WORLD MYTHOLOGY-HUM 115

The Power of Mythology

I think Campbell had discovered the role of mythology in our lives and when I reflect what we have learned throughout the semester, I found his quote quite perfect. The study of mythology has helped me understand and identify human conditions, human origins, and origins of animals, origins of places and early cultural practices as well as sacred traditions.  Through stories, folk, fairly and sacred tales which are part of mythology I have learned the functions of different gods in the ancient civilizations such as the Greeks and Egyptians. In the same tales, I would identify the meaning of life and death in some early societies. Joseph Campbell as a great scholar had tried to explain several themes found in the most of the Greek myths, and at the end, he would mention how these themes reflected the aspects of human life such as good and evil, heroism, the meaning of suffering and nature. Myths also come with the phenomenon and sometimes elevate a tales and events to epic (Joshua, 2018).

I also found that through the myths we can identify the values and beliefs of people in the past. Some of the Greek myth mention how ancestors came into existence and the role they played in societies. The origin of the god, the worlds, humans, and supernatural beings are part of the aspects of most of the myths mentioned in ancient times.  Campbell had also realized how mythology had a significant impact on the artwork. The ancient cave paintings and etching in tombs, stones, and monuments were part of the earl myths before human adopted writing of words to represent myths. I would support the Campbell’s idea that the ancient people deficit myths in the form of art and the artwork also reflected what was happening in the society including the “deep inner problems, inner mysteries, and inner thresholds of passage” of humans (Campbell, J. (2018). 

I think the role of mythology is to teach meaning. As we approach the end of the semester, I can conclude that mythology “explains, empowers, stabilizes, and elevates the life of a believer from a mundane existence to one imbued with eternal meaning” (Joshua, 2018). Do you know why Campbell thinks that the information we get by studying mythology can make us not to “want to give it up” in studying? I think it is because mythology tried to answer complex and most basic questions of human existence such as who am I? And where did I come from? Lastly, the study of mythology can end up providing “a role model for one’s individual journey through life,” but Campbell believes that “you have to work it out yourself” (Campbell, 2017)

References

Campbell, J. (2017). Occidental mythology (Vol. 3). Joseph Campbell Foundation via PublishDrive.

Campbell, J. (2018). Primitive mythology (Vol. 1). Joseph Campbell Foundation via PublishDrive.

Joshua J. Mark, (2018). Mythology: https://www.ancient.eu/mythology/