Comparative Mythology
COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY. An early form of comparative mythology is the so-called interpretatio Graeca, that is, the use of Greek names for gods of other peoples. Thus, for instance, Near Eastern storm gods were interpreted by Greek authors as Zeus, who shared essential features with them. Similarly, Roman authors identified Celtic or Germanic gods as Jupiter, Mars, or Mercury. Such identifications, employing interpretatio Romana, are readily apparent in the English and French names of the days of the week; the English names are derived from the Germanic gods, the French from the Roman: thus Tuesday, Týr's (or Tiu's) day, corresponds to mardi, day of Mars; Wednesday, Woden's day, corresponds to mercredi, day of Mercury; and Thursday, Thor's day, corresponds to jeudi, day of Jupiter.
As a technical term, comparative mythology was introduced in 1856 by the German-born British philologist F. Max Müller. He based his argument on the observation that the Indo-European languages were related to each other and obviously should be derived from one common language. Since, according to Müller, myths originated through literal interpretations of metaphoric expressions leading to a personification of such natural phenomena as the sun and the dawn, it would be useful to compare not only the languages but also the myths of Indo-European peoples.
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