Week 6 Lab: Overview of Mythology

The video noted that there are a variety of different versions of a specific myth, and I've noticed that throughout our class. Although this can make studying myths difficult, it's invaluable in showing how storytelling evolves over time. One narrative can take so many different forms and shift the focus, which makes the story a lot more fluid. Rather than a rigid, defined structure, this malleable nature of mythology makes it fascinating.
It's crazy to think that we don't necessarily know the true authors of these stories, but we've been telling them for so long. Even the authors we know could be re-telling stories that were long forgotten. It shows just how impactful storytelling can be, as it can span across time and the conveyed ideas can be constantly re-imagined.
I had never considered how broad and vague the term "myth" can be until this video, and it's a bit surprising. We definitely use the word as a synonym to mean untrue, but not all myths are easily classified as true or false.

This video made me consider how mythology is actually studied. It's one thing to simply read and analyze the story, but there are so many different factors with mythology that the way it's studied can provide a specific focus.
I knew that mythology has been critiqued and questioned, but I didn't realize these critiques started as early as in ancient Greece. I've always viewed mythology as an initial attempt to explain the world and, as science and logic evolved, mythology shifted to story-telling. However, even with limited scientific discoveries, the role of logic in philosophy primarily drove critiques of mythology. Plato's classification between rational and irrational myths was really interesting, and it shows how conventional thought experiments are also, in a way, myths.
Anthropology's focus with mythology demonstrates how important storytelling was for humans and how we understand the world. I believe these stories can provide some details on how different cultures viewed and engaged with the world around them; these stories can allow us to embrace our diversity.
I definitely agree that mythology serves a functional purpose in ancient and modern societies; these stories establish and reinforce certain values or moral beliefs through storytelling, and the evolution of these stories allows for these values to be retained and cultivated.

This video made me consider the structural and narrative parallels across myths with the monomyth theory. It's a really interesting approach and demonstrates how these set ideas can be manifested and communicated in so many different ways.
It's really interesting how mythology became the crossroads between anthropology and psychology. Campbell's extensive psychological influence with Freud and Jung shapes how we study mythology today.
Storytelling also evolves with the medium, and I feel like movies and TV are a relatively new and influential way to tell stories. The video asserted that stories often end with the prize (the "happily ever after"), which reminded me of a lot of movies. Yet, older myths consider the difficulties of returning home, which can be monumental.

Poseidon from Greek mythology. Source: Pixabay

Indian Epics Blog