Myth

"Well we ain't original Scandinavians, are we? 'Kray-ken.'" "It's a mythological creature, I can calls it what I wants!"

- Pintel and Ragetti

Mythology was a collection of myths (a mythos, e.g., Inca mythology), considered an important feature of many cultures. A myth is a sacred narrative explaining how the world and humankind assumed their present form, although, in a very broad sense, the word can refer to any traditional story.

Myths may arise as either truthful depictions or over-elaborated accounts of historical events, as allegory for or personification of natural phenomena, or as an explanation of ritual. They are used to convey religious or idealized experience, to establish behavioral models, and to teach.

History
"New Orleans will have to suffer the sad fate of being transformed into the not-really glamorous City of Bronze. Not one for myths or the history books, I'd wager."

- Jack Sparrow

When mariners awake screaming, it's because they had dreamed of a ghostly ship and its terrifying barnacled crew. In sailors' legends the Flying Dutchman rises from the ocean depths, its rigging draped in seaweed and its sails glowing like fire. It sped across the flat water when all other ships are becalmed. Its very beams sigh with human voices, weighed down with a century of weary toil. When sailors fall overboard and are doomed to drown they soon realize that the Dutchman is not just a myth, the ship appears before their eyes and they are swiftly plucked form the jaws of death and given the option to serve before the mast of Davy Jones' ship.

At some point during the quest to lift the Aztec curse, the cursed crew of the Black Pearl came across a mysterious castaway, a young Spanish boy who claimed to be Juan Ponce de León and had found the fabled Fountain of Youth. However, the boy revealed himself to be Palaimon, a demonic Greek sea god who fed on the human souls. Having learned of Melikertes from his books on Greek mythology, Barbossa was able to defeat Palaimon by forcing him to fall into the sea, deducing that he couldn't swim due to having found him clinging to a piece of floating wood and that his altar showing him riding a dolphin.

There were many myths of the seven seas, but the fate of few ships has been debated like that of the Santiago. Sent to discover the marvels of the New World in the 16th century, the ship had been missing ever since. Legends say that its captain, Juan Ponce de León, discovered the Fountain of Youth. Two centuries after Ponce de León's search, the Santiago once again figures in the schemes of ruthless men. Doom awaited any misguided mariner who sought out the perilous waters of Whitecap Bay. Myths told of mermaids lurking beneath the pale, foaming breakers, but few know that these briny beauties are actually flesh-eating creatures. When Blackbeard's crew located these denizens of the deep, they found themselves surrounded by vengeful foes.

Greek Mythology
"Tell me, what do you know about Greek mythology?" "I'm...familiar, you could say." "Aye, as am I."

- Hector Barbossa and Palaimon

Greek mythology was the body of myths and teachings that belonged to the Greeks as a part of the religion in ancient Greece. It was explicitly embodied in a collection of stories, and implicitly in Greek representational arts, such as vase-paintings and votive gifts. Greek myth attempted to explain the origins of the world, and detail the lives and adventures of a wide variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines, and mythological creatures. These accounts initially were disseminated in an oral-poetic tradition; though Greek myths were known primarily from Greek literature.

Hector Barbossa was fairly knowledgeable of Greek mythology, having recalled the story of Icarus, and learned of Palaimon from his books. One of his crewmen, Ragetti, also knew of Icarus (though referred to him as "Ichabod") as well as the Trojan Horse.

Behind the scenes

 * In the synopsis for Pirates of the Caribbean Online, it's said that players were "able to fully experience the adventure of the films and explore beyond these boundaries to discover new myths and untold stories." In Cannons of the Deep, the mobile game coinciding with Pirates Online, players were said to be part of the myths and legends of old. However, neither game is no longer available.

Appearances

 * Jack Sparrow: The Age of Bronze
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: Six Sea Shanties
 * Pirates of the Caribbean Online
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
 * LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game