Comparative mythology

Comparative mythology is the methodical comparison of myths from different cultures. It seeks to discover fundamental themes that are ordinary to the myths of multiple cultures. In some cases, comparative mythologists use the similarities between different mythologies to quarrel that those mythologies have a common source. This common source may be a common source of motivation (e.g. a certain natural occurrence that inspired similar myths in different cultures) or a common "protomythology" that diverged into a variety of mythologies we see today. Nineteenth-century interpretations of myth were often extremely comparative, looking for a common origin for all myths. However, modern-day scholars tend to be more suspicious of comparative approaches, avoiding overly universal or universal statements about mythology. One exception to this contemporary trend is Joseph Campbell's book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which claims that all hero myths follow the same fundamental pattern. This theory of a "monomyth" is out of favor with the normal study of mythology.