Cultural myths are traditional stories with special meaning for a culture, often featuring gods or heroes and offering moral or fanciful explanations. They reveal insights into ancient civilizations and share commonalities, forming the monomyth. Modern storytellers borrow elements to give wider appeal.
A cultural myth is a traditional story that has special meaning for people of a given culture. It is often the story of a god or heroic figure, and sometimes offers a moral or fanciful explanation of a true phenomenon. A cultural myth often includes details of the life or philosophy of the culture that originated it, making it valuable to anthropologists and other social scientists. The study of cultural myths has become a separate academic field, pioneered by writers such as Joseph Campbell, who have found commonalities in many world myths. Modern storytellers often borrow elements from these myths to give their stories wider appeal.
It is likely that myths were the earliest types of stories, exchanged orally by bards and commoners long before the advent of the written word. As literacy began to spread, such myths were among the first tales to be written down, which preserved them long after their societies had perished. Numerous myths have survived in this way, offering insights into the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean, India, and China, among others. Important works of literature based on the myth include The Epic of Gilgamesh, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and Beowulf.
A classic example of a cultural myth is the Greek legend of Icarus, son of the mythical inventor Daedalus. Held captive by an evil king, Daedalus and Icarus escaped when Daedalus created wings of wax and feathers. Icarus flew too close to the sun, melting his wings and falling to his death. Like many cultural myths, this tale was originally told as a historical event, presumably from the ancient past. It also contains a statement about the human condition that could be interpreted in a number of ways: the dangers of technology, perhaps, or a warning against pride.
In 1949, scholar Joseph Campbell published a seminal study of cultural myth, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell noted that the myths of different cultures from around the world shared some commonalities. These included a heroic central figure, a quest or task of some sort, and aiding supernatural agents against a great foe. This cross-cultural trait suggests that a part of human psychology naturally derives satisfaction from hearing this kind of story. Campbell has dubbed this basic mythic storyline the monomyth, or “the hero’s journey.”
Campbell’s work on cultural myth gained wide exposure in the 1980s when director George Lucas recognized Campbell’s influence on the Star Wars saga. The Matrix film trilogy and JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series also employed elements of the monomyth, proving their effectiveness in modern-day cultural myths. The great writers of the past recognized the importance of cultural myth in their own way. For example, when Mary Shelley wrote her classic novel Frankenstein, she subtitled it “the modern Prometheus,” referring to a mythical Greek figure who was punished for sharing forbidden knowledge.
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