So what is myth?

[Myth] has been interpreted by the modern intellect as a primitive, fumbling effort to explain the world of nature (Frazier); as a production of poetical fantasy from prehistoric times, misunderstood by succeeding ages (Müller); as a repository of allegorical instruction, to shape the individual to his group (Durkheim); as a group dream, symptomatic of archetypal urges within the depths of the human psyche (Jung); as the traditional vehicle of man's profoundest metaphysical insights (Coomaraswamy); and as God's Revelation to his children (the Church). [Myths are] all of these. The various judgments are determined by the viewpoints of the judges. For when scrutinized in terms not of what it is but of how it functions, of how it has served mankind in the past, of how it may serve today, [myth] shows itself to be as amenable as life itself to the obsessions and requirements of the individual, the race, the age. (Campbell, Hero, 382)

For Joseph Campbell, myth is metaphor (Transformations) that arises from "human imagination moved by the conflicting urgencies of the organs (including the brain) of the human body." Myths, therefore, are closely related to the biological functions of the body (Campbell, "Inner Reaches" 2). Because God "is a mystery that absolutely transcends all human categories of thought," the function of myth is "to put man in accord with nature" and God. (Transformations).

Wendy Doniger points out that, for most people, "a myth is above all a story that is believed, believed to be true, and that people continue to believe despite sometimes massive evidence that it is, in fact, a lie" (Doniger 2). C. S. Lewis once argued that "Myths are lies, even though breathed through silver" (Freeman). However, that is not how we will view myth in this class, even though that is how most people think of myth. Instead, we will view myth the way that J.R. R. Tolkien convinced C.S. Lewis to view myth:

Neither Tolkien nor Lewis (after his conversion) believed myth to mean "stories that are not true," or mere "primitive efforts to explain what is not known." Both were struck, not by the fictional aspect of myth (all myths), but by their profound insight into the nature of human existence and the world in which we live. (Freeman)

Myths, as we will use the word in this class, are "ancient narratives [involving the relation of humans and gods] that attempt to answer the enduring and fundamental human questions" (Leonard & McClure 1).

Our focus will be on understanding the insights that myth provides, both for the cultures that held the myths and for contemporary life. The stories of myth attempt to answer the basic questions of human existence:

Who am I? What is the nature of the universe in which I live? How do I relate to that universe? How much control do I have over my own life? What must I do in order to survive? How can I lead a satisfying life? How can I balance my own desires with my responsibilities to my family and my community? How can I reconcile myself to the inevitability of death? (Rosenberg, xiii)

Myths are the stories we tell that define who we are. The truth of myth doesn't lie in its historicity, its historical accuracy, but in what it expresses about what we believe.

The painter Picasso said that "art is a lie that makes us realize the truth" (Ryken 36), and in this sense, myth is also the "lie that tells the truth." What is important about a myth is not whether it is historically, scientifically, or factually true. What is important about a myth is the truth it reveals. Perhaps this illustration may help explain this seeming paradox. A young man asked Jesus the question, "Who is my neighbor?" In response, Jesus told the following story:

As a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, robbers attacked him and grabbed everything he had. They beat him up and ran off, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road. But when he saw the man, he walked by on the other side. Later a temple helper came to the same place. But when he saw the man who had been beaten up, he also went by on the other side. A man from Samaria then came traveling along that road. When he saw the man, he felt sorry for him and went over to him. He treated his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put him on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next morning he gave the innkeeper two silver coins and said, "Please take care of the man. If you spend more than this on him, I will pay you when I return." (Contemporary English Version, Luke 10.30-35)

The point of this story about the Good Samaritan isn't about whether the story actually happened in historical time. Maybe there was a man who was wounded and helped by a Samaritan passerby, which would make this story historically true. Or maybe, Jesus made up the story as an illustration, which, for some people, would make the story a lie. So, is the story a lie, or did it really happen? It doesn't matter whether or not there was a real Samaritan who really did what the story says. The point of the story is that it tells the truth about what it means to be a good neighbor. It is this kind of truth that myth focuses on.

In this sense of the word myth, we can discuss Babylonian myths, Graeco-Roman myths, or Judaeo-Christian myths, setting aside any religious debate over which is the "right" belief and focusing instead on what we can learn about the truth the stories reveal in what each has to say about the human condition and the great questions that all humans ask.

This is the nature of myth. Myth tells the truth about what it means to be human. In that sense, then, the myths of all cultures--and not just those myths which we may personally believe--express truth. And, like the young man listening to Jesus' story, we can learn from myths, whether historical or imaginative, whether rationally plausible or utterly fantastic, whether the stories of our own culture or the stories told by cultures far removed in time and space from our own.

Our definition has three necessary conditions:

1. It is an ancient story.
2. It is about gods and humans and their relationships with each other.
3. It answers basic questions about life and living.

What is NOT part of our definition

1. Whether the story can be proven or has any basis in any kind of "fact," "history," or "science."
2. Whether some stories are better than others (we may find some preferable because of our own values, but they are not intrinsically "better.")
3. Whether the stories "make sense." What is nonsense to us may make sense to others. What makes sense to us may be nonsense to others.
4. Whether or not we "believe" the story or "agree" with its answers to the basic questions.