Definition of Myth

So what is myth?

[Myth] has been interpreted by the modern intellect as a primitive, fumbling effort to explain the world of nature (Frazier); as a production of poetical fantasy from prehistoric times, misunderstood by succeeding ages (Müller); as a repository of allegorical instruction, to shape the individual to his group (Durkheim); as a group dream, symptomatic of archetypal urges within the depths of the human psyche (Jung); as the traditional vehicle of man's profoundest metaphysical insights (Coomaraswamy); and as God's Revelation to his children (the Church). [Myths are] all of these. The various judgments are determined by the viewpoints of the judges. For when scrutinized in terms not of what it is but of how it functions, of how it has served mankind in the past, of how it may serve today, [myth] shows itself to be as amenable as life itself to the obsessions and requirements of the individual, the race, the age. (Campbell, Hero, 382)

Statue of Poseidon, Athens Archaeological Museum
Photo by De'Lara Stephens For Joseph Campbell, myth is metaphor (Transformations) that arises from "human imagination moved by the conflicting urgencies of the organs (including the brain) of the human body." Myths, therefore, are closely related to the biological functions of the body (Campbell, "Inner Reaches" 2). Because God "is a mystery that absolutely transcends all human categories of thought," the function of myth is "to put man in accord with nature" and God. (Transformations).

Wendy Doniger points out "that a myth is above all a story that is believed, believed to be true, and that people continue to believe despite sometimes massive evidence that it is, in fact, a lie" (Doniger 2).

Myths are stories that attempt to answer the basic questions of human existence:

Who am I? What is the nature of the universe in which I live? How do I relate to that universe? How much control do I have over my own life? What must I do in order to survive? How can I lead a satisfying life? How can I balance my own desires with my responsibilities to my family and my community? How can I reconcile myself to the inevitability of death? (Rosenberg xiii)

Myths are the stories we tell that define who we are. The truth of myth doesn't lie in its historicity, its historical accuracy, but in what it expresses about what we believe.

The painter Picasso said that "art is a lie that makes us realize the truth" (Ryken 36), and in this sense, myth is also the "lie that tells the truth." Perhaps this illustration may help explain this seeming paradox. A young man asked Jesus the question, "Who is my neighbor?" In response, Jesus told the following story:

As a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, robbers attacked him and grabbed everything he had. They beat him up and ran off, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road. But when he saw the man, he walked by on the other side. Later a temple helper came to the same place. But when he saw the man who had been beaten up, he also went by on the other side. A man from Samaria then came traveling along that road. When he saw the man, he felt sorry for him and went over to him. He treated his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put him on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next morning he gave the innkeeper two silver coins and said, "Please take care of the man. If you spend more than this on him, I will pay you when I return." (Contemporary English Version, Luke 10.30-35)

The point of this story about the Good Samaritan isn't about whether the story actually happened in historical time. Maybe there was a man who was wounded and helped by a Samaritan passerby. Or maybe, Jesus made up the story as an illustration. It doesn't matter. The point of the story is that it tells the truth about what it means to be a good neighbor.

In this sense of the word myth, we can discuss Babylonian myths, Graeco-Roman myths, or Judaeo-Christian myths, setting aside any religious debate over which is the right belief and focusing instead on what we can learn about what each of these myths has to say about the human condition and the great questions that all humans ask.

This is the nature of myth. Myth tells the truth about what it means to be human. In that sense, then, the myths of all cultures–and not just those myths which we may personally believe–express truth. And, like the young man listening to Jesus' story, we can learn from myths, whether historical or imaginative, whether rationally plausible or utterly fantastic, whether the stories of our own culture or the stories told by cultures far removed in time and space from our own.

Works Cited

The Bible, Contemporary English Version. American Bible Society, 1995. Print.

Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton: Bollingen Series XVII, 1972. Print.

___. "The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: Myth as Metaphor and as Religion." Transformations of Myth Through Time: An Anthology of Readings. Eds. Diane U. Eisenberg, et al. San Diego: Harcourt, 1990. Print.

Doniger, Wendy. The Implied Spider: Politics & Theology in Myth. New York: Columbia UP, 1998. Print.

Ryken, Leland. Windows to the World: Literature in Christian Perspective. Dallas: Zondervan, 1985. Print.

Rosenberg, Donna. World Mythology: An Anthology of the Great Myths and Epics. 3rd ed. Lincolnwood: NTC, 1999. Print.

Transformations of Myth Through Time: The Hero's Journey. Dir. Stuart L. Brown. Prod. William Free. PBS, 1987. Film.

HUM 2130 World Mythology