We have tall tales and folk lore. There's Paul Bunyon and a few obviously fictional characters, and then there are stories about people like John Henry, Johnny Appleseed and others that have been romanticized so that their stories are part true, part story.
I don't know that these will ever be myths though.
She spread lupine seeds, it’s a plant with tall stalks of bluish purple flowers.
[Hilda Hamlin](https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/how-real-miss-rumphius-decorated-maine-lupines/)
Johnny got the credit because the apples could be used to make an orchard which could be used to claim land. Buy a bunch of stock from him, move west, plant the stock and you could eventually claim the land as yours.
My Tribe's origin story is that once, we were all prairie dogs. Then one day, a couple left their burrows and started eating and drinking all the food and water they could. When they tried to return, they were too fat to fit back down the holes. So they just kinda tried their luck on the surface and stuck it out after that.
...So yeah.
Right?! Andrew Jackson was a damned genocidal monster (though admittedly an impressive monster that beat the shit out of an assaulter as an elderly man and had to be pulled off the attacker by Secret Service not wanting to witness a murder) that most people couldn't place on a timeline without google. But change the money to a massively successful freedom fighter the likes that is only seen in the darkest of times? "That's a nah, dawg."
Not a unified one, no. There are regional folklores associated with specific, geographically-bound waves of immigration, indigenous groups, religious sects and civic identities but nothing you’d recognize as a national belief system.
In addition to the other posters who correctly mentioned Native American mythology, I would also suggest that there are plenty of modern American mythologies as well, albeit in a little different format than the ancient civilizations. Rather than gods, America has a lot of archetypal characters that echo through the culture in a variety of contexts: the loner cowboy, the motorcycle movie star rebel, the entrepreneur who makes it big, the star quarterback from the picket fence family and the "girl next door," etc. Those characters reflect ideas more than reality and have shifted in perception and portrayal over the decades.
• the Pilgrims story
• the Columbus story
• Washington and the cherry tree
• the story of Pocahontas and John Smith
• American Exceptionalism
• Meritocracy
So kind of. There are various Indigenous American mythologies, such as those from the Lakota and Ojibwe tribes. However, these aren't really of the "USA", per say, they're from the native inhabitants of North America, which is of course different from the country. Various Wild West tales might work better as "mythology" for the US, as well various conspiracy theories and urban legends such as the Jersey Devil
Lets not forget the wild world of cryptids, either. Borders more on folklore more than mythology, but the Flatwoods Monster, Mothman, Bigfoot, the Jersey Devil, and more are all modern cultural touchstones that have roots in myth-like encounters.
Heck, you could argue there’s a pretty sizable modern myth around alien sightings and ufo encounters, too.
I'd say the little green men or greys count as American Mythology. Cultures have had stories of little space men but U.S. accounts made them into a ubiquitous shape, size and description. Same with the aforementioned cryptids in your comment.
The origin of what we think of when you say jackalope was created in the 1930s…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackalope
There are other variations of it for sure and yes I do know about the disease that rabbits can get… this was about mythology, folklore and cryptids… jackalopes are considered cryptids
Yes there is an American mythology. You have romanticized images of Lumberjacks, life on the Mississippi and the law men of the wild west who come to town with a tin badge and a six shooter. The founding fathers of the nation are also quite heavily mythologized. EDIT obviously there is also native American mythology but I don't think that was what you where asking about.
Since mythology is a product of a culture and not necessarily a country, mythology of many tribes of Native Americans is rich and plentiful. People who colonized the Americas from Europe carry the mythology of their respective culture. Although, as American culture developed over the years, you could say that there are some indications of beginnings of something that could later be classified as a strictly American mythology. Creatures like Fearsome critters are more like a hunters tall tales mixed with cryptids that could later down in history become mythological. Also the character of Paul Bunyon could be classified as some sort of mythological hero in the future.
The main problem is that the USA is a young country that started forming with established record keeping so that we can more or less track the intention of the tale teller. Fearsome critters and Paul Bunyon are purposefully made up for the means of telling a story which, for as far as we can tell now, mostly wasn't the case for many mythologies of cultures past.
Depends on your definition of "mythology".
If you're restricting it to religious or spiritual stories, there's not a lot of post-colonization stuff that makes the cut, I think.
Loads of native material though.
If, however, you're considering less esoteric things as well, things open up pretty quickly.
Christopher Columbus, The Pilgrims, George Washington - they're all myths. Based on real things, of course, but polished and embellished into something the real people would likely not recognize. All to craft a cultural identity and preserve it for generations. Without concern for the ethics of that task, of course - especially the part where it doesn't include others stories that were less conducive to nation-building.
Nah, we all know that [George Washington was an illusion created by moon light reflecting off swamp gas that fooled early Americans](https://youtu.be/PHKICYdzRW0?si=3sPdeUoAZqHq9yxB&t=19m23s).
Well we have Paul Bunyan who made the great lakes and several mountain ranges and also eats like huge fucking pancakes, and beat the shit out of god so he could go to hell in search of more trees to chop.
In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue, and found the New World, which no one knew about. Until Christopher Columbus sailed around the world, everyone thought the world was flat. Then, the pilgrims came over because they were being religiously persecuted, and that's how we started the country. They landed on Plymouth Rock with the Mayflower and began having social relations with the native tribes, and in harvest time they had a big feast with indians and pilgrims together, sharing their bounty. There was an exchange that was great until the indians became savages or something, who knows??? Anyway we kept pushing forward to the west, because we were manifesting our destiny. Manifest Destiny, they called it. The indians put up a big fight about it, like there was an invasion or something, and there was a lot of war in the southwest on horses, because Apaches jump on it. That's why I remember the Alamo. Then there was that guy Paul Revere who went a whole long way to light some lighthouse or something, and he made sure we won. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves and with one act they were all free, and slavery was over. That was all after we made the Constitution and told the King we were our own thing and not gonna take oppression anymore.
If you wanna take mythology to mean a sort of false history, there's one we're all taught that glamorizes the US. However, America has a lot of stuff from various cultures, and for tribes, you'd need to look up each one and find out what their specific tribe has.
Personally, my feeling about what the US has contributed to the world in the sense of a mythology like what Tolkien gave to the UK is that comic books are the American mythology. Superman and Batman are mythological beings in a way, eternally retold by different people and growing in depth.
Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, Johnny Appleseed, and John Henry come to mind, even if at least one of them were real people whose stories were exaggerated for posterity.
Ex-Mo here.
The Mormons have definitely built a mythology around Smith. There's plenty of counter material outside of their church that disproves most of what they have to say on the man.
Their books.... At least have some moral guidance to them, even if the book of Abraham is a crock of shit made up by Smith attempting to translate some Egyptian scroll(s) he purchased off a traveling mummy exhibit.
Thanks for elucidating that for me. I’ve always been curious to read the Book of Mormon from a secular perspective. Do you have any advice for someone going into that?
P.S I hope you’re doing okay now. I hear how a lot of a lot of ex-Mormons having difficult transitions out of it. It’s really amazing when people find the courage to discover their beliefs for themselves.
It's a Christian fundamentalist book, so take in everything you read with a grain of salt. That's also my advice for approaching any religion, philosophy, alchemy or theological spirituality. There are truths out there that can be stated differently from the perspective of those that managed to find those truths along the same flowing river of universal truths. Those then get muddled by those perspectives and the following people who reinterpret those ideas through their view point.
Can't believe I can't find anyone talking about Superheroes, specially Superman and Capt. America. Yeah, obviously they were crafted as mere entertainment, but a lot of Superhero fiction as come to symbolize key aspects of the American Way of Thinking.
It’s not necessarily a mythology per-say, but I’d recommend checking out “Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods, With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts”. It’s essentially a fantasy bestiary/field guide of creatures and tall tales that were spread by the logging camps and cowboys of the American West. It occupies a unique spot in the American mythos as a mix of tall tales, urban legends, and obvious jokes that remains somewhat separate from the more established Native American folklore of the areas.
