Myth & Mankind

I have a love of Myth. Many (many) years ago I remember finding a book in my father’s collection retelling the myths of Northern Europe and Ancient Greece. I remember being sprawled on the floor, the volume being far too big for me to hold easily at that age, pouring over the adventures of the Norse Gods and the antics of the Gods of Mount Olympus. I clearly remember the huge gothic illustrations depicting Thor battling his enemies with his magical hammer and he probably became my first childhood hero. The stories where epic and magical and I loved them.

As I matured my allegiance to Thor diminished and I moved my affections to another Norse God – Odin. Odin has many admirable qualities that I still hold in high esteem today – especially a burning desire to know the truth of things no matter what the cost. How can you not admire a being who plucked out one of his own eyes the more to see clearly and who hung himself on a tree for three days and three nights to gain the wisdom of the runes? His dedication to the pursuit of knowledge makes me feel humble indeed.

In many ways our myths make us who we are and I think it is counter productive and maybe even dangerous to try and eliminate myth from our lives. However, I think that it is equally dangerous (if not more so) to confuse myth with reality. This does not diminish the power or the value of myth but quite the contrary. Myths are not ‘real’ in the sense that they are actual historical events that happened to actual historical people. Odin may have been a real reason – or an amalgam of several warrior chiefs – but he was not a God and neither where Zeus or Athena. But that is unimportant. What is important about our myths is what they teach us about our world and ourselves. They are morality tales, teaching aids and comforts in times of trouble. They should be treated as such and admired as such, retold to each succeeding generation in the style of that generation. But we should never view our myths as anything more than that – not matter how admirable they are. Myths are not history and it is a great mistake to treat them as such but nor are they mere stories to be too easily dismissed. Myths are inspirational tales that can enchant a child and point them on a path to seek the truth no matter what the cost. Who could challenge such a gift from the Gods?