Myth vs. Archetype — What's the Difference?

Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. The main characters in myths are usually non-humans, such as gods, demigods, and other supernatural figures.

An original model on which something is patterned

A traditional, typically ancient story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that serves as a fundamental type in the worldview of a people, as by explaining aspects of the natural world or delineating the psychology, customs, or ideals of society

The concept of an archetype (; from Greek: ἄρχω, árkhō, 'to begin' + τῠ́πος, túpos, 'sort, type') appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis. An archetype can be: a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that other statements, patterns of behavior, and objects copy, emulate, or "merge" into.

Such stories considered as a group

A very typical example of a certain person or thing

A popular belief or story that has become associated with a person, institution, or occurrence, especially one considered to illustrate a cultural ideal

(in Jungian theory) a primitive mental image inherited from the earliest human ancestors, and supposed to be present in the collective unconscious.

A fiction or half-truth, especially one that forms part of an ideology.

A recurrent symbol or motif in literature, art, or mythology

A fictitious story, person, or thing

An original model or type after which other similar things are patterned; a prototype

A traditional story which embodies a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; a sacred narrative regarding a god, a hero, the origin of the world or of a people, etc.

An ideal example of a type; quintessence

(uncountable) Such stories as a genre.

In Jungian psychology, an inherited pattern of thought or symbolic imagery derived from past collective experience and present in the individual unconscious.

A commonly-held but false belief, a common misconception; a fictitious or imaginary person or thing; a popular conception about a real person or event which exaggerates or idealizes reality.

An original model of which all other similar concepts, objects, or persons are merely copied, derivative, emulated, or patterned; a prototype.

A person or thing held in excessive or quasi-religious awe or admiration based on popular legend

An ideal example of something; a quintessence.

A person or thing existing only in imagination, or whose actual existence is not verifiable.

(literature) A character, object, or story that is based on a known character, object, or story.

An invented story, theory, or concept.

(psychology) According to Swiss psychologist Carl Jung: a universal pattern of thought, present in an individual's unconscious, inherited from the past collective experience of humanity.

A story of great but unknown age which originally embodied a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; an ancient legend of a god, a hero, the origin of a race, etc.; a wonder story of prehistoric origin; a popular fable which is, or has been, received as historical.

(textual criticism) A original manuscript of a text from which all further copies derive.

A person or thing existing only in imagination, or whose actual existence is not verifiable.

To depict as, model using, or otherwise associate an object or subject with an archetype.

A traditional story accepted as history; serves to explain the world view of a people

The original pattern or model of a work; or the model from which a thing is made or formed.

The standard weight or coin by which others are adjusted.

The plan or fundamental structure on which a natural group of animals or plants or their systems of organs are assumed to have been constructed; as, the vertebrate archetype.