National myth
A national myth is an inspiring narrative or anecdote about a nation's past. Such myths often serve as important national symbols and affirm a set of national values. A myth is entirely fictitious but it is often mixed with aspects of historic reality to form a mythos, which itself has been described as "a pattern of beliefs expressing often symbolically the characteristic or prevalent attitudes in a group or culture". Myths, or mythoi, thereby operate in a specific social and historical setting that help structure national imagination and identity. A national myth may take the form of a national epic, or it may be incorporated into a civil religion. Mythos derives from μῦθος, Greek for "myth".
A national myth is a narrative which has been elevated to a serious symbolic and esteemed level so as to be true to the nation. The national folklore of many nations includes a founding myth, which may involve a struggle against colonialism or a war of independence or unification. In many cases, the meaning of the national myth is disputed among different parts of the population. In some places, the national myth may be spiritual and refer to stories of the nation's founding by a God, several gods, leaders favored by gods, or other supernatural beings.National myths often exist only for the purpose of state-sponsored propaganda. In totalitarian dictatorships, the leader might be given, for example, a mythical supernatural life history in order to make them seem god-like and supra-powerful. In liberal regimes they can inspire civic virtue and self-sacrifice or consolidate the power of dominant groups and legitimate their rule.
National identity
The concept of national identity is inescapably connected with myths. A complex of myths is at the core of nationalistic ethnic identity. Some scholars believe that national identities, supported by invented histories, were constructed only after national movements and national ideologies emerged.All modern national identities were preceded by nationalist movements. Although the term "nation" was used in the Middle Ages, it had usually an ethnic meaning and seldom referred to a state. In the age of nationalism, it was linked to efforts aimed at creating nation-states.
National myths foster national identities. They are important tools of nation-building, which can be done by emphasizing differences between people of different nations. They can cause conflict as they exaggerate threats posed by other nations and minimize the costs of war.
The nationalist myth of a stable homeland community is explained psychoanalytically as the result of the complexity of relations within the modern external world and the incoherence of one's inner psychological world. Nationalist identity facilitates imagined stability.
Dissemination
National myths are created and propagated by national intellectuals, and they can be used as instruments of political mobilization on demographic bases such as ethnicity.They might over-dramatize true incidents, omit important historical details, or add details for which there is no evidence; or a national myth might simply be a fictional story that no one takes to be true literally.
Mythopoeic methods
Traditional myth-making often depended on literary story-tellers — especially epic poets. Ancient Hellenic culture adopted Homer's Ionian Iliad as a justification of its theoretical unity, and Virgil composed the Aeneid in support of the political renewal and reunification of the Roman world after lengthy civil wars. Generations of medieval writers contributed to the Arthurian Matter of Britain, developing what became a focus for English nationalism by adopting British Celtic material. Camões composed in Macao the Lusiads as a national poetic epic for Portugal. Voltaire attempted a similar work for French mythologised history in the Henriade. Wagnerian opera came to foster German national enthusiasm.Other methods
Modern purveyors of national mythologies have tended to appeal to the people more directly through the media. French pamphleteers spread the ideas of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity in the 1790s, and American journalists, politicians, and scholars popularized mythic tropes like "Manifest Destiny", "the Frontier", or the "Arsenal of Democracy". Socialists advocating ideas like the dictatorship of the proletariat have promoted catchy nation-promoting slogans such as "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" and "Kim Il Sung thought".National myths
The ideology of nationalism is related to two myths: the myth of the eternal nation, referring to the permanence of a community, and the myth of common ancestry. These are represented in the particular national myths of various countries and groups.Armenia
Armenian national myth postulates the foundation of Armenia as a result of a battle between the Armenian founding father Hayk Nahapet and Belus, a wicked giant, which allegedly ruled over Babylon. According to the legend in the History of Armenia by Movses Khorenatsi, Belus tried to impose his tyrranical rule on Armenian people, but as soon as Hayk's son Armaniak was born, Hayk led his people to Ararat, built a village at its slope and named it "Haykashen". Bel led a massive force to submit Armenian nation, but lost a battle near lake Van, which resulted in an establishment of Armenian nation.Brazil
The national myth of Brazil as a racial democracy was first advanced by Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre in his 1933 work Casa-Grande & Senzala, which argues that Brazilians do not view each other through the lens of race, and that Brazilian society eliminated racism and racial discrimination. Freyre's theory became a source of national pride for Brazil, which contrasted itself favorably vis-a-vis the contemporaneous racial divisions and violence in the United States.Finland
The Kalevala is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology,. The Kalevala is regarded as the national epic of Karelia and FinlandIt narrates an epic story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and retaliatory voyages between the peoples of the land of Kalevala called Väinölä and the land of Pohjola and their various protagonists and antagonists as well as the construction and robbery of the epic mythical wealth-making machine Sampo. The Kalevala was instrumental in the development of the Finnish national identity and the intensification of Finland's language strife that ultimately led to Finland's independence from Russia in 1917.
