"Did you see how he mythologized us?"
, we sometimes hear.
But are we (really) using the correct term?
The
Dictionary of the French Academy
warns against the abusive extension of this verb, often used - wrongly - instead of
"mystify"
.
Its meaning is more restricted than one might think.
Of the one who told you salads, you should have said that he
"mystified"
you .
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To mythologize is to transform into a
“myth”
, that is to say, etymologically, into a
“fable”
.
The term is defined by the dictionary
Le Robert
as a
“fabulous story, transmitted by tradition, which stages beings embodying in a symbolic form the forces of nature, aspects of the human condition”
.
The fact of
"mythologizing"
therefore means lending these characteristics to very real characters.
The
"Napoleonic myth"
thus stages the feats of arms and the personality of
the "Eagle"
in a dithyrambic way.
Hiding the gray areas and exalting certain episodes of his life at the risk of distorting them, the legend "
mystifies him
by “
mythologizing
” it.
To read also "Margoulin", "louftingue"... Do you know these adjectives with old-fashioned charm?
But by
“mystifying”
, one does not necessarily
“mystify”
.
“To mystify”
, as the
Historical Dictionary of the French Language
(Le Robert) indicates, is
“pleasantly derived from the Greek mustês, initiated into the mysteries”
.
The practices of the mystery cults in Ancient Greece, such as the mysteries of Eleusis, were indeed often performed out of sight, and taught by
"initiates"
.
The dictionary specifies that the introduction of the word
"was made in the pleasant societies of the 18th century where burlesque initiations were practiced at the expense of credulous people"
.
Mystifying someone is abusing their credulity for fun.
The word was then enriched with a new meaning in a post-Marxist context, to designate the ideological alienation of a population, by means of totalitarian propaganda.
In this last case of the cult of personality, for example, it is clear that the mystification often passes through a... mythification.
