Benefits of Reading Myths
“Myths explore mysteries; they do not explain them.”
Reading myths can be beneficial for several reasons. First, myths often teach essential universal truths. They can also help readers understand other cultures and their beliefs, and branches of myths exist as fairy tales, folklore, folktales, lore, fables, legends, and allegories conveying moral lessons. Additionally, myths can be entertaining and provide readers with an escape from the everyday world.
Myths are stories that have been passed down through generations. Many of them contain elements of truth, but over time they have become exaggerated or distorted. In some cases, they have been used to explain natural phenomena people could not understand. Myths can teach about moral truths, such as the dangers of hubris or the power of love.
“Myths are stories that express meaning, morality or motivation. Whether they are true or not is irrelevant.” —Michael Shermer
When our ancestors first gathered around the fireplace, they began telling stories, and this unique behavior makes us human and separates us from other animals. And to this day, whether on social media, during lunch, or around the dinner table with loved ones.
Our stories serve as a foundation for how we navigate our lives as individuals, tribes, or societies, according to the discipline of mythology, on which I will expand further in a subsequent post. These stories also demonstrate how myths can still serve as moral instruction for us today, just as they did for our ancestors.
These wide, varied, and yet similar cultural stories or “myths” came from the Greek word “mythos,” which means “story of the people.” The ancient accounts of (metaphorical) truths of humanity’s collective knowledge of the mystery of life through story, ritual, and symbols.
Sacred stories
Many cultures today still hold onto ancient beliefs, such as the tenets espoused by ancient legends. In a past without written records, sacred tales were passed down through the generations through song and dance, or through the prophecies of wise elders like shamans. Sacred in that the myths give insight into the mysteries of life and the human condition as well as the meaning of life with:
- Cosmological, supernatural, natural phenomenon
- Their gods, heroes, religious beliefs, rituals, values, symbolism
- Cultural traits, laws, customs, norms, taboos, traditions
- Creation, why we exist, the meaning of life, and the afterlife
- Why the tiger has stripes, or why does the rainbow appear
In many ways, they are necessary aspects of the human psyche as a species that needs to find meaning and order in a chaotic and meaningless world. Thus ancient mythologies can offer us the comfort we seek when no other source like science can fill.
“Folk tales and myths, they’ve lasted for a reason. We tell them over and over because we keep finding truths in them, and we keep finding life in them.” —Patrick Ness
Tradition, ritual, symbols
A tradition is a set of beliefs or behaviors handed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning and a sense of origin. Some traditions are rooted in documentation like the Bible or the United States Constitution. Some oral traditions are transmitted and transcend time as norms or secluded tribes.
Rituals are not uncommon and subtle, from washing your hands after using the bathroom, holding the door for the person behind you, and hand-shaking after an interview to structure ones such as a football team performing an act to rile up players or worship rites in a Church. They’re a sequence of gestures, words, and actions, and in some cases, including objects. Rituals are a set of behaviors to ease anxiety (prayer or meditations), motivate or reaffirm a psychological undertaking valued in society and the individual too — rites of passage from apprentice to journeyman — from child to adult.
“Rituals are the enactment of Myth. Participation in the Ritual is participation in the Myth. Rituals put the individual in accord with their inner wisdom. The wisdom that is inherent within us. The individual consciousness is being reminded of their life’s wisdom.” —Joseph Campbell
Every day, symbols are everywhere, from street signs to sports team logos to even the lions that stand for courage; they are mental shortcuts that give life context and meaning and reveal aspects of life that portend or point to a pattern that requires our attention. This is the case because we speak in symbolism: symbolic language.
“Symbolic language is a language in which inner experiences, feelings and thoughts are expressed as if they were sensory experiences, events in the outer world. It is a language which has a different logic from the conventional one we speak in the daytime, a logic in which not time and space are the ruling categories but intensity and association.” —Erich Fromm. The Forgotten Language: An Introduction to the Understanding of Dreams, Fairy Tales, and Myths
How myths can teach us about our culture
Most cultures have myths—stories that explain their beliefs about the world and their place in it. They often contain gods and goddesses who represent natural forces or human qualities. They teach us about our culture’s values and how to live harmoniously with the world around us.
Myths can teach us about our culture in several ways. They can provide insight into our belief systems and help us understand why certain things are essential to our culture. Myths can also teach us about our history, providing stories that explain how we came to be where we are today. Occasionally, myths offer guidance on how to live our lives, teaching important lessons about right and wrong, good and evil.
Whether we realize it or not, myths play an essential role in our lives.
