The systematic collection, compilation, and interpretation of myths, or the scholarly writing about mythological traditions. It encompasses both ancient handbooks that preserved mythological stories and modern academic studies that analyze mythological systems.
From Greek 'mythos' (story, myth) and 'graphein' (to write), the term originally described ancient writers who collected and systematized mythological traditions. Classical mythographers like Apollodorus and Hyginus created comprehensive handbooks, while modern mythography refers to scholarly analysis and interpretation of mythological materials.
Ancient mythographers were like the Wikipedia editors of the classical world—they collected, organized, and cross-referenced thousands of contradictory myths into manageable reference works! Apollodorus's 'Library' became the ultimate mythological handbook, preserving stories that would otherwise have been lost when oral traditions died out. Modern mythography has evolved into sophisticated analysis of how myths function in society, from Lévi-Strauss's structural analysis to contemporary studies of how ancient myths influence modern media and psychology.
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