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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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.