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Legends constitute an essential part of each country in the world and are employed to illustrate natural phenomena, the place of origin of a people and the way in which their civilization evolved and the reasons behind the occurrence of things as they do. At a fundamental level, myths and mythology reassure us by organizing and attributing certain meanings to what can be perceived as tumultuous times.
Mythology (from the Greek mythos for the story-of-the-people, and logos for the word or speech, the spoken story of a people) is the study and interpretation of often sacred tales or fables of a culture known as myths or the collection of such stories which deal with various aspects of the human condition: good and evil; the meaning of suffering; human origins; the origin of place-names, animals, cultural values, and traditions; the meaning of life and death; the afterlife; and celestial stories of the gods or a god. Myths express the beliefs and values about these subjects held by a certain culture.
Mythology over the centuries has had an important role in all people of the world. Even as far back as pre-historic cave paintings, etchings in stone, tombs, and monuments indicate that, the efforts of human beings to set down their myths in words were already preceded by a belief structure that matches the elements described in a `myth’ as Leach and Fried have defined. In the twentieth century, psychiatrist Carl Jung came up with the fact that myth is an important part of the human psyche that should be recognized as searching for meaning and order in a world that frequently shows itself as chaotic and meaningless.
The essence of Jung that can be forever cited is the numinous quality of the mysterious, holy, and powerful which gives the meaning of the mythological stories and themes as the last and total statement of the only available answer to the human existence. The idea of something unlimited and more powerful than oneself gives one the promise of help and guidance in an unstable universe. As per the words of the two authors, the elusive, the sacred, and the powerful are in fact “a concept of the human mind” from the earliest times: the basic psychological reaction to the universe and environment which underlies all religion”
What we think of as ‘mythology‘ in present time is a religion given in past times. The ancient mythological tales are the building blocks of an elaborate and powerful religion that was once the property of the people. These stories talk about the mundane in an extraordinary way, and bring about discussions of what the Divine wants for humans. Providing knowledge, peace, and discipline, ancient myths summoned listeners and ensured that they felt part of a larger web of security and spirituality.
The myth expert Joseph Campbell, known for highlighting the importance of mythology, argues that mythology is the foundation of every society and the basic structure of each individual’s psyche. In his work of genius The Hero with a Thousand Faces, he deals with the “monomyth” which are the common features in the theme, characters, aim, and narrative pattern of myths from various cultures, at various times, all over the world and throughout the history.
Mythology not only satisfies and supports its believers but it also displays power that it becomes a bridge and elevates their lives from the ordinary to the eternal sacred realm. In the much plainer aspect, a myth serves as a means to elucidate some natural or supernatural phenomenon, to justify the presence of some very old tradition, or to point out a tomb, spring, or mountain. In other words, a myth can effectively create a new past by turning it into an epic, legendary, and even a supernatural event that not only describe a way of but also provide a role model for an individual in terms of the life journey.
Myths mainly fall into major categories like:
Etiological myths, derived from the Greek aetion meaning `reason’, are those which describe the way something is or how it came to be. This is the phenomenon called the story of the origin. For instance, the sycamore tree in Egyptian mythology was the living place of the Hathor, the Lady of the Sycamore, therefore, it looks the way it does. Meanwhile, in Scandinavian folklore, Thors thunder is considered as the sound of his chariot racing across the sky. Etiological myths are the ones that can provide the explanations to the why the world is as it is; for instance, the story from Greek mythology of Pandora’s Box that explains how evil and suffering was released into the world or for example the one that tells us the Chinese myth of the goddess Nuwa who kept creating human beings until she grew tired and tired and had to establish the marriage that humans could reproduce themselves. In any case, characters of myths are instrumental in conveying particular messages either they are communicating marriage or an epic mission or a decisive battle.
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