Mermaid Myths, Asia and Europe
Introduction
This research essay is about myths and legends with the focus on mermaids. We chose to do the essay about myths and legends since we were already interested in the topic, even before we knew that we could write an essay about it. We saw this as an opportunity to learn more about the topic we wanted to know more of. We decided rather quick to take this topic but we both knew that the topic would be too broad so we decided to specify the topic. Eventually we decided to focus on the Asian and European cultures. But then we felt that this wasn’t quite right so we came up with a second topic: mermaids. We decided that the main question would be:
“What is the difference between Asian and European mythology with the focus on mermaids?”
In this essay we hope to answer the main question as good as we can. With help of the sub-questions we wrote the conclusion and we hope that the essay turns out right and is enjoyable to read.
What is mythology?
The word mythology
The word mythology originally means the telling of stories in Greek. The term mythology can mean two things. The first one refers to the study of myths and the second meaning is that mythology is a body of myths. The first definition includes comparative mythology, which is the study of connections between myths from different cultures. Greek mythology is part of the second definition whereas this is a part of the body from ancient Greece. The word myth itself is used in a different way. In the study of folklore which is a study of legends, music, oral history, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales proverbs and customs that are the traditions of a certain culture, subculture or group the word myth means a sacred narrative about how humans came into existence and how they came to their present form. A broader definition of the word myth is that it is a story that takes place in an imagined, remote, timeless past in which it tells the origin of humans but also animals and the
This research essay is about myths and legends with the focus on mermaids. We chose to do the essay about myths and legends since we were already interested in the topic, even before we knew that we could write an essay about it. We saw this as an opportunity to learn more about the topic we wanted to know more of. We decided rather quick to take this topic but we both knew that the topic would be too broad so we decided to specify the topic. Eventually we decided to focus on the Asian and European cultures. But then we felt that this wasn’t quite right so we came up with a second topic: mermaids. We decided that the main question would be:
“What is the difference between Asian and European mythology with the focus on mermaids?”
In this essay we hope to answer the main question as good as we can. With help of the sub-questions we wrote the conclusion and we hope that the essay turns out right and is enjoyable to read.
What is mythology?
The word mythology
The word mythology originally means the telling of stories in Greek. The term mythology can mean two things. The first one refers to the study of myths and the second meaning is that mythology is a body of myths. The first definition includes comparative mythology, which is the study of connections between myths from different cultures. Greek mythology is part of the second definition whereas this is a part of the body from ancient Greece. The word myth itself is used in a different way. In the study of folklore which is a study of legends, music, oral history, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales proverbs and customs that are the traditions of a certain culture, subculture or group the word myth means a sacred narrative about how humans came into existence and how they came to their present form. A broader definition of the word myth is that it is a story that takes place in an imagined, remote, timeless past in which it tells the origin of humans but also animals and the