Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
❓ Belief in a myth 🦄 Myth-like quality
mythicism

mythicism

9.3
A belief that a historical person or event was only a story and did not really happen
  • noun
  • /ˈmɪθɪsɪzəm/
  • Specialized
translation icon : miticismo
  • The rise of mythicism has led to new perspectives on ancient texts and their interpretation.

Examples

  • Many scholars debate the validity of mythicism in historical studies, suggesting that certain religious figures never existed.

  • I got a nasty shock a little over a week ago at another blog, one that was linked here, a blog devoted to mythicism.

    Blog text (13)

  • "He's a racist Nazi; therefore, he is wrong about Mythicism, and none of his scholarship is any good."

    Blog text (13)

  • Then, lower down in the list was "Drews," that is our familiar Arthur Drews, who everybody in the field knows as a major early 20th-century Jesus denier, with his epoch-making book "The Christ Myth" of 1909, which is a classic in the literature of mythicism.

    Blog text (13)

  • His book presents a compelling argument for mythicism, claiming that several events in religious history are purely fictional.

Antonyms

realism
38 4.5

A way of thinking that accepts facts and prefers practical plans

How Historical

mythicism
  • Specialized
9.3

Surface Forms

mythicism singular
mythicisms plural

Morphology

mythicism = mythic (transparent) = myth + ic + ism

The word 'mythicism' is transparently formed from 'mythic' with the addition of '-ism', indicating a belief or doctrine.

Etymology

Mythicism comes from the simple word myth, which means 'story', and the ending -ism, which means 'belief' or 'system'. So mythicism is the idea or 'belief' that some people or events are only stories and did not happen in history.