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Mythology - Fact or Fiction?
The answer depends on whom you ask. Historically, a myth is typically an ancient story dealing with supernatural
beings, ancestors, or heroes serving as a way of explaining society's worldview. It explains aspects of the natural
world or the psychology, customs, or ideals of society.
Today, myth is viewed as something that is most likely fictitious, or at best
a truth that has been disguised and distorted. The story is usually fantastic and improvable, involves gods, and
almost always includes incredible or miraculous events, that has no specific reference point or time in history.
Our word Myth is derived from the Greek language
Myth comes from mythos which means anything spoken whether it is speech, conversation, story, or tale. In other words, myth is oral tradition.
The pertinent question, of course, is what did ancient oral traditions mean, if anything? Since no one knows for sure, the meaning of myth should be approached with probabilities in mind. Since myth has survived for millennia and continues to be a relevant subject in a scholastic sense it probably contains meaning. However, what that meaning was is not as easy to deduce. Part of the problem is that we, today, are far removed from the circumstance of ancient civilizations. There are also translation and word meaning difficulties. For example, typical of myth is the notion that a large number of gods exist. For a generally monotheistic society such a thought borders on blasphemy and has a definite tendency for us, naturally, not to attribute any creditability to the story. What if their concept of 'god' was entirely different than today's? What if they were not referring to 'God' as we define it at all?
One of the most famous mythologists of the 20th century was Joseph Campbell. He believed that myth made up a collective 'word of God' for all humanity, and that mythical stories held the wisdom for eternal life. For Campbell, dreams, rituals, art, literature, as well as ideology and science have become varieties of myth rather than alternatives to it. Belief is itself mythical and can be of any form.
Myth as the Language of Prehistoric Science?
During the late 1960's history of science Professors Giorgio de Santillana (MIT) and Hertha von Dechend (the University
in Frankfurt) put forth the idea that myth was a means of disseminating scientific knowledge. Since the days of classic
Greek civilization science and myth have progressed separately. Could it be that the ancient Greek sages and philosophers,
with the understanding of the mythical tales, transferred its knowledge into a new language of science that developed into
what we recognize today? What if the 'gods' were really not supernatural beings at all, but a way of describing natural
phenomenon? Suppose they were a cipher for celestial activity, a way of marking time and commemorating the ages? Can
myth also explain the human experience as consciousness evolved, bringing mankind into civilization?
Anachronistic structures such as the megaliths of Egypt's Nabta Playa and the Great Pyramid suggest that there is more
to the story of mankind than enters the standard history book. Could civilization have once achieved a level of
sophistication that rivals our own twenty-first century technology? Another famous myth, the biblical Tower of Babel,
suggests that this may be the case.