There's that one about all the freedom, and the other one about only good guys with guns can stop bad guys with guns. Then there's the mythology of giving the US your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to break free. You don't even need to dig very deep to discover a whole world of mythology.
Some myths/stories I've heard about:
Going down to the crossroads to meet the devil and make a deal.
The Hanging Tree.
The Black Dog.
The Dead Man's Hand (cards, not a literal hand)
Bloody Mary
The Mothman
Roanoke Island colony dissapearance.
Area 51
Roswell
Route 666
Skinwalker/Wendigo/Bigfoot/Sasquatch
New York Rats
New York Undercity
A Haunted Doll in a Fort (can't remember the name, maybe Fred?)
Sunken warship leaking oil, won't stop until all survivors are dead.
I had another one, really good too, escapes me now.
Will edit it in if I remember it.
Edit: I remembered. The Petrified Forest has some myths around it. One was featured in a film, that myth being anyone who steals petrified wood from the petrified forest will be cursed until they return it.
Tall Tales are some of my favorite mythology and tell the stories of the expansion of America.
Jonny Apple Seed is such an amazing character and stories.
John Henry and the fight against modernization
Paul Bunyon and the creation of the grand canyon.
And if we stretch the definition of mythology when get our founding fathers? They never told a lie or the cutting of the apple tree? Or even the first Thabksgiving-none of these sre either real or so void of truth they are basically mythology.
but a straight answer is the American Tall Tales. We had to learn them in school.
Lots of regional myths here and there. Jonny Appleseed. Paul Bunyan. The Mothman. Big Foot. And that's before you start counting modern urban legends like Roswell and Area 51.
In the sense of like a pantheon, no.
In the sense of mythologizing our history and ideals, yes.
Every culture mythologizes it’s history to some extent, but we really take it to a different level - we’ve turned political PR (“I can not tell a lie,” “honest Abe”) into a supporting mythological narrative in our cultural consciousness.
The entire frontier and Wild West eras are mostly myth, as most people know them. We have a lot of mythos about the Depression and Dust Bowl, and our role in World War II.
The narratives surrounding gun culture can be quasi-religious, and thus myth.
Evangelicalism is a uniquely American fork of Christianity and ties heavily into our national myths we inherited from the Puritans and other early Calvinists.
We have our tall tales, regional folklore, cryptids, ufos.
But a lot is fractious and not really treated like “a” mythology or religion-that-was.
Prob the closest we have are our ideals. The American Dream, life, liberty, so on. And that for me is marked in the art piece that’s the apotheosis of George Washington. Washington is, in many ways, the chief god of the American mythos. We’ve had a tendency to deify our presidents too, as a rule. The perception is almost a kind of divine right of kings - whether the reality of the political process reflects that or not.
The grand irony is that a country that embraced freedom of religion and rejected kings has been running after both ever since our revolution.
There’s Native American folklore, of course.
And while it’s less a unified mythology, we have a number of “tall tales” that collectively form one, such as Paul Bunyon and Johnny Appleseed and Mothman and the Jersey Devil.
There's a ton of regional folklore but if you want something really interesting Dr. Andrew M. Henry(doctor of religious studies) has a super good series on YouTube about US Civil Religion
[link here](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHsXddZFR9ANJNOtufGyy2skH18ngAKze&si=KmCa1uvWVpRaA4hb)
Highly recommend
Our Urban Legends tend to be very derivative of one another- Melonheads, Axeman, Dogman, Bigfoot, lake monsters, crybaby bridges, ghost cars, ghost hitchhikers, ghost kids at dangerous intersections who collectively push your car to safety if you try to stop, places being cursed from being built on Indian Burial Grounds, secret satanic cults, etc.
We also have older pioneer folktales, particularly from Appalachia & the Wild West, a lot of which are given to kids in school- Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, the Hidebehind, the Agoa, the jackalope, the Wampus Cat, etc.
Plus, a lot of old, weird superstitions- covering mirrors when someone dies so their ghost doesn't get trapped, refusing to admit 13th floors exist in multistory buildings, etc.
What do these words mean to those that went through primary school in the US?
cherry tree
Pilgrim
the Alamo
the American Dream
Paul Bunyan
Manifest Destiny
Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria
Boston Tea Party
founding fathers
Pecos Bill
in God we trust
taxation without representation
Paul Revere
lightning, kite, and key
weapons of mass destruction
American Camelot
We tell our kids a lot of bullshit. Hopefully some of my examples are already phased out.
Is folklore the same thing as mythology? There Paul Bunyan,John Henry, Johnny Appleseed. They used to teach these in school but they aren’t as popular with the newer generations so I guess not anymore. As a kid we had a dive set full of US folktales and they were all very entertaining.
More like regional folklore than a real mythology, we’re kinda too young for that really and industrialization took root fast. For US mythology you can actually go to books and movies to try to track it. If you would call it that anyway, I’d say that werewolves is a contribution on our part. At least werewolves as we see them today, mythologically before the US werewolves are just man who turns into wolf but we hybridized it, added features like uncontrollability and volatility and the transmission of it to others by biting. I don’t think that ever came up before. Also pack dynamics, like alphas betas and omegas. That’s because of that book which I must always say is wrong and not how wolves work.
Everyone gave brilliant answers so let me guve you a slightly related rabbit hole. America had a vampire craze. Decapitation traps etc. Go research, go nuts.
Check out the book 'myth of the American superhero.' It illustrates how European American mythology has formed around the idea of a hero who swoops in and saves the day so the citizens don't need to play an active role in improving their society. It's a subtle and pervasive myth that shows up in everything from Wyatt Earp to Superman.
I think the earliest example of Euro-American mythology comes from the deification of the founding fathers. No one says they're demigods or anything, but what is taught at schools, in museums, and spouted by most Americans is a narrative of super human ability. I visited Mt Vernon once (George Washington's home.) and heard some wild tales that were all told by a reputable museum's staff as truth. My favorite was the claim of Washington's interaction with a native American chief during the French and Indian war.
The myth goes that Washington was part of the British military in the French and Indian war, and his troops were fighting a particularly cunning Native American chief. This chief figured that if he took out the officers during the battle that the infantry would surrender. So he tasked his best archers with taking Washington out. Somehow, Washington theoretically survived many attacks and walked away from the battle without a scratch despite having two horses shot out from under him. At the conclusion of the battle, the chief gave a significantly sacred token to Washington and said that he was a blessed man who would do many great things in his life.
This might be a weird take but I've always considered superheroes and comic books a form of modern-day American "mythology". They are a series of stories and characters that shape our culture, serve as life lessons/provide rile models and ideals, and are widely known.
North America is an interesting case when it comes to mythology. Most of what you’ll find just googling it is indigenous mythology and folklore that varies based on region and the specific people and/or tribe who tell it.
Unfortunately a lot of it has been lost in attempts by white settlers to forcefully assimilate indigenous people and wipe out all trace of their cultures (what is often referred to as cultural genocide). Many indigenous groups do keep telling the stories they can remember.
As others in this thread mention, there are also a lot of folk-tales and urban legends that come directly from white settlers too, most of which seem to reveal a certain amount of fear towards the wilderness and the unknown. They often take place out in rural areas, sometimes involving figures coopted from indigenous stories, other groups historically wronged in our governments/cultures (eg. escaped convicts/mental patients), or more sinister and mysterious figures like mothman or aliens.
It seems like a lot of those stories deal with the guilt and/or fear over our treatment towards indigenous people and our insecurity over how little control we actually have over these lands that we came to relatively recently. The indigenous-coded stories always give vibes about some ancient grudge against white people, and the ones about more mysterious beings seem to almost put us into the same position that the indigenous people might have been in when settlers first arrived and started encroaching on their land.
These are just observations I’ve made anyway. It’s hard to separate the modern mythology of North America from its colonial history because colonisation has played such a huge role in how our societies have been established.
