Hi all,
I am a new forum member, and will soon be departing for university to read Classical Studies. One of the universities I am applying to has asked me to write an essay on a historical topic, I have chosen myth. The reason I have posted my thoughts on this forum is because I would like some feedback regarding them, unfortunately my friends do not enjoy discussing anything meaningful to me. Ok so here we go:
My initial response, like most people is that myths are just fiction, a bit like an ancient version of "The Lord Of The Rings," some guy like Homer came along with a vivid imagination and constructed a past. However, I sometimes find myself asking whether there is any truth or value in myth, we do we even bother remembering them or reading them? Why are fascinated by them?
Perhaps the ancients just didn't have a way of conveying what they saw, Wittgenstein comes to mind, "The limits of my language means the limits of my world." I have read how some people believe that the centaurs of the Greeks were in fact the Scythians, and their brief contact led to the Greeks thinking they were in fact half-man, half-horse. Personally I doubt the truth of this, but it is plausible that if saw a band of riders of such great skill they would seem to be one with the horse.
The reason I chose this Scythian example is because I found a similar example of this while reading a book in South Africa (my homeland), the book was by a South African author (who's name I forget) who had travelled the namib desert and met the Khoi-San or Bushmen. He asked them about their myths and one stood out amongst them all. The story goes that many years ago a bushman was tracking in the veldt when he came across curious tracks unlike any animal he had ever seen, horseshoe tracks. He track the 'creature' and found it near a stream. He was shocked to see that it was a huge antelope with two heads, one looking forward and the other seeing all around. Amazingly the top head got off and went to the stream and drank, when the 'detached head' saw him it produced a strange staff which fired thunder, so the bushman feld. Later he returned and to his amazement he found the tracks of the 'detached head' by the stream and they were human shaped, but solid, their were no toes.
So a myth was born, though of course it was dispelled later when the Khoi-San became moe exposed to Europeans. I wonder, however, that perhaps if contact with a "strange beast" is made and then lost a myth is allowed to take form, whereas constant exposure dispels the myth, so perhaps a small Scythian raiding party made a foray into inner Greece and swiftly fled again leaving their myth to thrive amongst the rural people, we'll never know.
One conclusion I do however draw from this is that myth appears to be born out of an inabilty to comprehend something, the bushman couldn't comprehend the idea of a ridden animal, because they never rode animals. Also the animal was strange as he had never seen a horse before never mind a musket armed white man. I feel the concept of incomprehension is brilliantly shown through the Greek and Roman polytheistic religions, to the mind the concept of God is unfathomable (whether you believe in Him or not) just as the Cosmos is too vast for us to comprehend. We humans lack to ability to comprehend infinite.
Perhaps the polytheistic religions were a means of dividing the unfathomable God into many smaller parts and give each part a role a unique characteristic to explain things such as why evil exists, something which monotheistic religions struggle to explain. Much like the Hindu religion, their seemed to be the concept among the Greeks that their was one God, Plato in "Republic" makes reference many times to God, does he mean one collective God or a particular God? After all how can your Creator be good and evil? Well if our Creator is beyond our comprehension how can we argue that an infinite being can or cannot be something? I think that division was a means of explaination.
Another role for myth was to explain things we saw everyday. Not something largely abstract like evil, but something concrete like the Sun's movement through the skies. The Greeks told us how Helios pulled the Sun across the sky everyday with his chariot, he wasn't the sun, but the myth explains why the sun moves across the sky, I doubt the Greeks knew that the Sun was actually a gaseous orb very, very far away from Earth. The explaination of weather was another myth to explain storms and winds, Poseidon god of the seas was responsible. Well I don't belive it but I suppose if you don't have a concept of the coriolis effect or atmospheric pressure cells you would have trouble understanding the world.
The question I then pose is, what value does mythology hold for the modern person, we who have gazed at the plants and stars who think we can rationally explain everything? Perhaps myths are just a lesson in psychology (such as the bushman tale) or perhaps just testament to humanity's boundless imagination. I would greatly appreciate any thoughts, rebuttles or corrections from fellow forum members.
).