How myths can teach us about ourselves
Reading myths can teach us a lot about ourselves. For one, Greek myths can show us how to deal with difficult situations like Odysseus’ arduous return to home in the Odyssey. They can also teach us how an everyday person can go from zero to hero with the support of others, such as in the Greek Myth of Jason and the Argonauts. They can also teach us why “be careful what you wish for” in the story of King Midas and the Golden Touch. In short, reading myths can help us understand ourselves better and become better people. Stories like the Iliad, where the Trojan Hector can teach us how to act composed and treat people well while someone in the family started a ten-year war.
“Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.” —Thomas Aquinas
How myths can entertain us
It’s no secret that myths have been around for centuries. They’ve been used to entertain us, teach us lessons, and even explain the unexplainable. But what are myths, really? And why do they continue to captivate us?
A myth is a story that is not true but is believed by many people. They usually involve gods, heroes, and monsters and often have a moral lesson at the end. They’re often passed down from generation to generation and can be found in cultures worldwide.
So why do we love myths so much? For one, they’re entertaining. They’re full of suspense, action, and adventure. They make us laugh, cry, and everything in between. But more importantly, they help us make sense of the world around us. Today various cultures are still largely influenced by the stories, arts, and history found in many cultures’ myths.
Metaphorical truths
Mythology isn’t only the study of sacred stories and truths about ourselves, our history, reality, the varied phenomena, the cosmos, and our place in the mysteries of life as we contend with finding meaning and understanding in what seems like a universe indifferent to us. Myths contain cautionary tales that, to the reader who gleans the wisdom from these stories, act in a way that they have an advantage in the outcome of their lives, and through metaphor, we grasp these truths as if they were in their literal truth statement. Orson Scott Card says it well:
“Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space.” —Orson Scott Card
To further help illustrate this point about metaphors in myths, I stumble upon Bret Weinstein, I believe, who coined the phrase “metaphorical truth” in his summation from an evolutionary biological lens:
“We tend to think of intellect as having evolved because knowing what’s true gives you an advantage, but there’s nothing that says that the literal truth is where your advantage lies. And so I have a category called ‘literally false, metaphorically true.’ And here’s where ideas that aren’t true in the factual sense but they are true enough that if you behave as if they are true, you come out ahead of where you would be if you behaved according to the fact that they’re not true.” — Bret Weinstein, speaking with Jordan Peterson (and Joe Rogan), transcribed
I will provide a couple of examples in the context of myths:
- A dad tells his five-year-old son to keep his distance from a porcupine because if he gets too close, the porcupine will shoot its quill at the boy and die. It’s not literally true that a porcupine can shoot its quills. Still, it’s metaphorically true enough for the boy to keep his distance because the quills can puncture a vital organ or receive an infection. By this boy gleaning this wisdom, he has the advantage over other boys who don’t keep their distance from the porcupine.
- In the story of Pandora’s Box, Zeus tells Pandora not to open the box, and as the cliche goes, “curiosity killed the fool,” and she opens the box. Then all the known evil is released into the world among mortals, and she shuts it; however, she feels a pang of profound guilt and opens once more and what’s left is hope. It’s not literally true; this is how all human sufferings occurred, but it’s metaphorically true that despite personal or historical hardship, we hope it will get better than participating in hell or admitting defeat.
“A myth is a way of making sense in a senseless world. Myths are narrative patterns that give significance to our existence.” —Rollo May
The Gist
“Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths.” —Joseph Campbell
Reading myths can be a valuable experience for many reasons. First, myths can provide insights into the human condition and the world’s workings. Myths can also teach moral lessons and help readers understand different cultures. Finally, reading myths can be simply enjoyable and entertaining. Reading myths can be worthwhile, whether looking for meaning or a good story.
- Sacred stories in myths give humanity a sense of meaning and order by asking where they came from and why the tiger has stripes. What it means to be a good person capable of evil acts, how life started, and where they’re going after death in what seems like a chaotic and meaningless world.
- Tradition tells us what behavior we accept in society and what we ought to behave like. Rituals are subtle, from brushing our teeth in the morning to rallying a football team for a big game and having my cup of coffee before I start my writing project.
- Symbols are everywhere, and we create them to draw meaning because they’re shortcuts to our psyche that give life purpose and context and explore the mysteries of the unknown.
- Numerous lessons about our culture can be learned from myths. They can shed light on our values and assist us in comprehending why some things are fundamental to our culture.
- Myths can also help us learn about our past by telling us tales of how we got to where we are now.
- Myths contain cautionary tales that, to the reader who gleans the wisdom from these stories, act in a way that they have an advantage. “Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space.” Like in Pandora’s Box, be cautious of the consequences of too much curiosity because sometimes it’s better to mind your own business.
In my next post, I’ll convey the benefits I discovered from reading in visual arts: movies, TV shows, and video games.