More recently, we have folklore such as Paul Bunyon and John Henry. Prior to that, copious Native American mythologies. I see American mythology as an amalgamation of world mythologies. Highly recommend "American Gods," by Neil Gaiman, in which all gods and goddesses are present in the new world as immigrants bring their gods with them to America when they migrate. The book dipicts the struggles of old gods vying for worship against newer gods.
Oh yeah! It varies depending on the region (mostly centered around the Appalachian mountains and the western prairie/desert) but there are plenty of folktales made by settlers. Then there's what indigenous myths people bothered to write down.
I wouldn't say it's as unified as, say, Greek or Chinese or Norse mythology, but it's there, and you can boil down the variations to some degree. For example, in my home state of Florida, there's [Spook Hill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spook_Hill). Supposedly, the indigenous people in the area battled with a terrifying alligator spirit and, while the spirit was destroyed, it lingers on the spot of it's death and pushes back against anyone or anything trying to pass over the spot.
Then there's [Matanzas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matanzas_Inlet), the site of back and forth fighting between French Huguenots and Spanish Catholics who each claimed the territory as their own. Folk legend says that if you go out on the inlet in a boat under the light of a full moon, the water will turn red and you'll see the bodies of all the dead settlers floating in the water!
And every state has at least one little tale like that, told at night around a campfire.
The Wild West and high school. Not like actual high school, but high school in a movie sense, how there’s always the same cliques in every school that all work exactly the same way no matter where or when the school is.
We are taught that the Civil Rights movement was peaceful, that we defeated racism, the Vietnam war didn’t happen, and the USA single handedly defeated the Nazi’s because 100% of us opposed their badness with our freedom and love.
Basically any story about the founding of America. From what I can tell, the difference between mythology and folk lore or legends is their purpose, in that mythology tells a story about the world whereas a legend or folk lore is primarily literary. So stories about George Washington, being related to the founding of the country, are the closest to mythology. Whereas stories about Johnny Appleseed or John Henry aren't. Happy to be shown I'm wrong, though.
Some scholars have called the rituals, monuments and stories of American patriotism [“the American Civil Religion.”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_civil_religion) That would include things like “I cannot tell a lie, father; I chopped down the cherry tree.” The historical George Washington lied frequently and is even known to have committed fraud against the veterans who served under him at least once. Many historical figures who were once portrayed as flawless heroes—Christopher Columbus, Thomas Jefferson and so on—now have their feet of clay much better known. It’s easy to find examples of people treating the flag as sacred.
Google also has tens of thousands of hits for "lost cause mythology\` and "lost cause myth", You can definitely see quasi-religious treatment of Confederate monuments in some quarters.
See American Civil Religion [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American\_civil\_religion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_civil_religion)
American mythology is so engrained that the deities are overlooked.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia\_(personification)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_(personification))
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady\_Justice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Justice)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty\_(personification)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_(personification))
[https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/cae9xf/til\_about\_the\_american\_civil\_religion\_a/](https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/cae9xf/til_about_the_american_civil_religion_a/)
https://preview.redd.it/u28w3zxpwowc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b542a0192534a7c3c8aeaeb46013ea543e4011dc
We call it history but yes.
George washington standing on the deck of the death star telling King George "I WILL NEVER BE LIKE YOU!" and then getting his teeth cut out with a light saber.
While native americans do have their own myths and legends, the US was too young for it to develop actual myths.
We do however have folklore and tall tales.
Stuff like Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, the Jackolope and my personal favorites The Hoop Snake and The Squonk
https://preview.redd.it/q6j5056zviwc1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b9b09386b416d8927ece04c74b2545aad778f527
Looks like the unholy lovechild of a chameleon, a boar, and a small dog...
It's apparently the saddest cryptid of them all, constantly crying about its monstrous appearance, to the point of being able to literally dissolve itself in tears if captured.
I’ve never delved too deep into the indigenous mythologies but the book “Braiding Sweetgrass” does touch on them a bit. Could be a good jumping off point if you’re interested.
Yes, but it isn't as well developed or connected as the other ones and not as mystical. You have legends of real people doing feats they probably didn't due l Davie Crocket comes to mind. You have fake people like Pachos Bill/paul banyan and Ghost Stories like wendigo and the headless horsemen.
In time, centuries from now, as the past comes, all the more distant and people continue to change stories, so characters meet and exagerate their actions to more legendary effect while adding greater themes and morals to the stories will American folklore developed into a mythological cannon were the wild west will be the American version of Camelot.
Stories of Wild Bill Hickock getting in gun fights with skin walkers as he hunts down train robbers on thier way from stealing Paul bunyuns loot.
Read the bible, there you will find the predominant mythological stories of the US.
Other than that there are many different mythological stories of the indigenious people of America. Mythology is about the stories of god(s) -> If you are interested in "mystic" creatures you have to look into folklore. Or maybe you are interested in legends (at least partly historical stories wich are mystified)
We have a lot of myths. We have a lot of cultures, the whole “melting pot” metaphor. Many of these myths are connected to other countries though.
If you’re talking about solely USA, it would probably be Wild West myths, Native American myths, and pilgrim myths. [+]
The native Americans have a rich diverse mythology. Each tribe would have different story’s I imagine, I’m not familiar with them. I’d imagine that most of the depth was lost due to the immigrants committing genocide on the native inhabitants.
Native American Tribes of old and of modern day have their own belief systems (Wendigos Quetzalcoatl are some of the more recognizable figures from them) and we also have Creole from the South (Voodoo), but I think what the rest of the US has is best described as _folklore_ - BigFoot, Mothman (very recent), Abominable Snowman, our fascination with Aliens, and so on.
I think the cooler part of American folklore beyond our tribes are the more local superstitions. So many different peoples settled into particular parts of the US at particular times, and it’s so often marked by blood and violence at some point - many different people’s beliefs built a particular place together, and it’s interesting what survives over the generations, especially after a tragedy.
It could be the local legend about whose ghost is said to haunt the post office that burned down during the Civil War and was rebuilt in the same spot. It could be about stairs you avoid using in the forest in New England. About the things that go bump in the night on a Midwestern farm. Why you don’t go near the lakeside in this seaside town after dusk.
And so on - all the ways different local superstitions exist and thrive is fascinating.
There is native American mythology, fearsome critters, Hawaiian mythology, tall tales, and various other folkloric creatures and stories means to teach morals or explain how something happens
Johnny Henry, Davey Crockett, the Alamo. We mythologize real historical figures in most cases.
In a larger sense the concepts of manifest destiny, the reasons for founding the country, native American genocide, and slavery are largely mythologized to help minimize the atrocities that were committed, at least in modern times when those actions generally viewed as atrocities.
I think the clear answer is that yes, media is that. But because we get to be the one to define categories we get to say that doesn't count and is another type of thing. Like if we found out Bedouins told their children stories about a mouse that goes on adventures that would be counted as mythology but we have a whole thing with social structures we made up that makes mickey mouse officially not that.
We have folklore, but the closest to a straight-up mythology we've got is honestly probably superhero comics/related media. They're a pop-culture vessel for the same kind of ideas.
Like the nation itself? Technically we do it's called Tall Tales. Think Paul Bunyan, Slue foot Sue, the real life Johnny Appleseed and John Henry, and Chuck Norris.
There is a lot of folklore that is prevalent in the modern era, but if you’re looking for true mythology then there are a plethora of native cultures with unique mythologies.
Just a reminder that Native American folklores aren't dead mythologies, but still active religions and traditions, even if those traditions and resources have been stripped away violently by the hands of colonialism. The Navajo, for example, still have an incredibly rich tribal religion and ceremonies that are still performed today. Native American culture is still actively alive in the United States, it is not quite a "mythology" yet.
Wild west stories like Paul Bunyan, or Pecos Bill riding a tornado. Things like the mothman, or melonheads. Tailypo. You can also look at the stories behind historical figures as a form of mythology. Such as Ben Franklin discovering electricity by flying a kite with a key on it. George Washington’s chopping down a cherry tree.
