Myth

Contextual Quote

"Myth, the concentrated world picture, which, as an abbreviation of appearance, cannot work without the miracle. However, it’s likely that almost everyone in a strict test would feel himself so thoroughly corrupted by the critical-historical spirit of our culture that he could make the previous existence of the myth credible only with something scholarly, with some mediating abstractions. However, without myth every culture forfeits its healthy creative natural power: only a horizon surrounded with myth completes the unity of an entire cultural movement. Only through myth are all the powers of the imagination and of Apollonian dream rescued from their random wandering around. The images of myth must be the unseen, omnipresent, daemonic sentries under whose care the young soul matures and by whose signs a man interprets for himself his life and his struggles. Even the state knows no more powerful unwritten laws than the mythical foundation which guarantees its own connection to religion, its growth out of mythic ideas."

- Nietzche (Birth of Tragedy, section 23) [1]

Characteristics

Brendan Graham Dempsey:

"According to Campbell, myths fulfill what he calls a psychological, metaphysical, cosmological, and a sociological function:

• Myth’s psychological function is to center the individual, carry them through the stages of development, and harmonize them with their world.

• Myth’s metaphysical function is to awaken in the individual a sense of awe and gratitude for the ultimate mystery, reconciling them to reality as it is.

• Myth’s cosmological function is to present a total image of the universe through which the ultimate mystery manifests.

• Myth’s sociological function is to validate and maintain a certain moral order of laws for living with others in society.

In premodern/traditional societies, the inherited cultural myth-systems functioned (more or less) successfully on all of the levels, providing individuals guidance through

1) their life’s developmental crises and transformations,

2) a framework for relating themselves to the Ultimate Mystery,

3) an explanatory orientation for meaningfully navigating their world, and

4) a sense of how to treat other individuals in their community.

When all of these needs are met and harmoniously integrated, the individual will feel in alignment with herself and her world: a state experienced as a sense of meaning and wholeness.

As noted, however, the transformation of our horizons has reconfigured society along entirely different lines from the old premodern, mythic ones—a process completed in the 20th century, though set in motion much earlier. As of yet, no one has found a means to put the pieces back together in our new world—that is, to re-integrate a meaningful mythic existence with the developments of modern life. I believe that personal myth offers us a path to do just this."

(https://brendangrahamdempsey.substack.com/p/building-the-cathedral-1-surveying)

2. From the Wikipedia:

"Campbell often described mythology as having a fourfold function within human society. These appear at the end of his work The Masks of God: Creative Mythology, as well as various lectures.[48]

The Mystical/Metaphysical Function

Awakening and maintaining in the individual a sense of awe and gratitude before the 'mystery of being' and his or her participation in it.

According to Campbell, the absolute mystery of life, what he called transcendent reality, cannot be captured directly in words or images. Symbols and mythic metaphors on the other hand point outside themselves and into that reality. They are what Campbell called "being statements"[48] and their enactment through ritual can give to the participant a sense of that ultimate mystery as an experience. "Mythological symbols touch and exhilarate centers of life beyond the reach of reason and coercion.... The first function of mythology is to reconcile waking consciousness to the mysterium tremendum et fascinans of this universe as it is."[49]

The Cosmological Function

Explaining the shape of the universe.

For pre-modern societies, myth also functioned as a proto-science, offering explanations for the physical phenomena that surrounded and affected their lives, such as the change of seasons and the life cycles of animals and plants.

The Sociological Function

Validate and support the existing social order.

Ancient societies had to conform to an existing social order if they were to survive at all. This is because they evolved under "pressure" from necessities much more intense than the ones encountered in our modern world. Mythology confirmed that order and enforced it by reflecting it into the stories themselves, often describing how the order arrived from divine intervention. Campbell often referred to these "conformity" myths as the "Right Hand Path" to reflect the brain's left hemisphere's abilities for logic, order and linearity. Together with these myths however, he observed the existence of the "Left Hand Path", mythic patterns like the "Hero's Journey" which are revolutionary in character in that they demand from the individual a surpassing of social norms and sometimes even of morality.

The Pedagogical/Psychological Function

Guide the individual through the stages of life.

As a person goes through life, many psychological challenges will be encountered. Myth may serve as a guide for successful passage through the stages of one's life."

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell)