Portal:Myths

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Portal topics
Activities
Culture
Geography
Health
History
Mathematics
Nature
People
Philosophy
Religion
Society
Technology
Random portal

The Myths Portal

1929 Belgian banknote, depicting Ceres, Neptune and caduceus

Myth is a genre of folklore or theology consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. For folklorists, historians, philosophers or theologians this is very different from the use of "myth" simply indicating that something is not true. Instead, the truth value of a myth is not a defining criterion.

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. (Full article...)

Selected article - show another

The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the 12th or 13th century BCE. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Greeks) against the city of Troy after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology, and it has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably Homer's Iliad. The core of the Iliad (Books II – XXIII) describes a period of four days and two nights in the tenth year of the decade-long siege of Troy; the Odyssey describes the journey home of Odysseus, one of the war's heroes. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, which have survived through fragments. Episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid.

The ancient Greeks believed that Troy was located near the Dardanelles and that the Trojan War was a historical event of the 13th or 12th century BC. By the mid-19th century AD, both the war and the city were widely seen as non-historical, but in 1868, the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann met Frank Calvert, who convinced Schliemann that Troy was at what is now Hisarlık in modern day Turkey. On the basis of excavations conducted by Schliemann and others, this claim is now accepted by most scholars. (Full article...)

Did you know? - show different entries

An eight-armed seated woman dressed in a sari, holding a child and various weapons, ripping the womb of a woman, lying on her lap, while trampling a man

  • ... that Tamil Hindu parents dedicate their one-month-old children to the goddess Periyachi (pictured), who is depicted ripping a woman's womb?


Did you know?


Mythical dog

  • ... that in Mesoamerican folklore, it is believed that a dog (mythical dog pictured) carries the newly deceased across a body of water into the afterlife?



Recognised content

Featured Articles:  Ahalya,  Ancient Egyptian literature,  King Arthur,  Ganesha,  Iravan,  Orion (mythology),  Vampire,  Vithoba

Featured Lists:  List of valkyrie names in Norse mythology

Good Articles:  2012 phenomenon,  Æsir–Vanir War,  Ala (demon),  Anu,  Aphrodite,  Athena,  Ardhanarishvara,  Battle of Barry,  Bhikshatana,  Catalogue of Women,  Chamunda,  Chhinnamasta,  Consorts of Ganesha,  Cú Chulainn,  Dhumavati,  Dumuzid,  Einherjar,  Eir,  Enlil,  Fairy Flag,  Fenrir,  Gerðr,  Hel (being),  Huginn and Muninn,  Iðunn,  Ila (Hinduism),  Inanna,  Kabandha,  Kali,  Kamadhenu,  Kangiten,  Keshi (demon),  Khandoba,  Kratos (mythology)  Krishna,  Kubera,  LGBT themes in Hindu mythology,  Manasa,  Mandodari,  Matangi,  Matrikas,  Maya Sita,  Mohini,  Myrrha,  Mythology of Carnivàle,  Naraka (Hinduism),  Ninurta,  Prester John,  Prithu,  Putana,  Rati,  Ratatoskr,  Revanta,  Satyavati,  Satyr,  Sharabha,  Shashthi,  Shiva,  Sif,  Tara (Ramayana),  Troilus,  Tuisto,  Valhalla,  Valkyrie,  Vampire folklore by region,  Varaha,  Varahi,  Veðrfölnir and eagle  Zduhać

Wikiversity

Selected creature - show another

The gentle and pensive maiden has the power to tame the unicorn, fresco by Domenichino, c. 1604–1605 (Palazzo Farnese, Rome)

The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead.

In European literature and art, the unicorn has for the last thousand years or so been depicted as a white horse-like or goat-like animal with a long straight horn with spiralling grooves, cloven hooves, and sometimes a goat's beard. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, it was commonly described as an extremely wild woodland creature, a symbol of purity and grace, which could be captured only by a virgin. In encyclopedias, its horn was described as having the power to render poisoned water potable and to heal sickness. In medieval and Renaissance times, the tusk of the narwhal was sometimes sold as a unicorn horn. (Full article...)

General images

The following are images from various myth-related articles on Wikipedia.

Subcategories

WikiProjects

edit 

Things you can do

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Discover Wikipedia using portals
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portal:Myths&oldid=1162917614"