作为宗教现象来理解。其他种类的文学也共有若干神话的特色。起源传说解释了自然、人类社会与生活的各个方面的根源与原因。童话则处理异常的生物与事件，但缺乏神话的威信。萨迦（saga）和史诗则主张权威与真理，但是却反映了特定的历史背景。
English version：
myth
Traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the worldview of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon. Myths relate the events, conditions, and deeds of gods or superhuman beings that are outside ordinary human life and yet basic to it. These events are set in a time altogether different from historical time, often at the beginning of creation or at an early stage of prehistory. A people's myths are usually closely related to their religious beliefs and rituals. The modern study of myth arose with early-19th-century Romanticism. Wilhelm Mannhardt, James George Frazer, and others later employed a more comparative approach. Sigmund Freud viewed myth as an expression of repressed ideas, a view later expanded by Carl Gustav Jung in his theory of the "collective unconscious" and the mythic archetypes that arise out of it. Bronislaw Malinowski emphasized how myth fulfills common social functions, providing a model or "charter" for human behavior. Claude Levi-Strauss has discerned underlying structures in the formal relations and patterns of myths throughout the world. Mircea Eliade and Rudolf Otto held that myth is to be understood solely as a religious phenomenon. Features of myth are shared by other kinds of literature. Origin tales explain the source or causes of various aspects of nature or human society and life. Fairy tales deal with extraordinary beings and events but lack the authority of myth. Sagas and epics claim authority and truth but reflect specific historical settings.
