Are the urban myths of today going to be tomorrow’s mythology?

No

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by Rose Calder

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At first blush, urban myths and mythology have a lot in common. They are tales that are presented as a truth, usually as a mean of warning against certain behaviors such as promiscuity, vanity, overt sexuality or just plain acts of thuggery, because of the dangerous repercussions presented by a violent/fatal smack-down by either supernatural or natural means. However, to suggest that urban myths may one day become a mythology in and of itself is to give urban myths a little bit too much credit. They may be myths, but a mythology they surely aren't.

As mythologies go, they require belief in a pantheon of deities, each responsible for a certain facet of the natural world (earth, fire, thunder, the ocean, etc.) or human properties and actions (love, war, knowledge, marriage, death, etc.) These gods and goddesses are used as a means of explaining how the world around us not only came into being, but how everything we do is regulated by these deities. In the case of some mythologies, such as the Nordic pantheon, the mythology even goes so far as to describe what will happen when this world ends (AKA Ragnarok.)

Urban myths, on the other hand, do not innovate along these lines. In urban myths, there are no deities created to explain how things came to be and why things are they way they are. Instead, urban myths are - for the most part - devoid of any religious affiliation. There are some that center on religious trappings, such as rosaries, Mormon temple garments or the Bible itself, but this is done as more of a contemporary reinforcement of the power of the already-established Judeo-Christian God than the creation of an entirely new god.

Vengeful ghosts, demons and occasionally even the Devil make appearances in various urban myths, but again, the reason for this is not to establish an entirely new belief system. The appearance of these entities is - once again - a means of emphasis upon an already-established belief system, usually as a dire consequence of transgressing against the code of morals that belief system dictates.

Also, as mentioned prior, the majority of urban myths do not rely upon any religious belief, nor do they touch on anything remotely supernatural. On the whole, urban myths are tales told about alleged human actions, either against themselves or another. The tale about flicking your headlights at a darkened car on the road as a means of possibly courting death by gangstas has absolutely nothing spiritual or supernatural about it, nor does the tale about catching AIDS from a public toilet seat. If anything, the only belief that urban myths impart upon the listener is the belief of paranoia: that you may be a random target for violence and/or death, simply by going about your life in an everyday manner.

In short, urban myths simply don't have the requirements needed to be considered a mythology in its own right. They may be a useful tool for reinforcing certain social mores or the dominant morality of the society in which they persist, but they lack the basic foundations and sheer complexity of structure and content required to be a full-fledged belief system. It would be more accurate to say that urban myths are modern folklore than modern mythology.

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