how does mythology influence/affect literature?

Answer 1

Mythology often provides templates and themes that are used intentionally and sometimes perhaps subconciously by writers of fiction. Most all stories have themes about a heros journey or something about redemption or hubris. Myths were the first stories in which these themes were developed. They were entertainments for people, which is why some myths take on soap opera, melodramatic-like naratives. Sometime during the Renaissance in Europe, people started writing stories and plays about people instead of rehashing mythic stories. But the same themes, which reflect the human experience are seen in myth and fiction.

Answer 2

Mythology and literature are mutual breeding grounds for each other.

Myth usually grow out of the collective unconscious, while literature is usually from the fertile imagination of one author.

There are a FEW examples of myths having been written by or attributed to one author, but this is rare. What comes to mind is the Oddesey by Homer and Arthurian legends by various authors.

New myths (especially in film and in WILDLY popular literature that strikes a chord) are emerging all the time, and while they are technically in the realm of "fiction" and not "myths" they still satisfy the deeper need of the collective unconscious for the emotional journey that they bring.

Answer 3

--MYTHOLOGY HAS been accepted by many into religious doctrine, & has, with its pseudo god's even replaced the God of the Bible by easily swayed religions!
--THUS FULFILLING these ignored warnings:

(1 Timothy 4:6-7) “6 By giving these advices to the brothers you will be a fine minister of Christ Jesus, one nourished with the words of the faith and of the fine teaching which you have followed closely. 7 But turn down the false stories which violate what is holy and which old women tell. On the other hand, be training yourself with godly devotion as your aim.”

*** w01 4/15 p. 19 The Church Fathers—Advocates of Bible Truth? ***
--During that era, writers and thinkers who felt that it was imperative to interpret “Christian” teachings using philosophical terms began to flourish. To satisfy educated pagans who were new converts to “Christianity,” such religious writers relied heavily on earlier Greek and Jewish literature. Beginning with Justin Martyr (c. 100-165 C.E.), who wrote in Greek, professed Christians became increasingly sophisticated in their assimilation of the philosophical heritage of the Greek culture.
--This trend came to fruition in the writings of Origen (c. 185-254 C.E.), a Greek author from Alexandria. Origen’s treatise On First Principles was the first systematic effort to explain the main doctrines of “Christian” theology in terms of Greek philosophy.
-- The Church Fathers—Advocates of Bible Truth? ***
--Recently, Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Methodius of Pisidia wrote the book The Hellenic Pedestal of Christianity in order to show that Greek culture and philosophy provided the infrastructure of modern “Christian” thought. In that book, he unhesitantly admits: “Almost all the prominent Church Fathers considered the Greek elements most useful, and they borrowed them from the Greek classical antiquity, using them as a means to understand and correctly express the Christian truths.”

--SO WITH RELIGIONS assimilating falsehoods, and unfounded speculation of Christ and his teachings(as the latest myth of the "DaVince Code" portrays him in a false light) people use the false concepts of mythology as truths in many a speculative writing!

--FALSE CONCEPTS EASILY ACCECPTED & used as truths even in non-fiction materials:
1. Hellfire; purgatory; limbo; immortality of the soul; heaven as man's reward;acceptance of idols; images; icons as representing God; Christ & the so called saints !
2. Also in modern idolatry---many sports, entertainment, political etc. heroes & heroines are made into to real life demi-gods, easily being substituted for convient worship!
--THUS MYTHOLOGY is a real religion by many who profess belief in Christ!