Personification

See also: Mythopoeic thought

Some thinkers claimed that myths result from the personification of objects and forces. According to
these thinkers, the ancients worshiped natural phenomena, such as fire and air, gradually deifying them.
[73] For example, according to this theory, ancients tended to view things as gods, not as mere objects.
[74] Thus, they described natural events as acts of personal gods, giving rise to myths.[75]

Myth-ritual theory

See also: Myth and ritual

According to the myth-ritual theory, myth is tied to ritual.[76] In its most extreme form, this theory
claims myths arose to explain rituals.[77] This claim was first put forward by Smith,[78] who argued that
people begin performing rituals for reasons not related to myth. Forgetting the original reason for a
ritual, they account for it by inventing a myth and claiming the ritual commemorates the events
described in that myth.[79] Frazer argued that humans started out with a belief in magical rituals; later,
they began to lose faith in magic and invented myths about gods, reinterpreting their rituals as religious
rituals intended to appease the gods.[80]