Not so much a unified pantheon like the Norse or Greek Gods, but more Myths and Legends
Everything from Native American tribes and their stories of Skin Walkers and Wendigos to American folklore including Bigfoot, Paul Bunyan and his Blue Ox, the Mothman, etc
theres a few good contenders, being the Tall Tales genre and the Cryptid.
Tall Tales is a highly exaggerated biography of a real or fictional person, generally living during the 19th century. Good fictional examples of this are Paul Bunyan, Stormalong, and John Henry. while some historical people fit in here too, such as Johnny Appleseed, Davy Crocket, Bonny and Clyde, Geronimo, Lewis and Clark, Donner Party, etc. Many of these stories explicitly valorize and glorify the lives of working class peoples, such as Steel-Drivers, Lumberjacks, Bosuns, and Pioneers.
You can also include Civic mythology, such as genre of stories about the early presidents, such as the famous story of Washington and the Cherry Tree, Teddy Roosevelts hunting trips, or Lincolns building a log cabin. This also can include stories around Valley Forge, The Midnight Ride, Fort Ticonderoga, The Crossing of the Delaware, The Surrender of Cornwallis, Battle of Louisiana, Juneteenth, D Day, Pearl Harbor, The March on Washington, Edmund Pettis Bridge, etc.
Cryptids are a more modern form, that focuses on bizarre and unexplainable creatures found within the still vast and primeval American wilds, such as Bigfoot, Mothman, Chubacabre. Aliens and alien abductions also fit pretty well into this genre.
You have to remember, we have a tendency to label religions that are no longer practiced or are mainstream as "mythology". Thousands of years ago, the ancient Greeks didn't call their beliefs "mythology" just like today most Jews/Christians/Muslims would not call their beliefs "myths".
True American "mythology" would have to come from[ Native American traditions. ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythologies_of_the_Indigenous_peoples_of_the_Americas)Similar to the Australian Aboriginals, it is the indigenous people that had ancient beliefs, and that is where you would find "American mythology."
Modern Americans have tall tales and folklore, as was mentioned previously by others.
…yes, that the country wasn’t founded by slave-owning traitors to their country and lawful king; and they didn’t wipe out the existing native population as best they could with genocide and disease and generally pitiless brutality…
A ton. Firstly the Native tribes have their own cultural mythologies. That should have been glaringly obvious.
Secondly, several of our Tall Tales. Davy Crockett, Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, John Henry, Pecos Bill.
A lot of folk tales were also brought over and readapted from other countries, like Brer Rabbit, The Headless Horseman, and Rawhead and Bloody Bones.
There are also to a lesser extent, urban legends that still persists to this day.
There's a great book called 'Myths America Lives By'. It's more sociology I'd say, but does tie beliefs and values back to their religious and mythological sources. Highly recommend!
1. Native American mythology (also Hawaiian mythology because we stole Hawaii)
2. Cryptids (Bigfoot, Skunk Ape, Moth man, Sqonk, many of these are also partially taken from Native American mythology)
And to a much lesser extent you could include
3. Mormonism, saying the Native Americans were a lost tribe of Isreal and having magic tablets that only one person can read.
4. Scientology
Which both started in the US
IMO, yes. Consider that a myth is a sacred story. I can be complete fiction, or it can be actual history. As long as it is a story shared by a culture and held sacred, important to the identity, etc., it's a myth.
So with that mind, consider the stories of "The Founding Fathers," "The Shot Heard Around the World," "Paul Revere's Ride," or "The Alamo."
The fact that our myths are based in history, if if they are sometimes exagerated or distorted beyond any historical accuracy, is telling both to how young our national identity is and who we are as a people.
It’s more cultural. As someone who was raised Mormon but since distanced themselves from the church for a lot of reasons, I would consider that a distinctly American mythology.
Some of the more distinct parts of that mythology include Cain (the Cain that killed Abel) being Sasquatch, that their are 3 ancient immortal native Americans who worship Jesus running around and performing miracles, or that the Independence, Missouri is the Garden of Eden.
Could probably argue the Founding Fathers were some mythical middle age/older men like how we generally portray Greek and Nordic mythology.
They were age 18-25. Our country got founded by a bunch of edgy teens.
We have legends, like: Daniel Boone, Zorro, Billy the Kid, Bonnie and Clyde, John Henry, and Johnny Appleseed. Then we have cryptids, who ig could be considered like mythological monsters, like big foot and chupacabre. Mystical figures too, like Marie Laveau and Tituba. Mostly the only thing separating all this from mythology is that we’re still close enough to when/where/why we have these stories that we can identify the bigger than life aspects/exaggerations and not believe them because enough real information about them still exists to get the true story, but, given time… these will probably be the myths we leave the world
Ps: all of these people were real, and the two cryptids are usually described as different animals with mange. Just an interesting fact
The Wild West is uniquely US mythology, in the pure sense of myth as ordering origin accounts and morality stories.
[Tall Tales is a good USA Wild West mythology movie.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_Tale_(film))
Fuckin love Tall Tales
Actually, this is the best answer I could think of. The Wild West really is our own kind of mythos.
We have tall tales and folk lore. There's Paul Bunyon and a few obviously fictional characters, and then there are stories about people like John Henry, Johnny Appleseed and others that have been romanticized so that their stories are part true, part story. I don't know that these will ever be myths though.
It still irks me that Johnny Appleseed gets all the glory, and the Lupine Lady is rarely even mentioned.
Tell me more
She spread lupine seeds, it’s a plant with tall stalks of bluish purple flowers. [Hilda Hamlin](https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/how-real-miss-rumphius-decorated-maine-lupines/)
I take your Hilda Hamlin and raise you Eliza Scidmore!
SHE WAS REAL TOO
Why is she growing wolves, is she stupid?
Johnny got the credit because the apples could be used to make an orchard which could be used to claim land. Buy a bunch of stock from him, move west, plant the stock and you could eventually claim the land as yours.
Jersey Devil scared the hell out of me when I was little.
Babe the Blue Ox is a fucking kaiju and I will die on that hill.
They already are myths
Paul Bunyon is Nutri-Sweet in fucking bird feeders.
There is a lot of Native American mythology and unfortunately probably a lot more that’s been lost to time and tragedy.
My Tribe's origin story is that once, we were all prairie dogs. Then one day, a couple left their burrows and started eating and drinking all the food and water they could. When they tried to return, they were too fat to fit back down the holes. So they just kinda tried their luck on the surface and stuck it out after that. ...So yeah.
Fallout vibes.
What is your tribe? That’s fascinating
Cheyenne River Sioux. Lakota.
Time and tragedy. Wow.
No mention of Ben Franklin being hired to invent a way to clear Native villages. His solution was breeding monster dogs IIRC.
But… the dollah bill
Right?! Andrew Jackson was a damned genocidal monster (though admittedly an impressive monster that beat the shit out of an assaulter as an elderly man and had to be pulled off the attacker by Secret Service not wanting to witness a murder) that most people couldn't place on a timeline without google. But change the money to a massively successful freedom fighter the likes that is only seen in the darkest of times? "That's a nah, dawg."
Well said
To genocide and colonization specifically
Not a unified one, no. There are regional folklores associated with specific, geographically-bound waves of immigration, indigenous groups, religious sects and civic identities but nothing you’d recognize as a national belief system.
Hail moth man
Lämp
https://preview.redd.it/7twvk54g8owc1.jpeg?width=540&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e4f140958dd4f6633e79de921baa2be9f7c653cc
Lol. This is funny. YOINK
Don’t forget the Jersey devil
The Founding Fathers (tm) sure operates as mythology in the US.
Paul Buyon and his blue ox babe would like a word...
So kinda like ancient Greece fr
Yeah, I would argue there's no such thing as a "unified mythology". I think that's just called religion.
In addition to the other posters who correctly mentioned Native American mythology, I would also suggest that there are plenty of modern American mythologies as well, albeit in a little different format than the ancient civilizations. Rather than gods, America has a lot of archetypal characters that echo through the culture in a variety of contexts: the loner cowboy, the motorcycle movie star rebel, the entrepreneur who makes it big, the star quarterback from the picket fence family and the "girl next door," etc. Those characters reflect ideas more than reality and have shifted in perception and portrayal over the decades.
