Mythology: Enlightened

Personal Mythology: Enlightened

There are many definitions and types of myth. As I have grown older, I have learned that a myth is more than the Greco-Roman stories with which I am familiar. Indeed, as our author says, "We have come to think of myths as conveyors of information, rather than odd examples of pagan superstition" (Leeming, 1990). This is the sense with which I look forward to learning in this class. In this paper, I answer three questions:

Changing View of Mythology

At first, I found it difficult to remove the definition of myth as something not true from my brain. Once I was able to do this, however, I truly saw an entirely new perspective. Myths are not just interesting stories, but absolutely meaningful metaphors for encounters and situations that we face in our lives every day. The research

Myth in Contemporary Society

I think popularly, or perhaps I should say consciously, myth is the "alligator in the sewer." While in reality, it is something that affects our view of many things. The hero myth of the presidential office could be one reason that the vast majority of Americans believed that the invasion of Iraq was justified. Most could not fathom that our hero, the president, could lead us down the path that we can now look back upon and see that it is not where we thought we were going...

Many in our society discount myths as worthless or as simple entertainment. They fail to recognize the spiritual significance in myths and fail to see the spiritual connection to their own lives. In missing the importance of myths, people deprive themselves of the spiritual guidance and direction myths offer. They find themselves either isolated from society, or in the criminal's case, working against it.

Personal Mythology

To be honest, before this class, I never thought of mythology as something personal or as having an impact on my work ethic. I have learned, however, that the interpretation or understanding of the concepts, symbolism, and morality in myths truly does affect how we view the world around us. In a society that values, perhaps to the point of worshiping, individualism, the collective view is that we make ourselves by conscious