Mythology An Introduction
Mythology
Mythology is the study of myths. A myth is a story that has significance to a culture (or species), a story that addresses fundamental and difficult questions that human beings ask: who and what am I, where did I come from, why am I here, how should I live, what is the right thing to do, what is the universe, how did it all begin? Myths are stories that are peopled by great men and women; by forces of good and evil; by animals, large and small; by trees, the sea and the wind; and by giants, gods and other supernatural beings. Greek and Roman mythology comes to mind, Zeus/Jupiter the top-god, a bit of a womanizer he. Norse mythology comes to mind, with its stories of a powerful Thunder god named Thor and a trickster named Loki. German mythology comes to mind, with its Twilight of the Gods, its Gotterdammerung, where the gods destroy the entire universe, only to begin anew in a thousand years or so. Every culture’s pantheon of mythic characters was the super-family that every man and woman of that culture was born into; these creatures were as familiar as their parents and grandparents, their siblings, and their aunts and uncles and cousins.
The seeds of a mythic story run deep.
Myths were before art was, before language or the written word. The Cave paintings at Lascaux and Alta Mira are some 30,000 years old. Were these paintings just stick figures representing a bunch of men and bison and bears and deer? Might there have been a need to paint these paintings? For luck in the hunt, for food, for survival. Wouldn't these folk have invoked some kind of magic to aid and protect them in the hunt? Were these artists talking to the gods? Were they beseeching aid from the perils of living in those dark times?
Myths sprung up before religion. Every religion's stories are retellings of universal mythic themes. The Creation of the World, the first Man and Woman, Heaven and Earth, a great flood, stories of heroes and heroines and dragons and serpents.
Mythology is the study of myths. A myth is a story that has significance to a culture (or species), a story that addresses fundamental and difficult questions that human beings ask: who and what am I, where did I come from, why am I here, how should I live, what is the right thing to do, what is the universe, how did it all begin? Myths are stories that are peopled by great men and women; by forces of good and evil; by animals, large and small; by trees, the sea and the wind; and by giants, gods and other supernatural beings. Greek and Roman mythology comes to mind, Zeus/Jupiter the top-god, a bit of a womanizer he. Norse mythology comes to mind, with its stories of a powerful Thunder god named Thor and a trickster named Loki. German mythology comes to mind, with its Twilight of the Gods, its Gotterdammerung, where the gods destroy the entire universe, only to begin anew in a thousand years or so. Every culture’s pantheon of mythic characters was the super-family that every man and woman of that culture was born into; these creatures were as familiar as their parents and grandparents, their siblings, and their aunts and uncles and cousins.
The seeds of a mythic story run deep.
Myths were before art was, before language or the written word. The Cave paintings at Lascaux and Alta Mira are some 30,000 years old. Were these paintings just stick figures representing a bunch of men and bison and bears and deer? Might there have been a need to paint these paintings? For luck in the hunt, for food, for survival. Wouldn't these folk have invoked some kind of magic to aid and protect them in the hunt? Were these artists talking to the gods? Were they beseeching aid from the perils of living in those dark times?
Myths sprung up before religion. Every religion's stories are retellings of universal mythic themes. The Creation of the World, the first Man and Woman, Heaven and Earth, a great flood, stories of heroes and heroines and dragons and serpents.