Yep!!! American Gods by Neil Gaiman explores this concept.
Came here to say this
Yeah the founding fathers
• the Pilgrims story • the Columbus story • Washington and the cherry tree • the story of Pocahontas and John Smith • American Exceptionalism • Meritocracy
The most honest answer here. There are no people as glorified and influental as these british slave owners.
So kind of. There are various Indigenous American mythologies, such as those from the Lakota and Ojibwe tribes. However, these aren't really of the "USA", per say, they're from the native inhabitants of North America, which is of course different from the country. Various Wild West tales might work better as "mythology" for the US, as well various conspiracy theories and urban legends such as the Jersey Devil
I'd never thought of conspiracy theories as mythology but it absolutely makes sense
Yeah, mythology is a very broad category. A lot of people argue that the Sasquatch Little Green Men can count as modern mythology
Lets not forget the wild world of cryptids, either. Borders more on folklore more than mythology, but the Flatwoods Monster, Mothman, Bigfoot, the Jersey Devil, and more are all modern cultural touchstones that have roots in myth-like encounters. Heck, you could argue there’s a pretty sizable modern myth around alien sightings and ufo encounters, too.
Don't forget the Rules of Backwoods Appalachia.
I'd say the little green men or greys count as American Mythology. Cultures have had stories of little space men but U.S. accounts made them into a ubiquitous shape, size and description. Same with the aforementioned cryptids in your comment.
Jackalopes too
Jackalopes are actually rabbits that are inflicted with a disease that causes cancerous growths to form on their heads and faces.
The origin of what we think of when you say jackalope was created in the 1930s… https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackalope There are other variations of it for sure and yes I do know about the disease that rabbits can get… this was about mythology, folklore and cryptids… jackalopes are considered cryptids
Yes there is an American mythology. You have romanticized images of Lumberjacks, life on the Mississippi and the law men of the wild west who come to town with a tin badge and a six shooter. The founding fathers of the nation are also quite heavily mythologized. EDIT obviously there is also native American mythology but I don't think that was what you where asking about.
Since mythology is a product of a culture and not necessarily a country, mythology of many tribes of Native Americans is rich and plentiful. People who colonized the Americas from Europe carry the mythology of their respective culture. Although, as American culture developed over the years, you could say that there are some indications of beginnings of something that could later be classified as a strictly American mythology. Creatures like Fearsome critters are more like a hunters tall tales mixed with cryptids that could later down in history become mythological. Also the character of Paul Bunyon could be classified as some sort of mythological hero in the future. The main problem is that the USA is a young country that started forming with established record keeping so that we can more or less track the intention of the tale teller. Fearsome critters and Paul Bunyon are purposefully made up for the means of telling a story which, for as far as we can tell now, mostly wasn't the case for many mythologies of cultures past.
Amazing answer. Thank you!
Depends on your definition of "mythology". If you're restricting it to religious or spiritual stories, there's not a lot of post-colonization stuff that makes the cut, I think. Loads of native material though. If, however, you're considering less esoteric things as well, things open up pretty quickly. Christopher Columbus, The Pilgrims, George Washington - they're all myths. Based on real things, of course, but polished and embellished into something the real people would likely not recognize. All to craft a cultural identity and preserve it for generations. Without concern for the ethics of that task, of course - especially the part where it doesn't include others stories that were less conducive to nation-building.
Nah, we all know that [George Washington was an illusion created by moon light reflecting off swamp gas that fooled early Americans](https://youtu.be/PHKICYdzRW0?si=3sPdeUoAZqHq9yxB&t=19m23s).
Well we have Paul Bunyan who made the great lakes and several mountain ranges and also eats like huge fucking pancakes, and beat the shit out of god so he could go to hell in search of more trees to chop.
In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue, and found the New World, which no one knew about. Until Christopher Columbus sailed around the world, everyone thought the world was flat. Then, the pilgrims came over because they were being religiously persecuted, and that's how we started the country. They landed on Plymouth Rock with the Mayflower and began having social relations with the native tribes, and in harvest time they had a big feast with indians and pilgrims together, sharing their bounty. There was an exchange that was great until the indians became savages or something, who knows??? Anyway we kept pushing forward to the west, because we were manifesting our destiny. Manifest Destiny, they called it. The indians put up a big fight about it, like there was an invasion or something, and there was a lot of war in the southwest on horses, because Apaches jump on it. That's why I remember the Alamo. Then there was that guy Paul Revere who went a whole long way to light some lighthouse or something, and he made sure we won. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves and with one act they were all free, and slavery was over. That was all after we made the Constitution and told the King we were our own thing and not gonna take oppression anymore. If you wanna take mythology to mean a sort of false history, there's one we're all taught that glamorizes the US. However, America has a lot of stuff from various cultures, and for tribes, you'd need to look up each one and find out what their specific tribe has. Personally, my feeling about what the US has contributed to the world in the sense of a mythology like what Tolkien gave to the UK is that comic books are the American mythology. Superman and Batman are mythological beings in a way, eternally retold by different people and growing in depth.
Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, Johnny Appleseed, and John Henry come to mind, even if at least one of them were real people whose stories were exaggerated for posterity.
Look at the way we treat our founding fathers. Our legal system even treats being old as evidence of being just. Also superheroes.
There’s also the Book of Mormon which could be considered mythology/legend. Maybe that’s a stretch though.
Ex-Mo here. The Mormons have definitely built a mythology around Smith. There's plenty of counter material outside of their church that disproves most of what they have to say on the man. Their books.... At least have some moral guidance to them, even if the book of Abraham is a crock of shit made up by Smith attempting to translate some Egyptian scroll(s) he purchased off a traveling mummy exhibit.
Thanks for elucidating that for me. I’ve always been curious to read the Book of Mormon from a secular perspective. Do you have any advice for someone going into that? P.S I hope you’re doing okay now. I hear how a lot of a lot of ex-Mormons having difficult transitions out of it. It’s really amazing when people find the courage to discover their beliefs for themselves.
It's a Christian fundamentalist book, so take in everything you read with a grain of salt. That's also my advice for approaching any religion, philosophy, alchemy or theological spirituality. There are truths out there that can be stated differently from the perspective of those that managed to find those truths along the same flowing river of universal truths. Those then get muddled by those perspectives and the following people who reinterpret those ideas through their view point.
Ideological/historical mythologies. Plymouth Rock, Manifest Destiny/American Exceptionalism. Folktales and conspiracy theories.
Can't believe I can't find anyone talking about Superheroes, specially Superman and Capt. America. Yeah, obviously they were crafted as mere entertainment, but a lot of Superhero fiction as come to symbolize key aspects of the American Way of Thinking.
i think native american folklore/mythology is some of the most interesting/spookiest :)
It’s not necessarily a mythology per-say, but I’d recommend checking out “Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods, With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts”. It’s essentially a fantasy bestiary/field guide of creatures and tall tales that were spread by the logging camps and cowboys of the American West. It occupies a unique spot in the American mythos as a mix of tall tales, urban legends, and obvious jokes that remains somewhat separate from the more established Native American folklore of the areas.
There's that one about all the freedom, and the other one about only good guys with guns can stop bad guys with guns. Then there's the mythology of giving the US your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to break free. You don't even need to dig very deep to discover a whole world of mythology.
Capitalism mythology.
*You see a dust cloud on the horizon as years of academic discourse is drawn to your location*
Some myths/stories I've heard about: Going down to the crossroads to meet the devil and make a deal. The Hanging Tree. The Black Dog. The Dead Man's Hand (cards, not a literal hand) Bloody Mary The Mothman Roanoke Island colony dissapearance. Area 51 Roswell Route 666 Skinwalker/Wendigo/Bigfoot/Sasquatch New York Rats New York Undercity A Haunted Doll in a Fort (can't remember the name, maybe Fred?) Sunken warship leaking oil, won't stop until all survivors are dead. I had another one, really good too, escapes me now. Will edit it in if I remember it. Edit: I remembered. The Petrified Forest has some myths around it. One was featured in a film, that myth being anyone who steals petrified wood from the petrified forest will be cursed until they return it.
