Why were Myths made?: Philosophy Forums

Calendar

Quick Links open

New Posts Member List

Help

Philosophy Forums » Social Sciences » Why were Myths made? » Why were Myths made?

Why were Myths made?
Are they useful today?

Why were Myths made?

Mystikiwi
Student

Usergroup: Members
Joined: May 11, 2007
Location: New Zealand
Total Topics: 8
Total Posts: 54

Posted 06/18/07 - 06:08 AM: Subject: Why were Myths made?	#1
What purpose did Myths serve in the Ancient World? Can they (still) be helpful in the modern world or are they only good as fantasy entertainment?

Alayth
Graduate

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Jun 15, 2006
Total Topics: 1
Total Posts: 101

Posted 06/18/07 - 09:41 AM:	#2
Mystikiwi wrote: What purpose did Myths serve in the Ancient World? They probably served several. One could be as an explanation for things people of those times didn't understand.

Mystikiwi
Student

Usergroup: Members
Joined: May 11, 2007
Location: New Zealand
Total Topics: 8
Total Posts: 54

Posted 06/19/07 - 06:01 PM:	#3
I guess there are different kinds of myths. Some may have been made to give an explanation for how things began (even though the explanations were not generally correct). In other cases I think they may have been designed to inspire people. They may have also given them pride in their culture. Do Star Wars and Lord of the Rings qualify as modern-day myths? If so, are they useful or just entertainment?

Phoenixhm
Student of Life

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Jan 15, 2005
Location: In the system of the down
Total Topics: 3
Total Posts: 32

Posted 06/21/07 - 03:58 PM:	#4
Some have argued (Joseph Campbell and Claude Levi-Strauss) that myths, which may include much of our modern "literature," were/are emblematic of the deeper essences of the human psyche. Campbell, who was a comparative mythologist, approached the issue from the Jungian standpoint. He believed that the images that existed in mythologies reflected the archetypes that existed in the collective unconcious of the society, or humanity in general as far as the commonalities were concerned. This was similar to what happens in the unconcious of the individual during dream state. So essentially mythology was the collective unconsious' way of discovering the many hidden facets of the society at large. Levi-Strauss went along similar lines, but took it to be that mythology dealt specifically with the contradictions within a society that remain unvoiced. Such as with modern American cinema's view of the hero and his relation to society. We are after all a nation that prides itself on our individuality, but also exist as a democracy which leans in ways towards a more communal apporach. This produces a clean contradiction within our thinking and a tension between the two sides. In such the modern hero is often one who stands aloof from the society at large, but still fights to protect the very society from which he stands apart from. He then remains the hero and "rides off into the sunset," or is incorporated into the society after it is saved and therefore the "heroe's journey" comes to an end. In an answer to your specific question about Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, is yes, they are indeed modern mythologies as is most the cinema and literary fiction. They serve a purpose insofar as they offer much information about our social psyche or even the psyche of humanity. If you wanted more information, specifically on the thinkers I mentioned, you can read: The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell and The Structaral Study of Myth by Claude Levi-Strauss [The Levi-Strauss work is actually an article, so may be harder to find]
_____________________ "In order for an Irishman to find his equal he is forced to talk to God." --Stephen (Braveheart (1995)) "Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity." --Odysseus (Sean Bean - Troy (2004))

mDarkPoet
Fire Rapids

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Jun 20, 2007
Location: Modesto, CA
Total Topics: 7
Total Posts: 19

Posted 06/21/07 - 07:30 PM:	#5
Myths, such as the Greek mythology, was created to understand the world better. However today they are good only for understanding the Greek people and for entertainment.
_____________________ "This Is Not About Age, Time Served On The Earth Doesn't Mean You Grow In Mind"

Mystikiwi
Student

Usergroup: Members
Joined: May 11, 2007
Location: New Zealand
Total Topics: 8
Total Posts: 54

Posted 06/22/07 - 10:51 PM:	#6
mDarkPoet wrote: Myths, such as the Greek mythology... are good only for understanding the Greek people ... How do we understand them from their Mythology? That they revered Heroes?

rustystan
Assistant Professor

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Nov 02, 2005
Location: Bangor, Wales
Total Topics: 6
Total Posts: 326

