mythography

Etymology

From mytho- + -graphy.

mythography means A depiction of a myth in literature or the arts. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.

Why this word is great

MYTHOGRAPHY — [Noun] The systematic depiction or recording of myths in literature or the visual arts; the craft of inscribing the ineffable. From the combining form mytho- (from Greek mŷthos, meaning "myth, story") and -graphy (from Greek -graphia, meaning "writing, recording"). Unlike mythology (which interprets the corpus of tales) or historiography (which chronicles the documented past), mythography is the scribe’s quiet labor—the deliberate act of fixing the oral and luminous onto the static page or canvas. It is Ovid threading disparate tales into a gleaming Metamorphoses, a medieval illuminator painting a saint’s impossible deeds in lapis lazuli and gold, and the anthropologist’s notebook filling with a village elder’s last telling of the world’s beginning. Each testament is the great, melancholy work of imprisoning the ever-changing story in a single, mortal shape, acknowledging that a culture’s dreams require a scribe as surely as its wars do.

noun

A depiction of a myth in literature or the arts.