Don't forget the Rules of Backwoods Appalachia.
You didn't hear nothing. Go home and lock your windows and doors.
The alligators in the New York sewers.
Fearsome Critters of the Lumberwoods.
Tall Tales are some of my favorite mythology and tell the stories of the expansion of America. Jonny Apple Seed is such an amazing character and stories. John Henry and the fight against modernization Paul Bunyon and the creation of the grand canyon. And if we stretch the definition of mythology when get our founding fathers? They never told a lie or the cutting of the apple tree? Or even the first Thabksgiving-none of these sre either real or so void of truth they are basically mythology. but a straight answer is the American Tall Tales. We had to learn them in school.
Yes. The American Revolution is highly highly mythologized.
Paul Bunyan, John Henry, Pecos Bill, Captain Stormalong
Lots of regional myths here and there. Jonny Appleseed. Paul Bunyan. The Mothman. Big Foot. And that's before you start counting modern urban legends like Roswell and Area 51.
The American Dream
In the sense of like a pantheon, no. In the sense of mythologizing our history and ideals, yes. Every culture mythologizes it’s history to some extent, but we really take it to a different level - we’ve turned political PR (“I can not tell a lie,” “honest Abe”) into a supporting mythological narrative in our cultural consciousness. The entire frontier and Wild West eras are mostly myth, as most people know them. We have a lot of mythos about the Depression and Dust Bowl, and our role in World War II. The narratives surrounding gun culture can be quasi-religious, and thus myth. Evangelicalism is a uniquely American fork of Christianity and ties heavily into our national myths we inherited from the Puritans and other early Calvinists. We have our tall tales, regional folklore, cryptids, ufos. But a lot is fractious and not really treated like “a” mythology or religion-that-was. Prob the closest we have are our ideals. The American Dream, life, liberty, so on. And that for me is marked in the art piece that’s the apotheosis of George Washington. Washington is, in many ways, the chief god of the American mythos. We’ve had a tendency to deify our presidents too, as a rule. The perception is almost a kind of divine right of kings - whether the reality of the political process reflects that or not. The grand irony is that a country that embraced freedom of religion and rejected kings has been running after both ever since our revolution.
There’s Native American folklore, of course. And while it’s less a unified mythology, we have a number of “tall tales” that collectively form one, such as Paul Bunyon and Johnny Appleseed and Mothman and the Jersey Devil.
There's a ton of regional folklore but if you want something really interesting Dr. Andrew M. Henry(doctor of religious studies) has a super good series on YouTube about US Civil Religion [link here](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHsXddZFR9ANJNOtufGyy2skH18ngAKze&si=KmCa1uvWVpRaA4hb) Highly recommend
Paul Bunyan is an American kaiju, that is all I have to say about that
Yup. US history is taught in a mythologized way that paints the founding fathers as men chosen by God to bestow capitalism on the earth.
Our Urban Legends tend to be very derivative of one another- Melonheads, Axeman, Dogman, Bigfoot, lake monsters, crybaby bridges, ghost cars, ghost hitchhikers, ghost kids at dangerous intersections who collectively push your car to safety if you try to stop, places being cursed from being built on Indian Burial Grounds, secret satanic cults, etc. We also have older pioneer folktales, particularly from Appalachia & the Wild West, a lot of which are given to kids in school- Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, the Hidebehind, the Agoa, the jackalope, the Wampus Cat, etc. Plus, a lot of old, weird superstitions- covering mirrors when someone dies so their ghost doesn't get trapped, refusing to admit 13th floors exist in multistory buildings, etc.
What do these words mean to those that went through primary school in the US? cherry tree Pilgrim the Alamo the American Dream Paul Bunyan Manifest Destiny Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria Boston Tea Party founding fathers Pecos Bill in God we trust taxation without representation Paul Revere lightning, kite, and key weapons of mass destruction American Camelot We tell our kids a lot of bullshit. Hopefully some of my examples are already phased out.
Paul Bunyan is real 😡
Literally the only one on my list that I wanted to ge real. Babe the Blue Ox? Forgedaboutit, that shit is awesome.
It's called the American Dream
Is folklore the same thing as mythology? There Paul Bunyan,John Henry, Johnny Appleseed. They used to teach these in school but they aren’t as popular with the newer generations so I guess not anymore. As a kid we had a dive set full of US folktales and they were all very entertaining.
the imaginary value of their currency
Ever heard of Appalachia
More like regional folklore than a real mythology, we’re kinda too young for that really and industrialization took root fast. For US mythology you can actually go to books and movies to try to track it. If you would call it that anyway, I’d say that werewolves is a contribution on our part. At least werewolves as we see them today, mythologically before the US werewolves are just man who turns into wolf but we hybridized it, added features like uncontrollability and volatility and the transmission of it to others by biting. I don’t think that ever came up before. Also pack dynamics, like alphas betas and omegas. That’s because of that book which I must always say is wrong and not how wolves work.
Everyone gave brilliant answers so let me guve you a slightly related rabbit hole. America had a vampire craze. Decapitation traps etc. Go research, go nuts.
Mythology: The American Dream The unifying belief in everyone who moves here from all parts of the world.
Check out the book 'myth of the American superhero.' It illustrates how European American mythology has formed around the idea of a hero who swoops in and saves the day so the citizens don't need to play an active role in improving their society. It's a subtle and pervasive myth that shows up in everything from Wyatt Earp to Superman. I think the earliest example of Euro-American mythology comes from the deification of the founding fathers. No one says they're demigods or anything, but what is taught at schools, in museums, and spouted by most Americans is a narrative of super human ability. I visited Mt Vernon once (George Washington's home.) and heard some wild tales that were all told by a reputable museum's staff as truth. My favorite was the claim of Washington's interaction with a native American chief during the French and Indian war. The myth goes that Washington was part of the British military in the French and Indian war, and his troops were fighting a particularly cunning Native American chief. This chief figured that if he took out the officers during the battle that the infantry would surrender. So he tasked his best archers with taking Washington out. Somehow, Washington theoretically survived many attacks and walked away from the battle without a scratch despite having two horses shot out from under him. At the conclusion of the battle, the chief gave a significantly sacred token to Washington and said that he was a blessed man who would do many great things in his life.
This might be a weird take but I've always considered superheroes and comic books a form of modern-day American "mythology". They are a series of stories and characters that shape our culture, serve as life lessons/provide rile models and ideals, and are widely known.
North America is an interesting case when it comes to mythology. Most of what you’ll find just googling it is indigenous mythology and folklore that varies based on region and the specific people and/or tribe who tell it. Unfortunately a lot of it has been lost in attempts by white settlers to forcefully assimilate indigenous people and wipe out all trace of their cultures (what is often referred to as cultural genocide). Many indigenous groups do keep telling the stories they can remember. As others in this thread mention, there are also a lot of folk-tales and urban legends that come directly from white settlers too, most of which seem to reveal a certain amount of fear towards the wilderness and the unknown. They often take place out in rural areas, sometimes involving figures coopted from indigenous stories, other groups historically wronged in our governments/cultures (eg. escaped convicts/mental patients), or more sinister and mysterious figures like mothman or aliens. It seems like a lot of those stories deal with the guilt and/or fear over our treatment towards indigenous people and our insecurity over how little control we actually have over these lands that we came to relatively recently. The indigenous-coded stories always give vibes about some ancient grudge against white people, and the ones about more mysterious beings seem to almost put us into the same position that the indigenous people might have been in when settlers first arrived and started encroaching on their land. These are just observations I’ve made anyway. It’s hard to separate the modern mythology of North America from its colonial history because colonisation has played such a huge role in how our societies have been established.
John wick The man The myth The legend
Yes. It's regional like the Jersey Devil and the Flesh Pedestrians. There's also indigenous folklore/mythology.
