American mythology

American mythology encompasses the stories, symbols, and legendary figures that shape American identity and self-understanding.

This includes both Native American traditions—creation stories, trickster tales, spirit beings—and the broader mythology that emerged from European settlement: frontier heroes, founding fathers as demigods, the self-made man, manifest destiny.

Unlike classical mythologies with fixed pantheons, American mythology is fluid and ongoing, absorbing Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, and figures from popular culture into its canon.

The cowboy belongs to American mythology as much as Hercules belongs to the Greeks.