Dictionary

mythopoetic en · ADJ

Pronunciation

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Etymology

From mytho- + poetic; since 1880.

Meanings

1. Giving rise to myths; pertaining to the creation of myth.
2. Being a creative interpretation.
3. Given the quality of a myth or a poem, used typically in opposition to a purely factual account.
   • Nor is it, as poetry, concerned with any ultimate explanation of the product of mythopoetic fancy. 1924, Herbert Weir Smyth, “II. The Suppliant Maidens”, in Aeschylean Tragedy, page 46:
4. Of or relating to the mythopoetic men's movement.
   • "To paraphrase Kelly (1994), we should not be surprised that Nature, having subjugated the bulk of inert matter on Earth, would go on to subjugate the mythopoetic narratives that are the basis of the moral codes that constitute this still culturally diverse world." 2000, C A Bowers, Let Them Eat Data:
   • Darren Staloff's lecture Search for a Meaningful Past: Philosophies, Theories and Interpretations of Human History, The Teaching Company "An example of the former, of the mythopoetic history, may be Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Nietzsche, or Ecce Homo his own mythopoetic autobiography."

Forms

Deriveds

mythopoetically · mythopoeticize

Synonyms

mythopoeic · mythopoetical