A myth is described as a traditional story, in particular one that is concerned with the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events. The second definition provided states that a myth is a widely held but false belief or idea. Myths are deep rooted in every culture and are brought to life in religion. All religions use symbolism to represent phenomena and give myths a place in reality. It is this act that makes a myth seem real, because the symbols are tangible and more comprehensible than to believe off faith alone.
Symbolic communication is necessary to keep myths alive. There are two types of symbols that are readily used in religion. The first type is
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Malinowski, Jung, and Eliade provide explanations for the widespread belief of myth. Although myths may be historically untrue, they often provide social and conscious stability to believers. Whether or not a myth is historically accurate is beside the point- it is the social and religious benefit that proves myth important. Human beings regard myths to bring meaning and insight into the meaning of universe and human life. Malinowski explains the functionalist theory. He emphasizes that religious myths emerge with the purpose to support and perpetuate the social order or a culture. Under his theory myths reinforce social stratification as well as beliefs.
Mircea Eliade emphasized the phenomenological functions of myth. He defines myth as a sacred history that is connected to the ultimate reality of sacred beings. Myth exists to explain the correlation and causation between sacred beings and humanity and influences the course of our lives by answering existential
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He emphasises that the psychological function of myth helps us individuate, or come to self realization. He asserts that each person has a conscious mind, a person unconscious, and a collective unconscious. A conscious mind is the part of our consciousness that we are aware of. However, what plays more into who we are and what we think are the parts of ourselves that we are not aware of. The person unconscious is where we store hidden motives, fears, and emotions that we do not recognize on a conscious level. Most important to Jung’s theory, the collective unconscious is the part of man that holds the highest potential of humanity as preserved through history. Jung argues that religion delves into the depth of the human soul and brings out typical archetypes that are found universally. Examples being the mother, child, flood, and cheater. The myths connect the conscious mind with the collective unconscious by using archetypical figures to indulge the depths of human soul.
I mostly agree with Carl Jung and his explanation of the psychological function of myth because I believe in the many states of consciousness and their impact on humanity. The archetypical characters that appear time after time in the myths of many religions appear in modern times. I believe that it is true that the archetypes in myths bring out our highest potential that is stored in the collective unconscious by connecting
"The Archetypes and the Collected Unconscious."The Collected Works of C.G. Jung. 2nd ed. Ed. Carl G. Jung. London: Routledge, 1990. 393-417.
Myths relate to events, conditions, and deeds of gods or superhuman beings that are outside ordinary human life and yet basics to it” ("Myth," 2012). Mythology is said to have two particular meanings, “the corpus of myths, and the study of the myths, of a particular area: Amerindian mythology, Egyptian mythology, and so on as well as the study of myth itself” ("Mythology," 1993). In contrast, while the term myth can be used in a variety of academic settings, its main purpose is to analyze different cultures and their ways of thinking. Within the academic setting, a myth is known as a fact and over time has been changed through the many different views within a society as an effort to answer the questions of human existence. The word myth in an academic context is used as “ancient narratives that attempt to answer the enduring and fundamental human questions: How did the universe and the world come to be? How did we come to be here? Who are we? What are our proper, necessary, or inescapable roles as we relate to one another and to the world at large? What should our values be? How should we behave? How should we not behave? What are the consequences of behaving and not behaving in such ways” (Leonard, 2004 p.1)? My definition of a myth is a collection of false ideas put together to create
Myths the stories of old, how the ancients explained the creation of the world and how the human race came to be. Myths can be viewed as outdated and no longer needed. However, myths are still important today. This is the point that Joseph Campbell, and Bill Mayer discuss at Skywalker Ranch in The Power of Myth. Joseph Campbell famous mythologist is interviewed by Bill Mayer about myths from different cultures and how they are still important today. This interview makes the point that myths, although centuries old are still used today, in both popular media and other aspects of culture.
Myths and religious doctrine are generally recognized as two entirely different things. Myths are usually referred to as a fictitious story or a half-truth; often they are stories shared between groups of people that are part of a cultural society. Religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, and purpose of the universe, and often containing an ethical code dictating appropriate human conduct. Although they differ in certain aspects, they still hold similarities. Comparable to parables within the Bible, myths have different versions which are both motivating, as well as entertaining. There are not only parallels to the idea of the stories but specific tales hold similar morals and equivalent characters.
...ide to them. The mythical side is present because a culture or society does not want to believe the facts that are known in an attempt to give reassurance to ones inner self. A modern example of a myth is the belief that one cannot achieve a pregnancy upon the primal intercourse experience. Research has proven that this is not true, but many believe or are told that this is the case. These types of myths are used today to create reassurance for those believing them. The word myth has been defined by scientific evidence throughout history. As scientific evidence has become clearer, early myths have become less clear to the present day human being. Even though early myths are becoming obsolete, they are still being studied to teach all aspects of life and culture past and present. Also, modern myths are being studied just as well to teach the aspects of the world today.
