Myths, Maps and Vernacular Perception: A Theoretical Framework for Analyzing the Spatial Representations of Environmental Health Crises in Mythological Narratives

Environmental Health Crises (EHC), often manifesting as interconnected polycrises (e.g. combining environmental, medical or military aspects), have surged in frequency, intensity and geographic spread in recent decades. Public understanding of such crises plays a crucial role in taking proper action to mitigate their consequences. Thus, finding innovative communication models that would address and mediate the complex nature of EHC is of utmost importance to serve the societal needs for clarity, safety, hope and physical survival. While mythological and scientific approaches have conventionally been conceptualized as opposites, this article’s objective is to delineate their points of convergence and to argue that awareness of patterns in mythological narratives can offer analytically significant insights for contemporary crisis communication. By reviewing existing map-based health risk communication tools and frameworks, and relying on multiple sources of mythological narratives related to various EHC (e.g., epidemics, environmental hazards and disruptions), the authors will propose an empirically and theoretically grounded framework for analyzing the spatial representations of environmental health crises in mythological narratives to highlight how mental mapping becomes a critical component of vernacular spatial problem-solving activity. While highlighting consistencies in spatial crisis responses in mythological narratives and comparing them to modern EHC-narrating patterns, the proposed framework aims to function as a pathway for bridging the gap between scientific crisis mapping and the vernacular lived, multisensory, mythology-informed representations of EHC. By theorizing the integration of such dynamic and agentic perspectives into public communication, the study seeks to advance more effective and empathetic engagement with EHC-related risks.