Supernatural vs. Mythological

[NightIntent]

I've been wondering about this for a few weeks now. What, exactly, is the difference between supernatural and mythological? There are the dictinary definitions, but they don't help too much.

Supernatural:
1. of, pertaining to, or being above or beyond what is natural; unexplainable by natural law or phenomena; abnormal.
2. of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or attributed to God or a deity.
3. of a superlative degree; preternatural: a missile of supernatural speed.
4. of, pertaining to, or attributed to ghosts, goblins, or other unearthly beings; eerie; occult.
–noun 5. a being, place, object, occurrence, etc., considered as supernatural or of supernatural origin; that which is supernatural, or outside the natural order.
6. behavior supposedly caused by the intervention of supernatural beings.
7. direct influence or action of a deity on earthly affairs.
8. the supernatural, a. supernatural beings, behavior, and occurrences collectively.
b. supernatural forces and the supernatural plane of existence: a deep fear of the supernatural.

Mythological:
1. of or pertaining to mythology.
2. imaginary; fictitious.

Both are fairly similar; after all, aren't mythological creatures unnatural, same as those considered supernatural creatures?

Anyway. Any thoughts?  

[LamingtonQueen]

Well, for me - I feel that Supernatural is that kind of magical stuff out of the originary, but mythological is more... story-based. Like you can describe a god from mythology as being 'supernatural' but you can't describe an alien from our type piece as being 'mythological' (unless, of course, you were saying he was not real). Does that make any sense?

It's one of those things that's really similar but different at the same time. Like how Sci-fi and Fantasy are by definition (at least in bookstores and libraries) the same thing, I would say Sci-Fi is futuristic whilst Fantasy is from the past.

It's kind of similar - when people refer to the supernatural, they usually mean the current state of affairs - futuristic or current things that are out of the ordinary, whilst when you say mythological, you mean a supernatural creature that's immersed deep in past cultures. Like, a gryphon is mythological, but an alien is supernatural...  

[NightIntent]

Well, sci-fi is classified by things that can, theoretically, happen. Space ships and space travel, time travel, all that, can happen. It's generally considered that things like dragons and unicorns never existed and never will exist, which is how fantasy is generally classified. I'm weird about the definition of them, and want to kill the Sci-Fi Channel for mixing it up, as well as bookstores and libraries. (There are now other reasons I'm mad at the Sci-Fi Channel, but I won't go into that.) But that's off-topic.

That does make sense, actually. I've never head of anyone describe aliens as mythological. n.n But, generally, you can still describe griffins and such things as supernatural. They're just generally called mythological.

I usually think of supernatural as things like, say werewolves or witches. (I blame Kelley Armstrong for this.) Because they're not exactly mythological, per se, but they're certainly not natural. Dragons are vastly unlike any other animal that I can think of (not including dinosaurs). But then unicorns are a lot like various different creatures (I can list a good number of them off the top of my head). But werewolves just seem more... un-myth-like. If that makes any sense. Which, at the moment, I'm not sure it does, at all.

But supernatural doesn't necessarily have to refer to something recent. Werewolves are refered to as supernatural quite a bit, and they're not new. Nor are witches.

As of now, my definition for supernatural is something human-seeming, but not quite human. Vampires, withces, werewolves, etc. I may change it eventually.  

[Pwale]

I don't know the real differences, but I see it something like this-

Supernatural-The Natural world with something increased. Like Super-strength, super-hearing, super-speed, etc. etc.

Mythological, or in this case Mythical-Something added to the natural world. Like invisibility, flight, the ability to shoot fire out of your hands or your eyes, the ability to shape shift, so forth and so on.

It's also the case that sci-fi uses mainly Supernatural while Fantasy uses mainly Mythical. At least, the way I see things.  

[Meithanos]

Hmm... good question...

I've never really thought about it until now.

As I see it Supernatural is something that has to do with natural occuring events happening outside what would be the norm for them to happen, such as a person having telepathy and such.

Mythical has roots in Mythology and Usually is seen as completely made up or unreal creature or being.

And perhaps "age" has something to do with it. Supernatural has a "modern" feel to it while "Mythical" has an ancient and almost forgotten feel to it.



Though linked they are completely different.

Xmen is supernatural while the stories of Ancient Greek heros is mythical.  

[NightIntent]

Those are both good points. But then, why do werewolves count as supernatural? They're shapeshifters, but I've still seen them classified as supernatural, in a couple different books. While they get the heightened senses and such, they also get to change. Would they count as both mythological and supernatural, then?

Beside that, there's a bit of a hole in the supernatural counting as more modern, if you're including prophets and telepaths and such. Maybe the word is more modern, but prophets and clairvoyants have been around as long much of the Greek legends (Cassandra, for example; she is a Greek legend). Although I think the word supernatural is more modern, the idea isn't, really.

