Bites of Curiosity

<span style="font-size: 1.5rem;">We create them to understand ourselves, our culture, and our world. And sometimes storytelling is just for fun. Only some of the stories we tell, however, wind up passed down through the generations–most are forgotten. Those that survive become folklore and mythology and touch on something eternal in our humanity.</span>

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People who want to understand evolution read Darwin; people who want to understand mythology read Joseph Campbell. The literary scholar’s work in the mid-twentieth century dove into stories of the world’s cultures, educating much of the English-speaking world about the beliefs of ancient and (to us) foreign societies. But more than that, Campbell had a scientist’s eye for finding common patterns woven into stories from opposite sides of the globe. Whether Appalachian folklore, Greek mythology, or stories about Celtic Gods or Egyption Gods, oral traditions have followed humans through history.

Why do we spend so much time on shared stories?

Do myths have a purpose or are they just a cultural accident? Joseph Campbell, our mythology Sherpa, argued that there are four roles myths can play; they fulfill mystical, cosmological, sociological, and psychological roles.

Myths that play a mystical role center on “realizing what a wonder the universe is, what a wonder you are, and experiencing awe before this mystery.”¹ The trickster Coyote of Native American folklore embodies wit, humor, and chaos. He outsmarted the other gods to steal fire and provide it to humans, and tried to invent his own type of human out of clay but failed because he just couldn’t stop laughing.² Coyote, ghost stories, the Greek Apollo, the American Yeti – these are all stories of awe-inspiring creatures that remind us how bizarre and wonderful this world can be.

Myths that play a cosmological role try to explain how something in the universe works. These are pre-scientific stories that societies develop to understand natural phenomena. Think of the Norse mythology belief that thunder is the sound of Thor riding his chariot into battle, wielding his hammer.³These kinds of myths have mostly died out in the Western world, as modern science took over the territory they used to occupy. But cosmological myths live on in what we’d today call conspiracy theories.

Sociological myths are focused on defending or advocating for some social rule or order. The story of La Llorona is a sociological myth that will be familiar to people who grew up in areas with a large Mexican population. La Llorona was a mother who went into a fit of rage and drowned her children in a river (the story goes) and so is condemned to wander the sides of waterways, wailing in despair, for all eternity.⁴ If she comes across a child near the water at night, she’ll drag them to a watery grave. Countless children from the Southwestern U.S., were told this story to make them avoid playing in drainage ditches in the evenings.

Psychological myths are those that give us self-insight or a guide to our own lives. The Greek Narcissus became so mesmerized by his good looks that he gazed at his reflections until he starved to death, warning us about the dangers of vanity. Japanese folklore warns against excess pride with the story of the Tengu. Tengu are arrogant men who have been reincarnated as mountain goblins. They spend their days punishing the overconfident or abusive. These stories are fundamentally pedagogical, urging us towards or away from particular behaviors or ways of thinking.

What myths persist in the modern world? We mentioned conspiracy theories. Believing the direction of human history is controlled by the whims of gods on Mt. Olympus, on a purely psychological level, may not be that different from believing that the direction of human history is controlled by secret cabals of Illuminati lizard men. The parallel is even closer to astrology. Mercury and Saturn still intervene in our lives, but this time through their position as planets instead of through their actions as human-like deities. The “reclusive monster” myth hasn’t gone anywhere, though regions differ in how they describe this beast (Loch Ness, Chupacabra, Bigfoot, Skinwalkers, Megladon).