Myth: A Defintion

Human beings have always told stories. We call those told by ancient people myths. These myths attempted to describe and explain the world: how it came into being, what events had transpired since then, why natural phenomena occurs like seasonal changes and earthquakes occurred, and more. Today, we easily dismiss these myths as bad history or bad science, but doing so blinds us from their true significance.

More than just explaining the world, myth gave people a way to make sense of their own lives. They learned from myth their place in the world and how to live properly within their culture. Myth helped them cope with the harsh realities of life — especially the reality of death. We now believe them to be historically and scientifically inaccurate, but for centuries these stories guided people to fuller and more satisfying lives.

Two noted mythology scholars provide a description of this role of myth:

A myth is essentially a guide; it tells us what to do in order to live more richly. A myth is true when it is effective in this, not when it gives us factual information. (Karen Armstrong)

The myth carried the individual through the stages of life, from birth through maturity through senility to death. (Joseph Campbell)

These ancient stories can still teach us a great deal. Like all great art, myth transcends time and culture. One literary scholar offers the following description for how myth can affect us today:

Myths give us (at the first meeting) as much delight and (on prolonged acquaintance) as much wisdom and strength as the works of the greatest poets. It goes beyond the expression of things we have already felt. It gets under our skin and shocks us more fully awake than we are for most of our lives. (C.S. Lewis)

The key to understanding the effect myth has on us lies in the word beyond: myth pushed our ancestors beyond their everyday lives to a different reality, a higher plane of existence, the land of the gods. From there, they could look back on their own lives with a perspective that challenged them to rise above a mere animal existence and fulfill their human potential. We can still find in these myths inspiration to do the same.

But ancient myths are not the only source of such inspiration available to us today. The genres of fantasy and science fiction are well-suited to send us to other worlds — if not to the land of the gods, at least to the lands of wizards and elves or to galaxies far, far away — and dramatically change the way we look at our own world.

When I use the word myth throughout this site, I mean stories contained in ancient mythology and contemporary fantasy and science fiction that typically involve some other world. When I say I am a myth enthusiast, I mean I spend much of my free time reading these kinds of stories and writing about them, seeking to experience the enjoyment and strength they provide and to learn more about them and how they work.

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