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Mythology
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The Formation of Myths
What forces create myths? Robert
Graves said of Greek myth: "True myth may be defined as the reduction
to narrative shorthand of ritual mime performed on public festivals,
and in many cases recorded pictorially." (The Greek Myths, Introduction).
Graves was deeply influenced by Sir James George Frazer's mythography
The Golden Bough, and he would have agreed that myths are generated
by many cultural needs.
Myths authorize the cultural institutions of a tribe, a city, or a
nation by connecting them with universal truths. Myths justify the
current occupation of a territory by a people, for instance.
All cultures have developed over time their own myths, consisting
of narratives of their history, their religions, and their heroes.
The great power of the symbolic meaning of these stories for the culture
is a major reason why they survive as long as they do, sometimes for
thousands of years. Mâche distinguishes between "myth,
in the sense of this primary psychic image, with some kind of mytho-logy,
or a system of words trying with varying success to ensure a certain
coherence between these images.
A collection of myths is called a mythos, e.g. 'the Roman mythos.'
A collection of those is called a mythoi, e.g. 'the Greek and Roman
mythoi.' One notable type is the creation myth, which describes how
that culture believes the universe was created. Another is the Trickster
myth, which concerns itself with the pranks or tricks played by gods
or heroes.
Joseph Campbell is one of the more famous modern authors on myths
and the history of spirituality. His book The Hero with a Thousand
Faces (1948) outlined the basic ideas he would continue to elaborate
on until his death in 1987. His theories, popularized in a series
of books and videos, are more inspirational than scholarly, being
more accepted among the general public than in academic circles.
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Joseph Campbell Quotes
“I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life
as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.”
“When you follow your bliss...
doors will open where you would not have thought there would be
doors;
and where there wouldn't be a door for anyone else.”
“Your sacred space is where you can find
yourself again and again.”
“Life is without meaning. You bring the
meaning to it.
The meaning of life is Whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive
is the meaning.”
“Every religion is true one way or another.
It is true when understood metaphorically.
But when it gets stuck in its own metaphors, interpreting them as
facts, then you are in trouble.”
“The privilege of a lifetime is being who
you are.”
“When we quit thinking primarily about
ourselves and our own self-preservation,
we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.”
“I think the person who takes a job in
order to live -
that is to say, for the money - has turned himself into a slave.”
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Modern
Mythology
Film and book series like
Star Wars and Tarzan sometimes have strong mythological aspects
that sometimes develop into deep and intricate philosophical systems.
These items are not mythology, but contain mythic themes that, for
some people, meet similar psychological needs. An example is that
developed by J. R. R. Tolkien in The Silmarillion and The Lord of
the Rings. Fans will sometimes incorrectly refer to a complex fictional
world such as that of the Star Trek series as a mythology.
Fiction, however, does not reach the level of actual mythology until
people believe that it really happened. For example, some people
believe that fiction author Clive Barker's movie Candyman was based
upon a true story, and new stories have grown up around the figure.
The same can be said for the Blair Witch and many other stories.
The word is also used to refer to common, rarely questioned contemporary
value systems, especially when seen as ideological or socially constructed,
as in "the mythology of love". In the 1950s French structuralist
thinker Roland Barthes published a series of semiotic analyses of
such modern myths and the process of their creation, collected in
his book Mythologies.
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