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I spent part of last weekend writing an essay for a college scholarship based on this question. I thought it would be good for this board. The tricky part about the question is defining myth. Even Webster's dictionary has several seemingly contradictory definitions.So, what purposes do myths serve?

Greetings! I was checking out the forum and saw this; hope no one minds if I reply! Mircea Eliade stated that myth is that which is believed true. The people who originally told the story believed in it religiously. Other cultures who later encountered the stories scoffed at them - called them myths.Basically, one religion's truth is another religion's myth.Myth is thus differentiated from folktales such as Aesop's fables.

Myths can be used to hide deep psychological truths within archetypal fiction. If you read Joseph Campbell, Thomas Moore, and Robert Bly you will be surprised at the amount of information they unlock from a brief story. Iron John: A Book About Men by Robert Bly is one example where he extracts a great deal of information from the Grimm fairy tale of that name. His analysis stretches credibility, but does make the case that ancient civilizations hid knowledge in myths to be passed on to the future.

Joseph Campbell's entire corpus is a journey through this question. He rests his theses upon the shoulders of men like Feuerbach, Freud and Jung, as well as Nietzsche. In short, he employs a Psychological lens to the issue, finding the source of Myth within the individual and collective Psyche of the Human species.Myth, in this context, is an external projection of an internal drama containing multiple drives, energies, passions, reasons and emotions. The Myth provides a narrative and script, as well as system of rituals, symbols, and signs that guide the individual through life- as a member within a larger communal identity and fate.Myth ties life's chaos into a meaningful cosmos of roles, purposes, identities and causes. These guide Persons across the thresholds of transformation and confirmation along life's often treacherous, tragic, and still beautiful journey.Authentic Myth speaks truthfully to the spontaneous passion and hope of a Person, reflecting needs and imagination actually felt and desired, as well as intelligently derived from real experience.Inauthentic Myth is enforced through acts of domination and opression onto a Person, alienating People from their actual needs and imaginations, demanding roles and identities neither suited nor fulfilling...even devastating and enslaving.Nationalism and Fundamentalism are two forms of Inauthentic Myth that can lead to tremendous psychological, political, physical and ecological disaster.

I don't remember reading Bly, but I distinctly remember noting that Campbell grossly distorted some of his source material to fit his theories. I was doing an intense study of mythology at the time, and was displeased with his factual errors. Since I knew he had misrepresented some of the primary material to which I had access, I couldn't trust his accounts of source material to which I did not have access. It annoyed me considerably. It was difficult to get my hands on primary material, and you can't do good research on dubious secondary material. Mircea Eliade (U. of Chicago, Religion) was also publishing numerous studies of mythology at the same time, and I found him to be a far more reliable scholar. A check with Amazon shows that many of his works are out of print, but if you can get your hands on any of his books (such as Cosmos and History: The Myth of the Eternal Return), he's well worth reading. I see he published a lot of interesting titles after I graduated; I think I'll see if I can get any of them from my library. Shoot! Some of them would've been real handy when I was writing my thesis!

My first exposure to myth as something worth thinking about was from Robertson Davies' "Deptford Trilogy" (Fifth Business, World of Wonders, Forgot the Third Novel). Davies is a Canadian playwright, generally considered pretty much a lightweight; yet, for me at least, Fifth Business really pulled me in to consideration of the effect myth has on the people who believe, disbelieve, and make them. World of Wonders was a bit of a slog; the entire book takes place on an analysts' couch. I slogged through it because the first one was so good I was sure I'd learn from it. And I'm drawing a blank on the third one. Perhaps it's time to read them over. If you make yourself really small, you can externalize virtually everything. Daniel Dennett, 1984

I wanted this up top to spark discussion!Mr. P. The one thing of which I am positive is that there is much of which to be negative - Mr. P.I came to get down, I came to get down. So get out ya seat and jump around - House of PainHEY! Is that a ball in your court? - Mr. P

"Authentic Myth speaks truthfully to the spontaneous passion and hope of a Person, reflecting needs and imagination actually felt and desired, as well as intelligently derived from real experience.Inauthentic Myth is enforced through acts of domination and opression onto a Person, alienating People from their actual needs and imaginations, demanding roles and identities neither suited nor fulfilling...even devastating and enslaving."I'd like to add that, counterintuitively, in many cases Inauthentic Myths are more readily believable than Authentic Myths, and easier to assimilate. The simplistic falsehoods of Nationalism and Fundementalism, to take your examples, will as often as not strike an individual, on first encounter, as more 'true' than the complex truth (which lacks an ism), and it is only after sufficiant thought has been expended on the falsehood that its true nature becomes apparent. In addition, an Inauthentic Myth can be crafted to appeal to the basic needs and desires of human beings, as well as inate impulses, where as an Authentic myth by definition cannot. Edited by: BornInTheUK at: 9/1/04 10:19 am

Do you have some examples of Authentic myth? To me, all the myths I can think of are irrational, aside from a pure story-telling basis.Some inauthentic myths, to me, are:The Ghost Dance, Farrakhan's Space ship, Heaven's Gate, Jonestown.These myths spring forth from oppressed people hoping for a Final Reckoning of sorts.I cannot think of any other myth, that is raised to a belief or a faith, that I would consider authentic. Oppression, in my view, is not only oppression of human by human, but also the oppression of hoplessness and fear instilled by nature and our place in it; this is where religion comes in.Mr. P. The one thing of which I am positive is that there is much of which to be negative - Mr. P.I came to get down, I came to get down. So get out ya seat and jump around - House of PainHEY! Is that a ball in your court? - Mr. P

"Do you have some examples of Authentic myth? To me, all the myths I can think of are irrational, aside from a pure story-telling basis."I'd say a lot of Greek myths are Authentic, the sword of Damocles, for example, or the myth of Sisyphus (Camus noted the later is Authentic).