Mythology is defined two ways: a collection of myths, especially one belonging to a particular religious or cultural tradition (Oxford Dictionary) and as the study of myths (Oxford Dictionary). Myths are stories that are based on tradition and have significance to a culture. They are sacred tales that explain the world and a person’s experience. Some myths may have factual origins, while others may have fictional origins that explain religion or natural phenomenons. Many philosophers and scientists all over the world have tried to answer the questions that truly can’t be answered: what is the universe and how did it all begin, who am I, where did I come from, and why am I here? Myths and mythology try to provide people with heroic figures such as gods and goddesses—representing a person, place, or thing in a past, present, or future event—to help explain natural phenomenon’s and control civilization giving people a grasp on some type of reality.
Mythology was an integral part of the lives of all ancient peoples. The myths of
Discovering the meaning and significance of the archetypes in one’s dreams and the dreams themselves were a sort of process that helped lead the individual towards a God. The suffering and process of analyzing the dreams and manifestations of the archetypes was crucial to resolving one’s entire unconscious and thus being at peace with oneself. When this peace was achieved, it allowed the individual to further their religious experience. Jung believed that all humans had a natural religious function and the expression of their unconscious through archetypes and dreams was crucial.
Mythology is an essential part of all cultures. Through myth, ancient cultures attempted to explain the world and make sense of their daily lives. Myth helps us to live in the minds and time period of people who lived many centuries ago with no technology, no running water, and a basic education. Greek myth is possibly the most commonly recognized myth simply because it is likely the most developed and best recorded. Modern Greek myth originated around 1000 B.C. in the writings of the famous Greek poet Homer in the Odyssey and the Illiad. Although early Greek myths are often vague and contain many primitive elements regarding their understanding of death, sacrifice, and fate, later myths show Greek culture developed and changed over time.
Throughout the years that humans have roamed this land we call earth they have made myths. Myths that give them a certain sense of security to fill that unknown knowledge they have. The most common myth is the cultural myth. What is a cultural myth? A cultural myth is the narrative explanation--in both written, visual and oral form--of a culture, its origins, its mission, its development, and its future. Along with elements of truth, myths constitute the very substance of a culture’s concept of reality (week 1, day 2 notes).
Carl Jung is the father of archetypal criticism and creator of the term collective unconscious. Jung (1875 – 1961) was born in Switzerland and learned from Sigmund Freud, a psychoanalytic critic, before breaking off and creating his own literary theory. Because of his shift to the Archetypal theory, also called mythic criticism, Jung was repelled by the psychoanalytic community, until he came up with the idea of a collective unconscious. “Jung’s ideas caused him to be banished from the psychanalytic community for the next five years. During this time, he formulated his own model of the human psyche, which would become his most important contribution to psychology and literary criticism (Bressler).” The collective unconscious is the common knowledge of themes and archetypes that every human has gained from ancestral memory. This is the bases for Archetypal criticism, the reason for humans being able to recognize archetypes and recurring patterns in literature. Archetypal literary works relate to the beliefs, knowledge, and desires of readers through recognizable themes and archetypes (Bressler 149). Archetypes are universally recognized patterns, characteristics, or objects that invoke similar emotional responses from every person. Archetypes give literary works deeper meaning because
The great psychologist-philosopher Carl Jung was briefly a student of Freud. Because Jung felt that Freud's approach to psychoanalysis was by far too narrow, he broke off from his teachings, and made significant contributions to mythological criticism. Jung's greatest contribution was his theory of archetypes. His proposal of archetypes argues that there is one original pattern or model of all things of the same type. According to Jung, beneath the personal unconscious is a collective unconscious that is in the psychic inheritance of all humans. Jung thought of the collective unconscious as a sort of memory bank that stores images and ideas that humans have accumulated over the course of evolution.
Carl Jung, propose the theory of the collective unconscious, based on his theory, which goes beyond of Freud’s analysis of the conscious mind, the unconscious is divided into two (2) layers. We have the personal unconscious, where is very similar with the Freudian Theory of the unconscious mind, where all of our thoughts and forgotten experience our store, but we have another dipper layer, the collective unconscious. The collective unconscious is a universal unconscious shared among the humankind, where information which had passed from generation to generation is stored. That information might be fears, or instincts which have helped us to survive, innate thoughts; used as a tool and inheritance from our ancestors in order to provide us the best chance of survival. Based on Jung theory: “The form of a world into [a person] is born is already inborn in him, as a virtual image (Jung, 1953, p.188). He called these memories, as ancestral memories and image archetypes, as different cultures all over the world share similar characteristics without having any interaction with one another, thus the behaviors and actions had been carried with them innate as a part of a code among
Philip Matyszak a person who described myth simply as “the ancient’s view of the world.” The myths often appeared as simple stories filled with villains and heroes. Which the people would see as themselves that’s why the people believed that they
Mythology: used in numerous religions to rationalize the unexplainable. The creation of the universe remains unknown to this day. Greek and Norse mythology concluded their own philosophy of how the earth came into existence. The creation of gods allows people to identify with their religion through shared characteristics. Brave tales of heroes represent the best qualities of man-kind: courage, wisdom, and devotion. Mythology allows people to feel a sense of belonging while also describing the creation, origin of gods and goddesses, and the heroic deeds of mankind.