1 of 1 people found this post helpful Posted 06/24/07 - 10:49 AM:	#7
Myths serve two functions: to (a) provide a meta narrative explaining how and why the world is as it is, and (b) to provide an ethical example for people to follow. Modern day myths are told to children in the form of nursery rhymes and stories for the purpose of (b) whilst either science or modern day religion serves the purpose of (a).
_____________________ A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "This fact has not created in me a sense of obligation." - Stephen Crane

eugipants
Making sense of Life

Usergroup: Members
Joined: May 16, 2007
Location: Toronto
Total Topics: 4
Total Posts: 24

Posted 06/24/07 - 12:58 PM:	#8
Mystikiwi wrote: How do we understand them from their Mythology? That they revered Heroes? What mDarkPoet essentially said was that the view of myths are relative to who reads or hears them, and at what period in history. Anyway, Greek myths are not always about heroic figures as much as they were used to make sense of the world that they lived in. The Greek gods, for example, have flaws that can be attributed to humans. They are selfish, and they are not all-powerful and omnipotent. However, they were still revered because they controlled certain aspects of nature and even divine essences, such as luck. What these myths tell us about the Greek people is what all ancient civilizations believed in. They felt they could not control their own destiny or even the world that they lived in, so they created gods that they could please, and to make sense of the life they were stuck with.

TheJoker
banned

Usergroup: Members
Joined: May 21, 2007
Total Topics: 57
Total Posts: 639

Posted 06/25/07 - 03:03 AM:	#9
So sorcerers, alchemists and priests could fool the masses into doing their bidding along with the state.

rabeldin
Probabalistic Philosopher

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Oct 06, 2003
Location: Puerto Rico
Total Topics: 30
Total Posts: 5382

Posted 06/25/07 - 10:18 AM:	#10
Or... so anyone could fool the world's gullible. You don't have to be smart to be smarter than the average fool.
_____________________ Leave no assumption unquestioned.

wazlkick
Initiate

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Aug 20, 2007
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 3

Posted 08/20/07 - 11:51 PM:	#11
In ancient times, i would say myths were used to educate or inspire the people. Today they hold as much use, whether they be to educate modern society about civilzation back then, or merely as guides upon our own actions.

rabeldin
Probabalistic Philosopher

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Oct 06, 2003
Location: Puerto Rico
Total Topics: 30
Total Posts: 5382

Posted 08/21/07 - 03:55 AM:	#12
Truth is the myth we teach our children.
_____________________ Leave no assumption unquestioned.

wuliheron
Assistant Professor

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
Location: Newport News, Va
Total Topics: 9
Total Posts: 341

1 of 1 people found this post helpful Posted 08/21/07 - 08:55 PM:	#13
Today we refer to ancient Greek religious beliefs as "myths" because there are few if any who are offended by such references. However, in their day it was a blasphemy punishable by death. Like metaphors and other ways of symbolically representing reality, myth making has organic roots in the way the human mind functions. We are not computers who stoically soak up what life gives us without emotional response. We are the belief makers, we give it all meaning and then create wonderful works of arts that express these meanings.

Casuist
Aspirant

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Aug 22, 2007
Location: Australia
Total Topics: 2
Total Posts: 32

Posted 08/26/07 - 04:26 PM:	#14
Perhaps thats all they had to go by back then. If someone has a problem and they came to a friend and asked them what they should do, their friend could relate a solution to a myth. Nowadays we just refer to people we see in the newspaper or on tv. "remember what happened when mr x did what he did when he was in your situation?" As what has been said before, they could have been used to teach people, like telling scarey stories to kids so they behave themselves.

coolazice
Graduate

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Sep 05, 2006
Total Topics: 16
Total Posts: 200

Posted 09/01/07 - 04:15 AM:	#15
Myth is just one of the many human creations that satisfy our own curiosity and sense of identity. Any creative account of the world's origins, functions and purpose, presented as fact, can be seen as myth - from Ancient Greek mythology to The Bible, through to Stephen Hawking's Brief History of Time. If the idea that science can be myth seems silly, consider that all ancient myths were originally extrapolations from what could be perceived in the natural world. Our understanding of the universe, while perhaps more 'logical', will be surpassed by other, newer myths. Then also consider that the majority of the world still understands and therefore perceives the world in a radically different way to ours. The common thread, as wuliheron pointed out, is the use of metaphors and symbols to represent reality.
_____________________ One of the greatest weaknesses in human nature is to be dogmatic about issues of which we are ignorant. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio/Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

JAC
An Honest Aesthetic

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Jul 24, 2007
Location: America
Total Topics: 17
Total Posts: 250

