What is a myth?
An enthralling introduction to Greek and Roman mythology.
Greek mythology has always been such an interesting topic for me, especially the different stories. While I may not believe in them, I do think that they are intriguing and contain certain morals. Of course this may not be true of all the stories, in my judgement, having some knowledge of the myths is more beneficial than not.
Before getting into any specific stories, I would like to start with what are myths? How are they defined? In reality, myths are immensely hard to define, and there are many definitions based on people’s beliefs. One definition is that myths are used to figure out and describe the world and things such as love or beauty. They are stories that reveal meaning to something common and universal to humans.
So are they a lie, or are they the deepest truths?
Some said that myths were the window to a specific part of cultures and contained the most valuable parts of those cultures. Nonetheless, values change over time and myths change to fit those values.
So are myths universal truths, or specific cultural truths?
In Ancient Greek myths were known as mûthos (μῦθος). In those times the first definition was that any words that come out of someone’s mouth was mûthos. Later it became any story that was spoken was a mûthos. It had to have a plot: a beginning, a climax and an ending.
Even later then that, myths became known as a tall tale, but one that had an underlying meaning to it if you dug deeper and looked closer.
None of the definitions are wrong, and in fact some are just a more evolved definition from the last, but some can be shown to be correct.
Everyone knows Hercules. The Greek hero who had to complete twelve labours but none know of the history of how the story came to be.
There is the movie Hercules in 2014 starring Paul Telfer, but that’s not where the story came from. Before the movie there was Hercules in 2005, a theatrical performance, starring Dwayne Johnson and before that, the animation Hercules made in 1995 and so many more. But that’s still not where the story starts.
There is a statue of Hercules made by the Romans. It looks much more like the real Hercules in comparison to the actors, with a more chiseled figure, more scary and intimidating. That looks like the real Hercules. Yet, the statue covers up parts that are thought to be inappropriate but the Ancient Romans and Greeks didn’t think it was inappropriate. So the statue must have been based on an older statue made by the Ancient Romans, and that must have been the original, right?
Well, the name Hercules was actually made by the Romans but the original name was different. The Romans changed the name Heracles, which was made by the Greeks, so that the name sounded more Roman.
So there is the original. The Ancient Greek name Heracles, but wait. Before the Ancient Greeks there was still more history, and what about the story of Hercules, how did that change over time?
The truth is, we will never know how a story was originally made or was originally told. The changes in the story of Hercules illustrates this, but it also illustrates something else. The Roman’s covered up parts of the statue because they thought it was inappropriate, despite the Ancient Romans thinking differently. It shows that as the times change, so do the values. And as the values change, so does the story.
A myth is forever changing, and not knowing how it started is okay. There is, however, a prominent feature in the different stories that have all been changed over time. Humans. We are always somehow part of the story. Perhaps not always, but sometimes, in fact most of the time, myths reveal meanings and truths to humans. What is a human? What is it to be a human? These are the things that some of the stories answer. These are what the stories of heroes and gods tell us.
If there was anything you didn’t understand let me know and please do tell me if you wish I could do something better on instagram @learningwriter. Thank you and I hope you continue to learn with me.