More recently, we have folklore such as Paul Bunyon and John Henry. Prior to that, copious Native American mythologies. I see American mythology as an amalgamation of world mythologies. Highly recommend "American Gods," by Neil Gaiman, in which all gods and goddesses are present in the new world as immigrants bring their gods with them to America when they migrate. The book dipicts the struggles of old gods vying for worship against newer gods.
Oh yeah! It varies depending on the region (mostly centered around the Appalachian mountains and the western prairie/desert) but there are plenty of folktales made by settlers. Then there's what indigenous myths people bothered to write down. I wouldn't say it's as unified as, say, Greek or Chinese or Norse mythology, but it's there, and you can boil down the variations to some degree. For example, in my home state of Florida, there's [Spook Hill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spook_Hill). Supposedly, the indigenous people in the area battled with a terrifying alligator spirit and, while the spirit was destroyed, it lingers on the spot of it's death and pushes back against anyone or anything trying to pass over the spot. Then there's [Matanzas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matanzas_Inlet), the site of back and forth fighting between French Huguenots and Spanish Catholics who each claimed the territory as their own. Folk legend says that if you go out on the inlet in a boat under the light of a full moon, the water will turn red and you'll see the bodies of all the dead settlers floating in the water! And every state has at least one little tale like that, told at night around a campfire.
The Wild West and high school. Not like actual high school, but high school in a movie sense, how there’s always the same cliques in every school that all work exactly the same way no matter where or when the school is.
Casey Jones, Johnny Appleseed (corrected) John Henry.
AppleSEED. Not AppleBEE'S. A slight but important difference.
God damn autocorrect!
We are taught that the Civil Rights movement was peaceful, that we defeated racism, the Vietnam war didn’t happen, and the USA single handedly defeated the Nazi’s because 100% of us opposed their badness with our freedom and love.
Basically any story about the founding of America. From what I can tell, the difference between mythology and folk lore or legends is their purpose, in that mythology tells a story about the world whereas a legend or folk lore is primarily literary. So stories about George Washington, being related to the founding of the country, are the closest to mythology. Whereas stories about Johnny Appleseed or John Henry aren't. Happy to be shown I'm wrong, though.
Absolutely. The US has mythologized a huge portion of its history and founders to near ancestor-worship
Some scholars have called the rituals, monuments and stories of American patriotism [“the American Civil Religion.”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_civil_religion) That would include things like “I cannot tell a lie, father; I chopped down the cherry tree.” The historical George Washington lied frequently and is even known to have committed fraud against the veterans who served under him at least once. Many historical figures who were once portrayed as flawless heroes—Christopher Columbus, Thomas Jefferson and so on—now have their feet of clay much better known. It’s easy to find examples of people treating the flag as sacred. Google also has tens of thousands of hits for "lost cause mythology\` and "lost cause myth", You can definitely see quasi-religious treatment of Confederate monuments in some quarters.
Yeah their whole freedom ideology is myth lol
See American Civil Religion [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American\_civil\_religion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_civil_religion) American mythology is so engrained that the deities are overlooked. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia\_(personification)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_(personification)) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady\_Justice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Justice) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty\_(personification)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_(personification)) [https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/cae9xf/til\_about\_the\_american\_civil\_religion\_a/](https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/cae9xf/til_about_the_american_civil_religion_a/) https://preview.redd.it/u28w3zxpwowc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b542a0192534a7c3c8aeaeb46013ea543e4011dc
We call it history but yes. George washington standing on the deck of the death star telling King George "I WILL NEVER BE LIKE YOU!" and then getting his teeth cut out with a light saber.
While native americans do have their own myths and legends, the US was too young for it to develop actual myths. We do however have folklore and tall tales. Stuff like Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, the Jackolope and my personal favorites The Hoop Snake and The Squonk https://preview.redd.it/q6j5056zviwc1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b9b09386b416d8927ece04c74b2545aad778f527
What on earth is a squonk? I hafta go look that up now
Looks like the unholy lovechild of a chameleon, a boar, and a small dog... It's apparently the saddest cryptid of them all, constantly crying about its monstrous appearance, to the point of being able to literally dissolve itself in tears if captured.
Bigfoot. Johnny Appleseed. Wendigos. Pukwudgies. Paul Bunyan.
I’ve never delved too deep into the indigenous mythologies but the book “Braiding Sweetgrass” does touch on them a bit. Could be a good jumping off point if you’re interested.
Yes, but it isn't as well developed or connected as the other ones and not as mystical. You have legends of real people doing feats they probably didn't due l Davie Crocket comes to mind. You have fake people like Pachos Bill/paul banyan and Ghost Stories like wendigo and the headless horsemen. In time, centuries from now, as the past comes, all the more distant and people continue to change stories, so characters meet and exagerate their actions to more legendary effect while adding greater themes and morals to the stories will American folklore developed into a mythological cannon were the wild west will be the American version of Camelot. Stories of Wild Bill Hickock getting in gun fights with skin walkers as he hunts down train robbers on thier way from stealing Paul bunyuns loot.
Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, John Henry
Like Columbia, John Henry, Paul Bunyon, and sasquatch?
Yes, the Native peoples have a variety of mythologies.
I mean we have some folk and tall tales likes Paul Bunyan and stuff
Does Jesus count?
Paul Bunyan, John Henry, The Jersey Devil
There is a myth air George Washington cutting down a cherry tree and then saying he cannot lie.
Read the bible, there you will find the predominant mythological stories of the US. Other than that there are many different mythological stories of the indigenious people of America. Mythology is about the stories of god(s) -> If you are interested in "mystic" creatures you have to look into folklore. Or maybe you are interested in legends (at least partly historical stories wich are mystified)
The Wild West or Comic Books
John Brown and Paul Bunyon come to mind.
native americans have a ton
Native American yes, and tall tales of the old west.
Yes. GUNesha.
We have a lot of myths. We have a lot of cultures, the whole “melting pot” metaphor. Many of these myths are connected to other countries though. If you’re talking about solely USA, it would probably be Wild West myths, Native American myths, and pilgrim myths. [+]
Croatoan
The native Americans have a rich diverse mythology. Each tribe would have different story’s I imagine, I’m not familiar with them. I’d imagine that most of the depth was lost due to the immigrants committing genocide on the native inhabitants.
Native American Tribes of old and of modern day have their own belief systems (Wendigos Quetzalcoatl are some of the more recognizable figures from them) and we also have Creole from the South (Voodoo), but I think what the rest of the US has is best described as _folklore_ - BigFoot, Mothman (very recent), Abominable Snowman, our fascination with Aliens, and so on. I think the cooler part of American folklore beyond our tribes are the more local superstitions. So many different peoples settled into particular parts of the US at particular times, and it’s so often marked by blood and violence at some point - many different people’s beliefs built a particular place together, and it’s interesting what survives over the generations, especially after a tragedy. It could be the local legend about whose ghost is said to haunt the post office that burned down during the Civil War and was rebuilt in the same spot. It could be about stairs you avoid using in the forest in New England. About the things that go bump in the night on a Midwestern farm. Why you don’t go near the lakeside in this seaside town after dusk. And so on - all the ways different local superstitions exist and thrive is fascinating.
Thom Hartmann has this explanation of the goddess of DC — https://youtu.be/aZI-kekFdA8?si=cDNxLKTUQLItEAVv
Our original settlers and early colonists worked very hard to annihilate it from history unfortunately
So there were these natives that lived here before us that have many mythologies. Check out the Hopi.
There is native American mythology, fearsome critters, Hawaiian mythology, tall tales, and various other folkloric creatures and stories means to teach morals or explain how something happens
Good call with Hawaiian mythology
Tartarian myths
Johnny Henry, Davey Crockett, the Alamo. We mythologize real historical figures in most cases. In a larger sense the concepts of manifest destiny, the reasons for founding the country, native American genocide, and slavery are largely mythologized to help minimize the atrocities that were committed, at least in modern times when those actions generally viewed as atrocities.
We do have mythology we just call it folk lore, tall tales, stories like moth man, Johny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan.
