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WHAT RESONANCES DO WE FIND OF ANCIENT MYTH SYSTEMS, IN OUR MODERN DAY SOCIETY?

 

 

            This essay will discuss the continuing effects that ancient myths have on our daily life.  We will also look at whether our lives have been enriched, for having knowledge of these myths.

            The definitions of myth have long exercised the minds of academic thought.  Brockway (1993) believes that “The definition of myth has been broadened in the 19^th century to include sacred history (Heilgeschichte), literary epics, and popular genre literature such as westerns, gothic, science fiction, fantasy tales and romances”.  He also includes philosophical systems and political ideologies.

 

Other classicists define myth as: -

 

            Strenski (1987) gives the most diverse definition: -

            “Myth is everything and nothing at the same time.  It is the true story or a false one, revelation or deception, sacred or vulgar, real or fictional, symbol or tool, archetype or stereotype.  It is either strongly structured and logical or emotional and pre-logical.  Myth is about the gods, but often also the ancestors and sometimes certain men…. It is charter, recurring theme, character type, received idea, half-truth, tale or just a plain lie”.

            Most authors agree that myths where pre-history stories passed on by word of mouth, until eventually written down.  At this stage they really cease to be myths and become part of the anthropological history of that country.  Kirk (1970) places the first written myths in Sumeria and lower Mesopotamia, about 3000 BCE.  He also points out that “These myths when written, where perhaps a personal interpretation, and may only partly reflect the original story”.  (To suit local religious dogmas)?

            If we assume that there are no modern myths, then we must also assume that myth making ceased with the rise of modern secular culture.  If this were so, then all our literary epics would have to be non-fictional.  This we know not to be a truism.  In fact Brockway (1993) speaks of fictional writers as ‘Homo Mythologicus’ and ‘Homo Religiosus’ and goes on to say “That it is our nature to weave myths and to think in mythical terms.  Mythical thinking is imaginative and also imaginal, which refers to image making”.  He believes that nearly all-modern stories have a basis in myth, even if it was unintentional at the start.  Aristotle (Poetics) says of myth, “It is a plot, what the story or drama is about”.  This I believe adds credence to the above.

            Philosophers, who believe in ‘Pre-Determinism’, would wish us to believe that everything written to day has been pre-ordained.  In the modern parlance ‘Sorted’.  I believe that this has some truth in it, because we seem to have accepted huge sections of myth as norm, and have bowed down to it without protest.  The fact that almost all acceptable myths arose within another culture alien to our own has done little to reduce our acceptance.  The movement of a myth from another culture (Mythogenetic Zone) to our western culture has been acceptable because it was changed from just an oral tale, to that of a written story.  Thus the ‘Myth’ part was removed, and we then assumed it to have some degree of truth in it.  This is best illustrated in our acceptance of a Near Eastern religion, (Christianity), which produced written books from previous oral myths.

            Whether we believe in Genesis or not, we are bound by the primary rules it imparts.  We accept a seven-day week, (seventh as a rest day).  We use the ‘Bible’ itself to swear upon, we accept that light and dark, water and earth etc. where separated.  (Although many of these epics appear to relate back to the Summerian myths of the ‘Enuma Elish’).  The use of superlatives such as ‘Oh God’ or even ‘B….y Hell’ at moments of stress or shock reflects our trust in the existence of a super deity.  Eliade (1958) says that: -

“The sacred is qualitatively different from the profane, yet it may manifest itself no matter how or where in the profane world, because of its power of turning any natural object into a paradox by means of a hierophany (manifestation of the sacred)”.

The use of Christian dogma in birth, marriage and death rituals is fully acceptable to most of us without question.  We do not even seem to care that the dogma was originally a simple oral myth, written down over 2000 years ago.  We  act upon it as the truth.  Did ‘Moses’ really get the ‘Ten Commandments’ from a burning bush up a mountain?  Surely not we should say, but nearly every western country has accepted them as a model for community living without questioning their origin. If ‘God’ is simply a myth, then we have embraced this myth wholeheartedly.

Even in modern scientific circles, ancient myths provide identification tags for many disciplines.  If we look at ‘Astronomy’ then the whole science is awash with mythical descriptive tags, (Named by Greek Astronomers/Philosophers, about 600-300 BCE.) which are still in popular usage today, even though most stars now have complicated number tags. This table gives just a few of the 244 constellations: -

 

 

Literature throughout the western world often reflects the stories of ancient myths.  Perhaps the most significant being Frazers ‘The Golden Bough’ (1963), of whom Coupe (1997) says “A work of ancient Greek magic and religion” This huge tome neatly encapsulates a modern author’s viewpoint of ancient myth.  Children’s stories are perhaps the best medium to reflect ancient myths.  ‘Mythologists’ have looked at such books as ‘Alice in Wonderland’ in great detail.  Brockway (1993) says of ‘Alice’ “It has flourished as a masterpiece more pleasing to adults than to children, because of its remarkable symbolism and profundity.  Alice is the archetypal heroine who descends into hell.  She is the Victorian Inanna and her story is in the tradition of the sixth book of the Aeneid”.  Both Jung and Freud point out the ‘descensus ad inferos’ of the story and its closeness to the Greek heroes.

