ABSTRACT
Mythology has existed in some form in every human society that has left records of any sort. Myths turn up in the writings of ancient Greece, on the wall reliefs of ancient Egypt, and on the clay tablets of Mesopotamian Sumer. The actual study of mythology and folklore can be traced, at least in some form, back as far as third-millennium-BCE. Egypt, where the multitalented vizier-architect-scholar-priest Imhotep is said to have collected folk proverbs, and to the first-millennium-BCE. Near East, where Babylonian royal scholars made collections of earlier tales. The argument over the roles of myth, reason, and history continued in Europe throughout the Middle Ages without any genuine study of mythology being added to the body of scholarship. In fact, myths themselves had come to be looked upon as antique, even ridiculous, reminders of a savage age that had little possible bearing on the modern world.
