correct and true etymology of english words myth mythology greek legend storytelling is derived from speech thought story myth itself of unknown origin english mythology is in use since the th century in the meaning an exposition of myths the current meaning of body of myths itself dates to oed the adjective mythical dates to english use of myth is later first attested in in its original english meaning of untrue story these two stories are very good illustrations of the origin of myths by means of which even the most natural sentiment is traced to its cause in the circumstances of fabulous history westminster review this is the earliest known usage of myth in english in case anyone didn't know in english fabulous doesn't mean wonderfully aesthetic it is the adjectival form of fable that is referring to a fantasy or fairytale in the term myth was new so it carries what we call a gloss things by means of which even the most natural sentiment is traced to its cause in the circumstances of fabulous i e fictional history this was not only the original use of the word but the original academic use of the word note the source westminster review that is still the way most all people define myth today it's for reasons like this that wikipedia is so notorious for its mental disconnect with mainstream thought and its enforced use of its own internal terminology jargon or to put it less nicely doublespeak in a single purpose account added mythology categories to a wide range of articles including death and resurrection of jesus virgin birth and transubstantiation creating a huge uproar the outcome of the discussions then was overwhelmingly to reject the categories as imflammatory and inappropriate it was agreed at that time that theological and scriptural articles do not fall into the category of mythology and today none of these articles are so categorised apart from noah's ark just last month wp religion undertook to move the article yoruba mythology to yoruba religion this is because the term mythology is held to be demeaning because yoruba religion is still practised today and the yoruba who practice it constitute a significant viewpoint it is indeed regrettable that so much resistance is facing the prospect of extending the same consideration to the canonical book of genesis the churches have drawn the line by indicating which books they consider canonical inspired texts genesis is among them with no exceptions as far as i know what gives wikipedia the right to draw the line so as to exclude other biblical books from mythology but include the stories of genesis no books that are considered sacred scripture by any large religion of today should be portrayed as mythology that's simple common sense we shouldn't call the quran mythology either we shouldn't call anyone's sacred books widely adhered to today mythology now things like hesiod and orpheus are another story i think the reason hesiod and orpheus have conventionally been referred to as mythology for some time is because no significant numbers of people have ever come forward claiming to believe these books to be historical or literally true since the year at least i will go out on a limb and say i don't know of any not a single one correct me if i'm wrong but i think it's pretty safe to say they have been discarded and nobody objects to the conventional use of mythology for these but please realize that this is not the case with christian muslim or bahai writings nor indeed the writings of many other living religions