Myths and Legends Explained

It is in the nature of humankind to tell stories, and at the root of every human culture are the stories we call myths—stories of the creation of the world and of humankind, of the deeds of gods and heroes, and of the end of time. Such stories explain and justify the world, and define our role within creation. Once a civilization has become established, the myths that formed it may dwindle into superstition or entertainment, but even so, they never lose their intrinsic power, for the world’s mythologies enshrine all the poetry and
passion of which the human mind is capable. From ancient Egypt to Greece and Rome, from West Africa to Siberia, from the Hindu concept of Brahman and the endless cycle of creation to the eternal Dreaming of the Australian Aboriginals, the same themes recur, as humankind engages with the great mysteries of life and death. The best definition of myth is Maya Deren’s in her book on the Voodoo gods: “Myth,” she writes, “is the facts of the mind made manifest in the fiction of matter.”

What is Myth?

The word myth derives from the Greek mythos, signifying “word” or “story.” A myth has different meanings for the believer, the anthropologist, the folklorist, the psychologist, the literary critic. That is one of myth’s functions—to celebrate ambiguity and contradiction. There is no more point expecting a myth to offer a single, clear, consistent message than there is in trying to turn one of Shakespeare’s sonnets into plain prose. Like poetry, mythology offers away of understanding the world through metaphor. Stories adapt and change according to the teller and the context; myths are not fixed and dogmatic but fluid and interpretive.
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