Pseudo-mythology

Pseudo-mythology (Russian: кабинетная мифология or

kabinetnaya mifologiya, "office mythology", literally "cabinet
mythology") are myths and deities which do not exist in genuine
mythology and folklore or their existence is doubtful or disproved.
It may be created by researchers who liberally interpret scarce
sources.[2][3]

Pseudo-mythology should not be confused with the term "false

mythology" in the derogatory meanings of "false beliefs" or
"false/fabricated stories".

Philosopher Vincent Descombes maintains that "a myth is what is

told as a myth and what is transmitted as a myth". Therefore, in his
opinion, the correct term would be "poor mythology" or "insipid
mythology", rather than "pseudo-mythology".[4]

Contents Ostara (1884) by Johannes Gehrts.

The sole source about her is Bede,
Slavic mythology
who briefly mentioned her attempting
Belarus to explain the word "Easter". Later
Germanic mythology she was popularized by Jacob
Grimm. Now the authenticity of the
Baltic states
goddess is questioned.[1]
Lithuania
Latvia
Estonia
See also
References
Further reading

Slavic mythology
There is a scarcity of reliable sources for the Slavic religion.[5]

A large number of questionable Slavic deities have been described since 16th century and until present
days.

Polish chroniclers of the 16th and 17th centuries, invented many pseudo-deities based on models from the
antiquity.[5]

Belarus
A good deal of non-existing deities and spirits were invented by Pavel Shpilevsky (also alias P.
Drevlyansky) in his writings about Belarusian mythology, in particular, in his work Belarusian Folk
Legends (1st part: 1846, 2nd and 3rd: 1852), where he described 52 alleged Belarusian mythological
characters, most of them are questioned by modern science. Despite the fact that his writings were heavily
criticized by the contemporaries (e.g., by Alexander Potebnja), it has been treated as a trusted reference
work by several generations of researchers. While Shpilevsky did collect Belarusian folklore, he liberally
added his own interpretations without drawing distinction from authentic folklore.[6][7][8][9]

Germanic mythology
Several pseudo deities come from the research of Jacob Grimm presented in his 1835 treatise Deutsche
Mythologie. It was the first comprehensive study of German mythology. Later his methods in the study of
mythology were criticized.[10] While modern researchers were able to prove that goddesses such as Zisa,
Rheda/Hruoda, or Ostara cannot be historically attested, some of them repeatedly appear as genuine deities,
especially in non-scientific or popular science media.

Baltic states

Lithuania

Jan Łasicki in his Concerning the gods of Samagitians, and other Sarmatians and false Christians (De diis
Samagitarum caeterorumque Sarmatarum et falsorum Christianorum,[11] written c. 1582 and published in
1615) provides a a list of 78 deities and spirits. However he was criticized already in 19th century, e.g., by
Antoni Julian Mierzyński, who also questioned the authenticity of the mythology of Teodor Narbutt, who
was popular during the national awakening of Lithuania.[12] Only a few of Łasicki's deities are considered
authentic now.

Latvia

After the abolition of serfdom in Latvia, a new national identity was forming and authors sought to prove
that Baltic cultural traditions were as deep as those of other nations.[13] It was hoped that a grand epic could
be constructed using pieces preserved in folklore. It was also thought that the ancient religion, forgotten
during 700 years of oppression, could be reconstructed. However, folklore sources proved insufficient for
the task.[14] Some attempted to reconstruct pantheons to be as impressive as in Greek mythology, which led
to some deities being simply invented.[13] Besides the assumption that deities of other Baltic peoples must
be Latvian as well but were simply lost over time, many new deities were modeled after Greek and Roman
deities.[14] An example of the trend is the epic poem Lāčplēsis by Andrejs Pumpurs, which features a
pantheon of Latvian and Prussian gods and some the author has invented himself. Similarly, works of Juris
Alunāns and poet Miķelis Krogzemis feature pantheons of invented deities.

Estonia

Aivar Põldvee writes that the Estonian pantheon started shaping in the 19th century during the period of
national awakening. The older sources about ancient Estonian deities are scarce and ambiguous, while the
19th-century research was uncritical. Still, 19th century writings shaped the modern interpretation of
Estonian mythology. Therefore, Põldvee writes that the term "pseudo-mythology" is applicable here.[15] In
particular, it is traceable how the Estonian god Vanemuine was reconstructed by Estonian intellectuals from
Finnish Väinämöinen, whose authenticity (at least the whole mythology around him) has also been
questioned.[16]