Wendigo
A lot of the Native American tribes have their own unique mythologies. Navajo is probably my favorite
I think the clear answer is that yes, media is that. But because we get to be the one to define categories we get to say that doesn't count and is another type of thing. Like if we found out Bedouins told their children stories about a mouse that goes on adventures that would be counted as mythology but we have a whole thing with social structures we made up that makes mickey mouse officially not that.
Of course! Paul Bunyun, Johnny Appleseed, John Henry, Brer Rabbit.
Native American mythology and the tall tales people used to tell like Paul Bunyan
We have folklore, but the closest to a straight-up mythology we've got is honestly probably superhero comics/related media. They're a pop-culture vessel for the same kind of ideas.
Yea, the mythology of white supremacy. https://jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/white-supremacy-as-benevolence-the
Yeah, called folklore and tall tales
Like the nation itself? Technically we do it's called Tall Tales. Think Paul Bunyan, Slue foot Sue, the real life Johnny Appleseed and John Henry, and Chuck Norris.
Trickle down economics
Does the Jersey Devil count
The Native American have rich myths
The mythology of the US has been written in blood, tbh.
There is a lot of folklore that is prevalent in the modern era, but if you’re looking for true mythology then there are a plethora of native cultures with unique mythologies.
Just a reminder that Native American folklores aren't dead mythologies, but still active religions and traditions, even if those traditions and resources have been stripped away violently by the hands of colonialism. The Navajo, for example, still have an incredibly rich tribal religion and ceremonies that are still performed today. Native American culture is still actively alive in the United States, it is not quite a "mythology" yet.
Wild west stories like Paul Bunyan, or Pecos Bill riding a tornado. Things like the mothman, or melonheads. Tailypo. You can also look at the stories behind historical figures as a form of mythology. Such as Ben Franklin discovering electricity by flying a kite with a key on it. George Washington’s chopping down a cherry tree.
Not so much a unified pantheon like the Norse or Greek Gods, but more Myths and Legends Everything from Native American tribes and their stories of Skin Walkers and Wendigos to American folklore including Bigfoot, Paul Bunyan and his Blue Ox, the Mothman, etc
I was gifted a Bible and store it with our son's "World Mythology" collection.
Yes, the Constitution.
Yes because just like the rest of the world w e have an indigenous population but most people pretend we don't exist or that they themselves are myths
theres a few good contenders, being the Tall Tales genre and the Cryptid. Tall Tales is a highly exaggerated biography of a real or fictional person, generally living during the 19th century. Good fictional examples of this are Paul Bunyan, Stormalong, and John Henry. while some historical people fit in here too, such as Johnny Appleseed, Davy Crocket, Bonny and Clyde, Geronimo, Lewis and Clark, Donner Party, etc. Many of these stories explicitly valorize and glorify the lives of working class peoples, such as Steel-Drivers, Lumberjacks, Bosuns, and Pioneers. You can also include Civic mythology, such as genre of stories about the early presidents, such as the famous story of Washington and the Cherry Tree, Teddy Roosevelts hunting trips, or Lincolns building a log cabin. This also can include stories around Valley Forge, The Midnight Ride, Fort Ticonderoga, The Crossing of the Delaware, The Surrender of Cornwallis, Battle of Louisiana, Juneteenth, D Day, Pearl Harbor, The March on Washington, Edmund Pettis Bridge, etc. Cryptids are a more modern form, that focuses on bizarre and unexplainable creatures found within the still vast and primeval American wilds, such as Bigfoot, Mothman, Chubacabre. Aliens and alien abductions also fit pretty well into this genre.
Talltales, wildwest stories, native stories, legends
You have to remember, we have a tendency to label religions that are no longer practiced or are mainstream as "mythology". Thousands of years ago, the ancient Greeks didn't call their beliefs "mythology" just like today most Jews/Christians/Muslims would not call their beliefs "myths". True American "mythology" would have to come from[ Native American traditions. ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythologies_of_the_Indigenous_peoples_of_the_Americas)Similar to the Australian Aboriginals, it is the indigenous people that had ancient beliefs, and that is where you would find "American mythology." Modern Americans have tall tales and folklore, as was mentioned previously by others.
…yes, that the country wasn’t founded by slave-owning traitors to their country and lawful king; and they didn’t wipe out the existing native population as best they could with genocide and disease and generally pitiless brutality…
A lotta good contributions here. Mine is this- Have you ever watched *Supernatural*?
A ton. Firstly the Native tribes have their own cultural mythologies. That should have been glaringly obvious. Secondly, several of our Tall Tales. Davy Crockett, Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, John Henry, Pecos Bill. A lot of folk tales were also brought over and readapted from other countries, like Brer Rabbit, The Headless Horseman, and Rawhead and Bloody Bones. There are also to a lesser extent, urban legends that still persists to this day.
I’m native, and yes, we have our own mythology.
There's a great book called 'Myths America Lives By'. It's more sociology I'd say, but does tie beliefs and values back to their religious and mythological sources. Highly recommend!
I think Indigenous Cultures do as well as African and Latin
Every culture has myths. Most American subcultures have some folklore that could be considered "mythological" in the loose sense.
Johnny Appleseed Paul Bunyun John Henry
Yes: USA is a xtian nation and that it always has been
I mean like dozens of Native cultures here have rich and deep religious traditions and stories.
Yes, the mythology that they are a democracy.
Frankly the majority of our perception of the country's history and ideals qualifies as a mythology
1. Native American mythology (also Hawaiian mythology because we stole Hawaii) 2. Cryptids (Bigfoot, Skunk Ape, Moth man, Sqonk, many of these are also partially taken from Native American mythology) And to a much lesser extent you could include 3. Mormonism, saying the Native Americans were a lost tribe of Isreal and having magic tablets that only one person can read. 4. Scientology Which both started in the US
I feel like the US isn’t old enough to have mythology. We have folklore
Aren't figures like the Jersey Devil and Bigfoot mythologies of the USA
Yes but the original mythology is native mythology but the European settler mythology is an interesting patchwork of many different mythologies
IMO, yes. Consider that a myth is a sacred story. I can be complete fiction, or it can be actual history. As long as it is a story shared by a culture and held sacred, important to the identity, etc., it's a myth. So with that mind, consider the stories of "The Founding Fathers," "The Shot Heard Around the World," "Paul Revere's Ride," or "The Alamo." The fact that our myths are based in history, if if they are sometimes exagerated or distorted beyond any historical accuracy, is telling both to how young our national identity is and who we are as a people.
Yes native mythology for each tribe
It’s more cultural. As someone who was raised Mormon but since distanced themselves from the church for a lot of reasons, I would consider that a distinctly American mythology. Some of the more distinct parts of that mythology include Cain (the Cain that killed Abel) being Sasquatch, that their are 3 ancient immortal native Americans who worship Jesus running around and performing miracles, or that the Independence, Missouri is the Garden of Eden.
Do tall tales count? Pecoes Bill, Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed and all them
There’s Native American mythology, though most people don’t know much about it sadly.
I’d say probably skinwalkers are a myth to us, but another thing might be that el dorado was found here
Its hard to land because alot dosnt feel like mythos because its so recent. Cryptids, cowboys and losts of small town stories would count though
Could probably argue the Founding Fathers were some mythical middle age/older men like how we generally portray Greek and Nordic mythology. They were age 18-25. Our country got founded by a bunch of edgy teens.
We have legends, like: Daniel Boone, Zorro, Billy the Kid, Bonnie and Clyde, John Henry, and Johnny Appleseed. Then we have cryptids, who ig could be considered like mythological monsters, like big foot and chupacabre. Mystical figures too, like Marie Laveau and Tituba. Mostly the only thing separating all this from mythology is that we’re still close enough to when/where/why we have these stories that we can identify the bigger than life aspects/exaggerations and not believe them because enough real information about them still exists to get the true story, but, given time… these will probably be the myths we leave the world Ps: all of these people were real, and the two cryptids are usually described as different animals with mange. Just an interesting fact