Our knowledge of the mythologies related here derives from literary works chiefly — from epic and lyric poetry, from drama, histories, romances, and from other prose narratives. But it is important to distinguish between mythology, which is religious and social belief rendered in stories, and the literary form those stories take. Literature is often a late product of civilizations. It occurs when there is enough leisure to record and invent tales, and enough literacy to appreciate the records. Because it usually occurs late in a culture, mythological writing sometimes takes place as a culture is disintegrating. When doubt becomes widespread it is doubly necessary to record a people's myths — to preserve them from extinction and to form a core from which other cultures can be built. When root values are endangered people take care to preserve them in stories. Mythological literature may be seen in part as an embalming of a culture, the point where a living faith is becoming a historical curiosity. This is not always true of course (the Bible being a notable exception), but it holds often enough in the mythologies recounted here.
In Egyptian myth there is a bewildering profusion of gods and sacred names. The pyramid texts refer to several myths without telling them in their entirety. We must rely on a foreigner, Plutarch, the late Greek historian, for a complete account of the Isis and Osiris myth. This tale points to a static, worshipful culture, one founded on moral struggle, death, and an afterlife to come.
The principal Babylonian mythological works are the Epic of Creation and the Gilgamesh Epic, which reveal a rather coarsely masculine culture, sensual and proud, yet with a deep pessimism in the face of death.
Indian mythology is vast, scattered through many literary works: The Vedas, the Brahmanas, the Upanishads, the Mahabharata, the Ramayama, and Buddhist writings, to name some of them. They show a culture evolving from a primitive worship of nature and earthly power to metaphysical speculation and a realization of saintly principles.