See also
Fakelore
Demogorgon
Mythopoeia

References
1. Richard Sermon, "From Easter to Ostara: the Reinvention of a Pagan Goddess?" (https://ww
w.academia.edu/19634106/From_Easter_to_Ostara_the_Reinvention_of_a_Pagan_Godde
ss)
2. Топорков А. Л. Кабинетная мифология // Славянская мифология: Энциклопедический
словарь. Изд. 2-е, испр. и доп. М., 2002.
3. H. J. Rose, "Italian Pseudo-mythology", In: A Handbook of Greek Mythology, Routledge.
Quote: "The mythologist <...> must share the disgust of the historian when he realizes
that the overwhelming majority of them are not genuine popular native traditions at all,
but comparatively late, artificial tales, put together either by Greeks or under Greek
influence"
4. Vincent Descombes, A foreword to the translation of Jacques Bouveresse's Wittgenstein
Reads Freud, 1995, ISBN 1400821592, p vii (https://www.google.com/books/edition/Wittgen
stein_Reads_Freud/1otkKRQi-CcC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22pseudo+mythology%22&pg=P
R7)
5. Norbert Reiter, "Mythologie der alten Slaven", In: Die Mythologie der alten Kulturvölker.
Band 2: Das alte Europa, Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1973, ISBN 3-12-909820-8, pp. 163–208.
6. Viktor Korbut, "Вечнае змаганне за містыфікацыі" ("An Eternal Fight for Mystifications"),
Arche, issue 1 (30), 2004, pp.188-191
7. А. Богдан, А. Бразгуноў, С. Гаранін, Л. Гедзімін, Л. Ляўшун, В. Чамярыцкі (editors),
Scientific editor: В. Чамярыцкі.Анталогія даўняй беларускай літаратуры: XI —
першая палова XVIII ст., Minsk, Беларуская навука (Belarusian Science), 2003.
8. Топорков А. О «Белорусских народных преданиях» и их авторе (http://krotov.info/libr_mi
n/14_n/eb/ylo2.htm#44). In: Рукописи, которых не было. Подделки в области
славянского фольклора, Moscow, Ладомир, 2002.
9. Левкиевская Е. Е. Механизмы создания мифологических фантомов в «Белорусских
народных преданиях» П. Древлянского (http://ruthenia.ru/folklore/levkievskaya3.htm) In:
Рукописи, которых не было. Подделки в области славянского фольклора, Moscow,
Ладомир, 2002.
10. Tom Shippey, 'A Revolution Reconsidered: Mythography and Mythology in the Nineteenth
Century', in The Shadow-Walkers: Jacob Grimm’s Mythology of the Monstrous, ed. by Tom
Shippey, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 291/Arizona Studies in the Middle
Ages and the Renaissance, 14 (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance
Studies, 2005), pp. 1-28 (pp. 17-18), citing K.-S. Kramer, 'Jacob Grimm und seine
"volkskundliche Quellen": Zur Frage der Zeugniskraft von "Sitte und Sage" für die
"Deutsche Mythologie" ', in Germanische Religionsgeschichte: Quellen und
Quellenprobleme, ed. by Heinrich Beck, Detlev Ellmers, and Kurt Schier (Berlin: De Gruyter,
1992), pp. 588-607.
11. De diis Samagitarum... (https://archive.org/details/dediissamagitar00manngoog/page/n9/mo
de/2up) at the internet archive
12. Antoni Julian Mierzyński, 'Jan Łasicki : źródło do mytologii litewskiej, Krakow, 1870 (book
review (https://www.google.com/books/edition/Rocznik_dla_archeologow_numizmatykow_i
_b/uA_PMdRt9UUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Lasicki+%C5%BAr%C3%B2d%C5%82o+do+myt
ologie+litewski%C3%A9j&pg=PA366&printsec=frontcover), in Polish)
13. Muktupāvels, Valdis (2005). "Baltic religion: New religious movements". In Jones, Lindsay
(ed.). Encyclopedia of Religion. Vol. 2 (2nd ed.). Thomson Gale. pp. 762–767.
14. Kursīte, Janīna (2005). "Baltic Religion: History of study". In Jones, Lindsay (ed.).
Encyclopedia of Religion. Vol. 2 (2nd ed.). Thomson Gale. pp. 767–771.
15. Aivar Põldvee,"Agricola’s List (1551) and the Formation of the Estonian Pantheon" (https://w
ww.researchgate.net/publication/333911820_Agricola's_List_1551_and_the_Formation_of_
the_Estonian_Pantheon), In: Re-Forming Texts, Music, and Church Art in the Early Modern
North, pp.449-474, doi:10.2307/j.ctt1gsmw8v.20 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2Fj.ctt1gsmw8v.2
0).
Quote: "It is appropriate to use the term pseudo-mythology here, as older information
about the ancient gods and beliefs of the Estonians is very scarce and ambiguous, while
the nineteenth century records are in most cases uncritical and also too late. A large
proportion of the materials representing Estonian mythology is at best characterized with
the term fakelore"
16. Aivar Põldvee, "The Birth of Vanemuine. Additions to the History of Estonian Pseudo-
Mythology" (abstract (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291312758_The_Birth_of_V
anemuine_Additions_to_the_History_of_Estonian_Pseudo-Mythology))

Further reading
Зубов Н.И. Научные фантомы славянского Олимпа (Scientific Fantoms of Slavic
Olympus), Живая старина. 1995. No. 3. С. 46–48;
Топорков А. Л. Теория мифа в русской филологической науке XIX века. М., 1997.
Nikolai Mikhailov, Traktat o slovanskih bogovih iz XVII. stol.: M. Fren(t)zel, Dissertationes
historicae tres de idolis Slavorum (http://sms.zrc-sazu.si/pdf/04/SMS_04_Mikhailov.pdf),
Studia Mythologica Slavica 4, 2001, pp. 17–24
Author's summary: "The paper examines a mythological tractate of the Lusatian
researcher Michael Frenzel (Fren{t}zel) on Slavic deities from the 17th century. The
tractate (“three dissertations”), which contains an eclectic description of the Slavic and
the Lusatian pantheons, is a typical case of the so-called “cabinet mythology”. This kind
of literature, nevertheless, also needs to be analyzed: in part as a monument to scientific
thought, partly (although with a large dose of caution) as a secondary source for the
reconstruction of local - in this case Lusatian - mythological tradition.}
H. J. Rose, Mythology and Pseudo-mythology: Presidential Address, 1935,
doi:10.1080/0015587X.1935.9718582 (https://doi.org/10.1080%2F0015587X.1935.971858
2)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pseudo-mythology&oldid=1125627464"

This page was last edited on 5 December 2022, at 00:52 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0; additional terms may apply. By
using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.