Allegory vs Myth - What's the difference?
allegory | myth | Related terms |
The representation of abstract principles by characters or figures.
A picture, book, or other form of communication using such representation.
A symbolic representation which can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, usually a moral or political one.
A traditional story which embodies a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; a sacred narrative regarding a god, a hero, the origin of the world or of a people, etc.
(uncountable) Such stories as a genre.
A commonly-held but false belief, a common misconception; a fictitious or imaginary person or thing; a popular conception about a real person or event which exaggerates or idealizes reality.
A person or thing held in excessive or quasi-religious awe or admiration based on popular legend
A person or thing existing only in imagination, or whose actual existence is not verifiable.
* Ld. Lytton
As nouns the difference between allegory and myth
is that allegory is the representation of abstract principles by characters or figures while myth is a traditional story which embodies a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; a sacred narrative regarding a god, a hero, the origin of the world or of a people, etc.allegory
English
Noun
(allegories) (wikipedia allegory)Derived terms
* * *See also
*myth
English
Alternative forms
* mythe (rare or archaic)Noun
(en noun)- Myth was the product of man's emotion and imagination, acted upon by his surroundings.'' (E. Clodd, ''Myths & Dreams (1885), 7, cited after OED)
- Father Flanagan was legendary, his institution an American myth. (Tucson (Arizona) Citizen, 20 September 1979, 5A/3, cited after OED)
- As for Mrs. Primmins's bones, they had been myths these twenty years.