Great Britain
was a legendary noble king that united Britain, laid the foundation to medieval notions of chivalry in western Europe, and was later important for building a common British identity.Greece
According to Greek mythology, the Hellenes descend from Hellen. He is the child of Deucalion and Pyrrha, and the father of three sons, Dorus, Xuthus, and Aeolus, by whom he is the ancestor of the Greek peoples.Iceland
The sagas of Icelanders, also known as family sagas, are one sub-genre or text groups of Icelandic sagas. They are prose narratives mostly based on historical events that mostly took place in Iceland in the ninth, tenth, and early eleventh centuries, during the so-called Saga Age. They were written in Old Icelandic, a western dialect of Old Norse. They are the best-known specimens of Icelandic literature. They are focused on history, especially genealogical and family history. They reflect the struggle and conflict that arose within the societies of the early generations of Icelandic settlers. The Icelandic sagas are valuable and unique historical sources about medieval Scandinavian societies and kingdoms, in particular regarding pre-Christian religion and culture and heroic age.Italy
The Kingdom of Fanes is the national epic of the Ladin people in the Dolomites and the most important part of the Ladin literature. Originally an orally transmitted epic cycle, today it is known through the work of Karl Felix Wolff in 1932, gathered in Dolomitensagen. This legend is part of the larger corpus of the South Tyrolean sagas, whose protagonists are the Fanes themselves.Iran
The Shahnameh is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Persia. Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couplets, the Shahnameh is one of the world's longest epic poems, and the longest epic poem created by a single author. It tells mainly the mythical and to some extent the historical past of the Persian Empire from the creation of the world until the Muslim conquest in the seventh century.During the 20th century, the Pahlavi dynasty deliberately mobilized national myths, particularly those found in the Shahnameh, to construct a sense of Iranian identity, nationalism, and political legitimacy. Reza Shah and later Mohammad Reza Shah emphasized Iran’s pre-Islamic past as a period of glory, heroism, and centralized authority, portraying themselves as heirs to this historical legacy.
The Pahlavis also framed the Arab‑Muslim conquest of Persia in the 7th century as a historical trauma that ended Iran’s greatness, using this interpretation in textbooks, public speeches, monuments, and celebrations to highlight a period of perceived weakness and foreign domination — implicitly linking Islam with constraints on Iranian political and cultural development. By contrast, pre‑Islamic heroes from the Shahnameh and other Persian traditions were promoted as symbols of national strength, resilience, and independence, reinforcing secular, centralized, and nationalist identity.
National myths under the Pahlavis served multiple purposes: fostering Iranian pride in pre‑Islamic heritage, justifying the monarchy’s modernizing reforms, and constructing a narrative of continuity connecting the contemporary state to an illustrious Persian past. This culminated with grand ceremonies such as the 2,500‑year celebration of the Persian monarchy in 1971 — an event designed to dramatize this mythic lineage and solidify the symbolic power of pre‑Islamic heroes and kings in contemporary politics.