Posted 09/01/07 - 04:34 AM:	#16
Perhaps not as cynical a view as TheJoker or rabeldin (though that is certainly what the purpose of such myths evolved into over time), I think myths are (I wish I could say 'were'), at heart, early, naiive attempts at science. All of them very fine examples of man's tendency to personify everything.
_____________________ "A life with love will have many thorns, but a life without love will have no roses." - Friedrich Nietzsche "I feel as if I were a piece in a game of chess, when my opponent says of it: That piece can not be moved." - Soren Kierkegaard

rabeldin
Probabalistic Philosopher

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Oct 06, 2003
Location: Puerto Rico
Total Topics: 30
Total Posts: 5382

Posted 09/01/07 - 05:18 AM:	#17
I think that myths are made, in part, for the same reason we use euphemisms, to hide the truth from some while revealing it to others. The native Americans called it "speaking with a forked tongue".
_____________________ Leave no assumption unquestioned.

unenlightened
Mysteriosopher

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Aug 10, 2007
Location: Wales
Total Topics: 15
Total Posts: 813

1 of 1 people found this post helpful Posted 10/19/07 - 07:28 AM:	#18
Ah, the myth of the forked tongue, how apt for lovers of Sophia. The idea of myth-makers is a bit mythological itself. If someone makes it, it's an analogy, a story, a lie, or some such. It only becomes a myth when it's origins are forgotten, and it has become part of the fabric of the language. You can see this happening in the way all sorts of phrases from Shakespeare have become 'detached' and entered the language as cliches. But modern myths are likely to be invisible to us, because we take them as fact. The 'reality' of the monetary economy comes to mind - who 'made' that up?
_____________________ The observer is the observed. J Krishnamurti "Philosophy, to the Philistine, is an evolutionary process, watched over by some sort of brisk dynamic Providence, and culminating in the supreme insight of modern thought." John Cowper Powys

Carbon Based
Aspirant

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Aug 25, 2007
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 34

Posted 10/19/07 - 04:03 PM:	#19
Mystikiwi wrote: What purpose did Myths serve in the Ancient World? Can they (still) be helpful in the modern world or are they only good as fantasy entertainment? What a strange question, the stories that you refer to as myths were thought of as trurth in their time. I doubt that the people who created the original "myths" did so consciously.

Carbon Based
Aspirant

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Aug 25, 2007
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 34

Posted 10/19/07 - 04:06 PM:	#20
rustystan wrote: Myths serve two functions: to (a) provide a meta narrative explaining how and why the world is as it is, and (b) to provide an ethical example for people to follow. Modern day myths are told to children in the form of nursery rhymes and stories for the purpose of (b) whilst either science or modern day religion serves the purpose of (a). Please explain how science generates "myths?" Is gravity a myth?

PontificatingChauncy
Student (aren't we all?)

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Aug 27, 2007
Total Topics: 15
Total Posts: 197

Posted 10/22/07 - 12:37 AM:	#21
No CB, science doesn't generate myths, it generates "a meta-narrative explaining how and wyh the world is as it is."
_____________________ The Tao that can be named is not the true Tao. That thing is a chauncy

tomv
Bee Hive Resident

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Mar 26, 2008
Location: Perth, Western Australia
Total Topics: 5
Total Posts: 19

Posted 03/27/08 - 10:09 AM:	#22
mDarkPoet wrote: Myths, such as the Greek mythology, was created to understand the world better. However today they are good only for understanding the Greek people and for entertainment. I would completly disagree with that. I still think that a lot of Greek Mythology still has lessons for lives today. My favorite is Sisiphus, who still symbolises the ever-lasting struggle for sustaining the strength of humanity. Yes, they help us to understand the Greek people better, but they also allow us to understand ourselves better - and after all, isn't that what a good myth is all about?
_____________________ "The door is open, the road transformed. The exit code to civilisation is hacked beyond despair, chased by the moon toward the freeing sun, on our journey to light. This is an open plea to the beautiful insanity of your hearts. It is time to consummate the kiss of oblivion into the obsidian of love!" - Serj Tankian

moonlight
Lunatic

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Oct 10, 2005
Location: stuck on earth
Total Topics: 17
Total Posts: 496

Posted 03/30/08 - 03:19 AM:	#23
Because Maths weren't enough. In other words to explain and describe the world. moonlight.
_____________________ All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusion is called a philosopher. - Ambrose Bierce -

You don't have permission to post.

Please login or register.