Myth and Religion

Myth is not religion, but myth has a deep connection with religion, and to understand this connection, it is important to know what religion really means.  Religion is a set of beliefs that a community or group of people agree upon and collectively follow.  These beliefs are often solidified by ritualistic practices that everyone in the community or group of people has to follow in order to be a part of the belief system.  Sometimes, religious beliefs and practices can also determine moral codes; most often, if someone in that group of people does not follow the set practice, he/she is considered immoral.

These belief systems are normally about factors, questions, ideas that are larger than the petty everyday concerns of people; for example, they are about ‘us and the universe’: who created the universe? How does the universe operate? Who are we? What is our purpose? What is death? Is there an afterlife? Who determines the afterlife? Etc.  Basically, these beliefs are formed to explain or understand the ‘unknown’.  In most world religions, the answers to this “unknown” are invested in God.  (God creates the universe, God knows death, God judges what will be a person’s afterlife, etc.).  But, God is also ‘unknown’; therefore, to understand him/her people create metaphors or metaphoric, anthropomorphic  (human-like) forms.   Myth is not about Godhead itself, but it is about these metaphors—what they mean and how they pertain to people. (Joseph Campbell)

In ancient times (and in many current polytheistic religions), these larger human concerns about the universe are portrayed through gods/divines, and these are synonymous to the metaphors.  Hence, myth is about the gods and the connections that man sees between him and with these divines.

Myth and Ritual
(excerpted from “Ways of Interpreting Myth”, Michael Webster, GVSU)

A ritual is an act or series of acts designed to bring men into contact with higher spiritual powers.  Ritual can be seen in four categories:  sacrifice, initiation (“mysteries”), purification, and seasonal renewal.  Often, these different kinds of ritual occur together.  For example in Christian ritual, baptism is at the same time a purification (a cleansing of original sin) and an initiation (an entry into the Christian faith).

College students who pledge fraternities or sororities should be quite familiar with initiation rituals.  There is a separation (hazing), transition (pledges do the crud work), and finally incorporation, or full membership in the society.  Perhaps the most common initiation rituals among tribal societies are puberty rites.  (A Jewish bar mitzvah is an example of such a rite.)

In ancient Greek religious thought, the sacred is opposed to the polluted (miasma).  One cannot participate in sacred rituals (and in a larger sense, in the life of the community) if one is defiled (life, death—just living can be seen as a pollutant).  To remove the stain of miasma, one must undergo rites of purification (catharsis).  One can be purified by fire, air, or water (all three have cleansing properties).  The murderer was usually purified by having the blood of a sacrificial animal sprinkled over him (the stain or miasma is washed away by its likeness–note the Pentecostal phrase for conversion:  “washed in the blood of the lamb”).  Catholics who dip their hands in holy water and cross themselves before entering church are engaging in a simple ritual of purification.

Often, rituals were performed to insure that the seasons would continue to follow one another and the earth would continue to produce its fruits.  The granddaddy of all myth and ritual theorists, Sir James G. Frazer (1854-1941), thought that myths of seasonal renewal could be traced back to a single pervasive ritual in which a sacred king “dies” and is replaced by a new, more vigorous king.  He posited the following correspondences:

Most early myth and ritual theorists tended to insist that ritual came before the myth and thus explained it in some way.  Nowadays, many scholars still believe that myths and rituals are connected, but they see the relations between the two as more complex than a simple “who came first.”