In children’s films, such as the ‘Wizard of Oz’ Campbell (1977) likened ‘Dorothy’ to ‘Odysseus’.  “ Dorothy, who after killing her aunt (A pseudo evil witch), travelled from the real world of everyday life, to a land of wonders where there are fantastic beings in a magical landscape”.  The more adult film ‘Apocalypse’ is a grown up version of virtually the same theme.  (Of a hero, who disposes of an evil God, and in doing so, becomes a God himself).  It is interesting to note that when the camera pans over to the dying ‘God’, it passes a bookcase with a copy of Frazers ‘Golden Bough’ on it.  Schechter (1980) speaks of ‘Superman’ as “Having the strength of Hercules and the wisdom of Zeus”.

Modern armies use the names of epic heroes to name their military weapons, in order to enhance the myth of their perceived power.  Hercules Aircraft, Poseidon Missiles, and Century Tanks etc.  War games on computers are often a reflection of an epic myth.  ‘MicroMedia’ market ‘Jason and the Argonauts’ and ‘The Quest for the Golden Fleece’.  In other games the hero is often called Hercules or Zeus (if he can fly).

Political dogma, (“an arrogant declaration of opinion”) has a habit of unintentionally mirroring epic mythological religions.  ‘Marxism’ is one of these, Eliade (1985) says “That Marxism, for example is a secular version of the Judeo-Christian Messianic myth”.  Blackwell et al. (1988) (Cited by Coupe (1997)) points out the following similarities: -

 

 

The final example is a rather fun one.  The word ‘Psyche’ (soul) is a much-abused word from mythology.  Psychoanalysts, such as Jung/Freud etc. frequently delve into ancient Near Eastern myths to explain our modern psychiatric dysfunctions.  For instance, Jung proposed that ‘Persius’  (son of Zeus) suffered from the ‘Oedipus’ complex, in so far as he killed his mothers first husband ‘Polydectes’ and her second husband by forgetting to change his sails after killing the ‘Minotaur’ (he also abandoned ‘Ariadne’).  This begs the question, should the complex have been called The Perseus Complex’.

In conclusion, one must ask why the myths have survived into the 20^th century.  Since the earliest times, man has felt the need to be in control of his universe as he saw it.  He needed to be able to reach the heavens, and to plumb the depths of his known world.  In order to do this; he needed a representation of himself in the form of a ‘Super-Deity’, who could do all these things.  Nowadays we have to make do with the novella.

Modern man also needs something other than himself to relate to.  We often need religion as a soother when things go wrong.  The existence of a ‘God’ allows us to either blame or praise a deity outside our control.  It lessens our personal responsibility for the untoward results of our earthly actions.  In literature, the ancient myth allows us to escape into fantasy without risk to ourselves.  Our heroes/heroines can carry out our wildest fantasies, on the grounds, that being a ‘mythical’ story it is morally acceptable.  (Sex, violence, patricide, infanticide, and incest come under this umbrella).

I feel that if we had, had no ancient mythical history, we would have had to invent one, it in order give people this wonderful chance to escape  (albeit temporally) from reality.   Broadbent (1961) saw the re-telling of ancient mythological tales by modern authors as an ‘Anti-Universal’ factor stemming from a possible ‘race-memory’ within us.  He says, “That in this world, escaping into fantasy/myth through story or art, allows us to re-generate our beliefs, that mankind is still a unique organism.  It provides the individual with an identity and purpose in their life”.

                       

 

REFERENCES

Brockway,R. (1993) Myth, Ice Age to Mickey Mouse.(N.Y. Univ. Press)P2,3,7,109.

     ibid.,  Eliade,M. (1958) P 13.

     ibid.,  Frazer,G.  (1963) P 150.

     ibid.,  Schechter,H.  (1980) P 125.

     ibid.,  Strenski, (1987) P 9.

Broadbent, D. (1961) Behaviourisms. (Eyre & Spottiswood,London.) P 22.

Campbell, J. (1977) Occidental Mythology. (Penguin, London) P 3,122,123.

Coupe,L. (1997)  Myth, Critical Idiom. (Routledge, London) P 69.

     ibid.,  Blackwell et al. (1988) P 70.

Kirk, G. (1970) Myth, Its Meaning & Function.(Cambridge Press, London) P 233.

Ridpath, R. (1965) Astronomer’s Handbook. (Hamlyn Press, London.) P 45-71

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Broadbent,D  Behaviourism. (Eyre & Spottiswood,London.1961) P

Brockway,R. Myth, From Ice Age to Mickey Mouse.(N.Y. Univ. Press. 1993.)

Burkett,W. Greek Religion. (Blackwell, London.1985)

Bultmann,R. Mythologies. (Houghton, London. 1941)

Campbell,J.  Occidental Mythology. (Penguin, London. 1977.)

Comford,G. From Religion to Philosophy. (Cambridge Press, London. 1912)

Coupe,L.   Myth, Critical Idiom. (Routledge, London. 1997.)

Holm, J. Myth and Mystery. (Pinter Press, London. 1994)

Graves,R. The Greek Myths. (Penguin, London 1960)

Kirk,G.  Myth, Its Meaning & Function.(Cambridge Press, London. 1970.)

Ridpath,R.  Astronomer’s Handbook. (Hamlyn Press, London.1965.)