...Where was I going with that again?  

[Meithanos]

NightIntent

Those are both good points. But then, why do werewolves count as supernatural? They're shapeshifters, but I've still seen them classified as supernatural, in a couple different books. While they get the heightened senses and such, they also get to change. Would they count as both mythological and supernatural, then?

Beside that, there's a bit of a hole in the supernatural counting as more modern, if you're including prophets and telepaths and such. Maybe the word is more modern, but prophets and clairvoyants have been around as long much of the Greek legends (Cassandra, for example; she is a Greek legend). Although I think the word supernatural is more modern, the idea isn't, really.

...Where was I going with that again?

The "classical" sense of a Werewolf is "mythical" but over time that myth has been changed and modified to extents that would also make them "Supernatural" its the evolution of Fantasy. Also its a HUMAN that has the werewolf abilities and its ability to change that makes it supernatural as well.

And your right... "Supernatural" could be seen as simply a modernization of what is also considered Mythical. Particular if the subject of said legend is human.

However there are "true" mythical stories and legends that haven't been modified at all, such as the Greek gods, gryphons, Dragons, Phoenixes.


Or maybe (and I only just realized this) the Supernatural has to do with abilities and circumstances dealing with and affecting a human where as Mythical does not.

Its very rare that we hear about a Supernatural Cat or Horse. But we do have Mythical horses and cats and such.  

[I Am THE Vampire Of All]

Mythological is more of a magical and imaginary thing.Mythological is magic and imaginary so it's different from Supernatural.Supernatural is more of believing that if you do something,something else will happen that's not good.Also Supernatural is like how before explained super hearing,super strength etc.  

[Shiama]

Personally I see Mythology as moreof something from the past that people actually used to believe and can considered part of our history, and is something i find particulary intresting.

Supernatural i dont really see much, and is something like witches and mages.  

[Harbone]

My answer is the first three paragraphs. The rest is speculation.



I think the folklorists have a pretty good guideline for supernatural versus mythological.

Mythological things are fantastically unrealistic explanations for why things happen in the real world. The Gods of Rivers, the Spirit of the Hunt, Giants throwing boulders, etc.

Supernatural things are merely fantastically unrealistic creatures, people, places or abilities which show up, here and there. They don't have to have a reason, but it can by a mythological one.



So, in that sense, all myths are supernatural, but not all supernatural phenomena are myths.

(Note that this defintion also explains why Urban Myths work - they're fantastically unrealistic explanations for why things happen in the modern world - as such, they often contain morals. Like, Don't Hire Someone On Drugs to Watch Your Baby/Drugs Kill in More Ways Than One or Don't Trust Strangers. The myth part says: "Here's why."

Yeah, that's a pretty good rule of thumb. Myths always say "Here's why" and the supernatural doesn't have to bother - only sometimes it does.

In this sense, also, Vampires are myths in some parts of the world, as are werewolves, but they're supernatural here in the US and in other places where they've sorta been transplanted or gotten an extreme makeover.)  

[Setsuna Rainrix]

Shiama

Personally I see Mythology as moreof something from the past that people actually used to believe and can considered part of our history, and is something i find particulary intresting.

Supernatural i dont really see much, and is something like witches and mages.

I prefer Supernatural to Mythological.  

[Harbone]

Just to make this thread more interesting, I'm voting for Mythological.  

[NightIntent]

I've always found things classified as mythological more interesting.

Anyway. In my folktales/mythology class (though it should, really, be mythology/folktales, since we focus on mythology first), we were discussing wat a myth was. I sorta disagreed with part of my teacher's definition, just because it didn't leave any room for monsters, really, and they're generally considered mythological.

But other parts I did agree with: Myths are usually secular, and have somethnig to do with a religion at the time they were first started; and they were usually passed down orally at first, so there are varying versions of each myth.

If none of this made sense, I blame... I don't know, something. n.n  

[Harbone]

Made perfect sense, NightIntent. I assume, by secular, you mean popular or not-entirely-religious, stories told by regular people to regular people.

So, your professor says that myths are stories told about religious subjects by not-particularly religious folks (or, at least, by folks not formally trained in religion)

That would still make monsters like the unicorn mythical, because it has a strong connection to Christ in some parts of the world. But it might put vampires solidly in the "just supernatural" camp.  

[NightIntent]

Tha's true. I remember reading about the parallels of the unicorn to both Christ and the Virgin Mary. I think Mary makes more sense than Christ. After all, unicorns supposedly have a predilection for virgins. I can't remember the reason for them being symbols of Christ, though. It's been about a year since I read whatever it was that had that in it.