Myth and the Western Civilization

Myth's Importance Today

Myth has been an essential ingredient in Western Civilization since its inception. The ancient religions -- and arguably our modern religions -- were built on myth, and contain many archetypal mythic figures and events. Religion, in turn, has hade a huge effect on the way the world at large and many of the societies within it have developed. But myth is important today for many more pressing reasons than its impact on religion and historical development. Because myths are so universal in the human experience, it stands to reason that they stem from -- and/or create -- some distinct commonalities between the many disparate people living on this planet. Myth's importance today has immense historic value, but it is even more important for the insight it provides to us as individuals, to our cultural beliefs and actions, and to our interrelationships with other individuals and cultures. Myth provides a map to human understanding.

First and foremost, an understanding of the history of Ancient Greece is essential to a proper understanding of Western Civilization, and an understanding of myth is essential to an understanding of the Ancient Greeks (Powell, Chapter 2). This makes myth an important tool in understanding the founding principles of Western Civilization. The discussion of myth today, then, reflects a discussion of the very core of our current culture ad society. This is important because anything that can help leads us to a better understanding of ourselves and the world around us is useful in this global age. Understanding the way the world developed helps us to understand the way the world behaves now, and how the various countries and cultures within it view each other. This makes the historical value of myth far more important than in simply providing an archaeological and anthropological understanding of ancient cultures; the historical value applies directly to our history, and to the very development of Western society.

Myth provides an even more profound understanding of us as individuals. The discussion of myth can lead to certain personal revelations or shifts in worldview. For instance, Joseph Campbell finds a lot of mythology at work in the institution of marriage, and equates tit to the mythic and spiritual finding of one's center or bliss, which he claims can often be synonymous in myth (Campbell, 147). Myth presents an entire perspective for introspection, allowing one to delve into deep explanations and examinations of their sense of self. Mythic figures represent human ideals, often clearly portraying a select and often repeated set of traits to typify them as certain archetypal figures like the Hero or the Healer. Though such simplistic labels cannot be wholly applied to flesh and blood human beings, an understanding of these universal archetypes can help lead to an understanding of the self, as each represents different aspects of the human personality. Discussing myth can help bring these things to light.

Myth can also broaden our view from introspection to an examination of the workings of our society and culture. As already mentioned, our civilization can be seen as a continuum from the Ancient Greeks to the modern day. This is one way in which myth can help o explain our world -- understanding the Greeks from whom many of our ideas and myths came provides an understanding of ourselves (Powell, Chapter 2). According to Campbell, myth can even explain things that occurred before the Greeks, such as the nearly worldwide system of patriarchy that seems to have replaced a matriarchy in the pre-historic period (Campbell, 125-6). Many myths contain heroic and dominant ma figures, but they also contain hints of the concept of the Earth Goddess or powerful feminine force of reception and creation rather than simple submission.