MYTHOLOGY, n. The body of a primitive people's beliefs concerning its origin, early history, heroes, deities and so forth, as distinguished from the true accounts which it invents later.
Interpretation
Mythology reflects the beliefs and narratives of a culture, often contrasting with factual history.
Ambrose Bierce's quote defines mythology as the collection of a primitive society's beliefs about its origins, heroes, and deities. He contrasts these foundational myths with later 'true accounts' that tend to distort or reshape the original narratives, suggesting that culture often evolves by modifying its historical truths.
In practice
In a lecture about cultural origins, one might quote Bierce to illustrate how societies create narratives to understand themselves.
PALM, n. A species of tree . . . of which the familiar "itching palm" ("Palma hominis") is most widely distributed . . . . This noble vegetable exudes a kind of invisible gum, which may be detected by applying to the bark a piece of gold or silver.
Human nature is pretty well balanced; for every lacking virtue there is a rough substitute that will serve at a pinch--as cunning is the wisdom of the unwise, and ferocity the courage of the coward.
Indigestion: A disease which the patient and his friends frequently mistake for deep religious conviction and concern for the salvation of mankind. As the simple Red Man of the Western Wild put it, with, it must be confessed, a certain force: 'Plenty well, no pray; big belly ache, heap God.'
Disobey n:To celebrate with an appropriate ceremony the maturity of a command
NOUMENON, n. That which exists, as distinguished from that which merely seems to exist, the latter being a phenomenon. The noumenon is a bit difficult to locate; it can be apprehended only by a process of reasoning - which is a phenomenon.
PARDON, v. To remit a penalty and restore to the life of crime. To add to the lure of crime the temptation of ingratitude.
The doctrine of human equality reposes on this: that there is no man really clever who has not found that he is stupid.
It takes a checkbook to change the world
Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are, and those few dare not oppose themselves to the opinion of the many, who have the majesty of the state to defend them.
I can accept anything, except what seems to be the easiest for most people: the half-way, the almost, the just-about, the in-between.
Hazard has conditioned us to live in hazard. All our pleasures are dependent on it. Even though I arrange for a pleasure, and look forward to it, my eventual enjoyment of it is still a matter of hazard. Wherever time passes, there is hazard.
Sincere Christians can disagree about the details of Scripture and theology - absolutely.
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