2 Purpose of Myth
Mythographer, Joseph Campbell lists four functions of myth:
- Realizing that the world is a mystery which underlies everything. So it is a RECOGNITION that there IS a mystery.
- Cosmological dimension: (The scientific approach.) To unravel the mystery of the cosmos. (The etymological root of the word ‘mystery’ is the same as mythos. Myths give scientists an INSIGHT into the solutions to mysteries; e.g. how Thor, the Norse god, was an electromagnetic force, and how, as Vior, he gave vitality to all living matter, keeping atoms in constant motion; how in divine battles, heroes could unleash arrows that spit fire or pestilence, etc.
- Sociological function: (the most important.) Validating and supporting a particular social order, such as, how men and women should relate in a marriage. How parents should relate to children. What are the honor codes of a man, etc. For example, how Hector in Homer’s Iliad relates with his wife and son, and what this tells us about relationships; or how Krishna, the Hindu divine, instructs Arjuna in the Bhagwat Gita to relate to his inner self and what this tells us about the self.
- Pedagogical (art & science of teaching) function: to learn to live in this world under any circumstances. To live alongside other beings–to create a new myth of sorts–the Gaia principle of the mother earth, not as distinct from us, but we as part of it. This is different from the story of Genesis: Not–We are to be masters of the world? BUT we are part of this world, equated to the tiniest ant. This is what we need to learn from myths and “dream the myth onwards,” as Jung says.
To these, we can add some other functions:
- Intertwined nature of myth in diverse cultures. The human spirit is the same, although expression of it might be different, which of course, creates different societies and culture.
- This then translates into another function: how myth creates different cultures, different attitudes, etc.
- Making meaning of phenomena which has always been a part of human society. Self understanding–understanding of roots, of why we are what we are.
- To know that a myth is not a one time event, like the events in history. It continues to occur, and every time we participate in it, we become a part of the original myth. For example, Jesus rising from the dead was a one time event, but the transformation that occurred in his believers at that time is the same transformation that continues to occur in believing Christians today. This transcendence into something beyond our mundane is perhaps the most important function of myth.
In Ancient times, myth was attached to the very functioning of society. In Paleolithic Age when man was a hunter, he recognized the sacredness of the animals he hunted and; therefore, purified himself with ritual before he went on the hunt. Not only that, he worshipped the animal prior to the kill, to seek permission to kill it. Similarly, in the Neolithic Age when man became an agriculturist, he revered the powers of regeneration because these ensured that the crops would continue to flourish; hence, the very first seeds were offered to these sacred powers before they were sown for man’s consumptions. Consider this myth from Greek mythology. It has direct relevance to the seasons and to agriculture:
Demeter the goddess of agriculture and food grains had a daughter Persephone, who Hades (king of the Underworld) fell in love with and kidnapped. He took her to the Underworld and would not release her. When Demeter discovered her daughter gone, she was beside herself with sorrow. For days she cried, covering her head and walking around like a mad woman, looking for her child. While she was in this state, she paid no attention to her function, so the lands became barren and the people began to suffer. Then Apollo told her where Persephone was and Demeter went to Zeus (king of gods) to beg him to get her daughter back from Hades. Zeus, in turn, implored his brother to return the girl. Hades could not refuse Zeus, so he let her go, but before she left, he made her eat a Pomegranate seed to ensure she would return to him. For, if one eats anything in the underworld, one has to return to that land. Persephone did return to her mother, but only for three quarters of the years. The other quarter, she had to stay in the Underworld with Hades, and from that time on, in this quarter, the world is barren and nothing grows, till Persephone returns to Demeter for the rest of the year. But during the time Demeter was separated from her daughter, she rested in the town of Eleusis and there, taught the people the rituals of fertility. These rituals, called the Eleusinian Mysteries, were practiced by the people to ensure that Persephone did return and that the earth did yield crops every year.
In another Greek myth, Athena, the goddess of the polis, gave to the people of Athens an olive branch from which they grew olive trees and prospered from the olive trade. That is why Athens is the city most favored by Athena, and the people there still celebrate her gift to them. This ritual and worship of the gods was a way for humans to communicate with the gods, and this relationship became the basis of society’s functions and traditions. Wendy Doniger says, “The medium of myth is a message. Myths are about human experiences and events that we all share–birth, death, love hate, etc. They provide us METAPHORS that make the arguments about the human lot real.”
