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The study of myths probably began in the 4th century. BC. when Euthemerus explained them as exaggerated adventures of historical individuals. The allegorical interpretation of myths , stemming from the 18th century study , says that at one time myths were invented by wise men to point out a truth, but after a time myths were taken literally. The linguistic corruption interpretation says that myths could be understood as allegory for events found in nature. The Jungians school denoted myths as a mechanism of wish fulfillment. Sir James Frazer, believed that all myths were originally connected with the idea of fertility in nature, with birth, death, and resurrection of vegetation as a constantly recurring motif. Though the modern interpretation of myths is not general but a specific explanation for myths of a single people. The theological interpretation states that myths are foreshadowings of facts of the Scripture or corruptions of them. This view, which is not contemporarily popular, is surprisingly enlightening when attention is paid to the meaning of names of characters and places in relation to Biblical stories. Even recent fairy tales which fall into the category of myth, often reveal through metaphor more truth in scripture than one would anticipate.
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The myths were accounts of the lives of the deities whom the Greeks worshipped. The Greeks had many deities, including 12 principal ones, who lived on Mt. Olympus. The myths are all things to all people - a rollicking good yarn, expressions of deep psychological insights, words of spine-tingling poetic beauty and food for the imagination. They serve a timeless universal need, and have inspired great literature, art and music, providing archetypes through which we can learn much about the deeper motives of human behavior.
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