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An example would be the Alamat of the Pineapple where a girl who is too lazy to look for things is transformed into a fruit with numerous "eyes." Tinga Tinga Tales include many pourquoi stories from African cultures, such as "Why Giraffe has a Long Neck," "Why Crocodile has a Bumpy Back," "Why Moles Live Underground," and many more.
A notable example is the myth of the foundation of Rome—the tale of Romulus and Remus, which Virgil in turn broadens in his Aeneid with the odyssey of Aeneas and his razing of Lavinium, and his son Iulus's later relocation and rule of the famous twins' birthplace Alba Longa, and their descent from his royal line, thus fitting perfectly into ...
An etiological myth, or origin myth, is a myth intended to explain the origins of cult practices, natural phenomena, proper names and the like. For example, the name Delphi and its associated deity, Apollon Delphinios , are explained in the Homeric Hymn which tells of how Apollo, in the shape of a dolphin ( delphis ), propelled Cretans over the ...
Prometheus Brings Fire to Mankind, Heinrich Friedrich Füger, c. 1817. Prometheus brings fire to humanity, it having been hidden as revenge for the trick at Mecone. The trick at Mecone or Mekone (Mi-kon) was an event in Greek mythology first attested by Hesiod in which Prometheus tricked Zeus for humanity’s benefit, and thus incurred his wrath.
A less pejorative term is a pourquoi story, which has been used to describe usually more mythological or otherwise traditional examples of this genre, aimed at children. This phrase is a reference to Rudyard Kipling 's 1902 Just So Stories , containing fictional and deliberately fanciful tales for children, in which the stories pretend to ...
The Mwindo epic is an oral tale from the Congo told by the Nyanga people. The origins and creation of the Mwindo epic are mostly unknown since the story is only passed down orally. A version of the story was recorded by Kahombo Mateene and Daniel Biebuyck and published in 1969.
Another etiological tale, from a Slavic source, is The Seven Stars: a princess is kidnapped by a dragon, so the high chamberlain seeks a "Dragon-mother" and her sons, who each possess extraordinary abilities, to rescue her. At the end of the tale, the rescuers and the chamberlain enter a dispute on who should have the princess, but the "Dragon ...
A creation myth (or creation story) is a cultural, religious or traditional myth which describes the earliest beginnings of the present world. Creation myths are the most common form of myth, usually developing first in oral traditions, and are found throughout human culture.