What can you infer about the influence of mythology on the English language?

Answer 1

Answer

Think for a sec... the only 'history-books' that existed before paper were stories. Eventually, paper was invented, and of course, these stories were written onto paper. After the books had been read so much, parts of it slowly became part of literature, and when traders from these countries traveled to England with their language and spoke it in bars and on docks and ships, it slowly crept into the English language.

Answer

The first answer addresses the 'how', but what I can infer about this influence? That language evolves over time, like a snowball rolling down a hill. It starts with a ball formed by gathering snow and bits of artifact from the place that it's formed. As it rolls down the hill, it picks up more snow and whatever artifacts (pine needles, bits of grass or weeds, seeds, stones, etc.) it encounters along its path. As it gets heavier and the terrain changes, chunks of snow with accompanying artifacts get knocked off while new is being added. Perhaps a chunk or two will start a new snowball rolling down a different path or just lands in that spot. Eventually it comes to rest with all of it bits and pieces.

Language travels from generation to generation and from place to place. At the time the language and its contemporaries were written down and passed around, the ancient mythologies were dominant features of those societies. Each society that the English language has passed through adds words and references of their culture and society. This is why we don't speak the language of Julius Caesar or even Shakespeare. Consider all of the technology based words and terms that have come into common use that didn't exist when I learned English in school in the 1950s. I didn't even have to Google (use a search engine) to add this answer.