The national folklore of many nations includes a founding myth, which may involve a struggle against colonialism or a war of independence.
They are important characters in one of the two founding myths of the city of Thebes, because they constructed the city's walls.
According to Sandra Frankiel, the records of "Jesus' life and death, his acts and words" provide the "founding myths" of Christianity.
By the late 80's, as the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, was ripping across the West Bank, the first books questioning the "founding myths" were published.
It's a founding myth of opera, the dream of every stage-struck ingenue: hours before curtain, the soprano falls ill.
This campaign has become a "founding myth" for both Australia and New Zealand, and Anzac Day is still commemorated as a holiday in both countries.
"Primacy" was Italy's great founding myth - the idea capable of animating and agitating, mobilizing, directing popular conscience, and sustaining action.
This is a founding myth, resembling those of other ancient lands: there is a chosen people who must endure hardships and defeats for the promise of future glory.
At least two founding myths have been proposed for Barcelona by romantic historians since the 15th century.
His epic was a founding myth of classical Greece, even hovering in the background of the later tragedies.