μῦθος

Ancient Greek

Etymology

• According to Frisk, of onomatopoeic origin, from μῡ (mū).
• According to Beekes there are no plausible comparanda and the word is Pre-Greek.
• Others compare it to Proto-Slavic *myslь (“idea, thought”), as if via Proto-Indo-European *mewHdʰ-.
• Ernštedt (1953: 55-57) argues that it derived from Egyptian mdwt (“word, speech, affair”). If so, a cognate to Coptic ⲙⲉⲧ- (met-), and related to Coptic ⲙⲟⲩⲧⲉ (moute).
• Possibly related to Sanskrit मिथ्या (mithyā, “false, spurious, illusory”), from Proto-Indo-European *mewHdʰ- (“to complain or care about something”).

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: μῦ‧θος

Noun

μῦθος • (mûthos) m (genitive μῡ́θου); second declension

1. something said: word, speech, conversation
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 11.561:

     ἀλλ’ ἄγε δεῦρο, ἄναξ, ἵν’ ἔπος καὶ μῦθον ἀκούσῃς

     all’ áge deûro, ánax, hín’ épos kaì mûthon akoúsēis

   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 4.777:

     μῦθον, ὃ δὴ καὶ πᾶσιν ἐνὶ φρεσὶν ἤραρεν ἥμιν.

     mûthon, hò dḕ kaì pâsin enì phresìn ḗraren hḗmin.

   1. public speech
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 1.358:

        ἔργον ἐποίχεσθαι· μῦθος δ’ ἄνδρεσσι μελήσει

        érgon epoíkhesthai; mûthos d’ ándressi melḗsei

      • 750 BCE – 650 BCE, Hesiod, Works and Days 192
   2. (mostly in plural) talk, conversation
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 4.214
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 4.239
   3. advice, counsel, command, order, promise
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 5.493:

        Ὣς φάτο Σαρπηδών, δάκε δὲ φρένας Ἕκτορι μῦθος·

        Hṑs pháto Sarpēdṓn, dáke dè phrénas Héktori mûthos;

      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 7.358:

        οἶσθα καὶ ἄλλον μῦθον ἀμείνονα τοῦδε νοῆσαι.

        oîstha kaì állon mûthon ameínona toûde noêsai.

   4. the subject of a speech or talk
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 22.289
      • 458 BCE, Euripides, Electra 346
   5. a resolve, purpose, design, plan
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 1.545
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 3.140
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 4.676
   6. saying, proverb
      • 458 BCE, Aeschylus, The Libation Bearers 314
   7. the talk of men, rumor, report, message
      • 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Ajax 226
      • 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Ajax 189
2. tale, story, narrative,
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 3.94
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 4.324
   1. tale, legend, myth
      • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 2.45
      1. (in Attic prose) a legend of the early Greek times, before the dawn of history
         • 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 330D
   2. a professed work of fiction, fable, such as those of Aesop
      • 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 377A
      • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Meteorology 2.3.2
   3. the plot of a tragedy or comedy
      • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Poetics 6.8

Usage notes

The scholia on the Odyssey 21.71 says that μῦθος (mûthos) is Aeolic for μόθος (móthos), but compare μυθιήτης (muthiḗtēs). It is used there in the significance of "resolve, purpose".

Inflection

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• → English: myth, mythos
• Greek: μύθος (mýthos)
• → Hebrew: מִיתוֹס (mítos)
• → Latin: mȳthus
• → Spanish: mito
• → Italian: mito
• → Russian: миф (mif)
• → Ukrainian: міф (mif), міт (mit)

References

• “μῦθος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “μῦθος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “μῦθος”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• μῦθος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• μῦθος in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “μῦθος”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G3454 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • account idem, page 7.
  • allegory idem, page 25.
  • anecdote idem, page 29.
  • bruit idem, page 101.
  • description idem, page 214.
  • fable idem, page 299.
  • fame idem, page 304.
  • fiction idem, page 317.
  • legend idem, page 484.
  • lore idem, page 500.
  • myth idem, page 549.
  • narrative idem, page 551.
  • news idem, page 557.
  • parable idem, page 591.
  • report idem, page 697.
  • romance idem, page 720.
  • rumour idem, page 726.
  • saying idem, page 736.
  • story idem, page 821.
  • tale idem, page 854.
  • tidings idem, page 874.
  • tradition idem, page 885.
  • true idem, page 898.
  • word idem, page 987.
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), volume II, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 976