The History of Mythology

Author: Veronica Eans
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: Mythology has persisted to this day, but the history of mythology is strictly speaking limited to the pre-modern era. All of them were born in ancient times, telling stories of distant pasts, exploring mostly the origins of the past, the future of the past, and how everything came to be, and so on. In the era when human customs and traditions were passed down orally, binding people together in families or larger units, the function of mythology was self-evident. Why do we have the world today? What are we? How should we live a good life? How should we adapt to nature and the people around us? Where are we heading? These may be classic philosophical and religious questions, but for most people, the answers to these questions exist in dramatic mythological stories in the form of poetry and fables. In this sense, mythology is a religious narrative with ethical significance. It is not scripture, but it is related to rituals. "If you can't explain the world, then create a world." Mythology attempts to explain the world in a simple and accessible way— including birth, death, all things, and fate, giving reasons to various entities. Other myths that do not attempt to explain the world instead express human passions and fears. The mythological world constructed by ancient humans preserves a fundamental interpretation of human nature.