To define “mythology,” it is first necessary to clarify the problematic word “myth.” After considering the Greek origins of “myth” in contrast to contemporary popular attitudes, a brief history of the modern academic study of myth follows including major schools and figures. Most prominent among them is Joseph Campbell, who postulated four functions of myth: mystical, cosmological, sociological, and psychological. He is most famous for his three-stage hero’s journey, a universal pattern known as the monomyth, which will be linked to alternative models in feminist theory, anthropology, and sociology. It will also be compared to the tripartite alchemical magnum opus, which uses the analogy of transforming base metals into gold to describe the transformation of the human animal into a thinking soul in accord with Spirit. Finally, having surveyed the field of mythography, or the analysis of myth, this inquiry of mythology concludes with the prospects for mythopoeia, the creative production of myth.
In the contemporary popular attitude, a “myth” is something that is false. Many people use the word “myth” either to mean a lie or a fallacy. But the ancient Greeks had a different usage of the word muthos. The most common meanings in the works of Plato and Aristotle were “story” and “plot.” In the former, myths are inherited tales about typical characters in conflict, a symbolic fiction; in the latter, myths are narrative patterns independent of content. Myth was both a storytelling tradition that could be adapted for different audiences, and also a metaphorical explanation of origins, ideals, and identity. Myth worked by a method of relationship: the unknown was explained through similarity to a known association. In other words, the relation between A and B is the same as the relation between C and x (A is to B = C is to x). This connotative description was rejected by the Greek Rationalists, who sought explicit denotative reasons and facts. Though myth was previously regarded as sacred revelation, the earliest scientists denigrated myth as superstitious and superficial. However, myth and empirical logic are not mutually exclusive or antagonistic opposites, but inseparable complements that inform and support each other. Yet, the false distinction of mythos versus logos was recognized by Roman intelligentsia, and in the contemporary pop culture, the same error causes dangerous confusion and the impoverishment of imagination.
Mythology as a modern academic discipline originates in the context of European imperialism and the invention of cultural anthropology and ethnography. According to Eric Csapo, “When Europe began to expand, first by exploration and then by trade, finally by conquest, exploitation, and colonization, Europeans came into contact with a great many races with strange customs, languages and religions. It was useful to gain some understanding of the ways and manners of these many diverse nations, if only to learn to deal with them more effectively” (11). Victorian-era academics regarded myth as primeval fantasies and a compulsion to control nature in the struggle for material existence. They divided the field of study into mythic thought and ritual actions. In tracing various traditions, scholars were either particularists, emphasizing the difference among myths, or comparativists, emphasizing the similarities among myths. The comparativist method favored a general explanation for the collected evidence; for example, Max Muller regarded myth as the personification of natural phenomenon, such as the solar cycle, whereas James George Frazer regarded myth and rites as the archaic magic of an agrarian lifestyle and the primitive foundation of religion and science.
Joseph Campbell is the most celebrated mythologist of the twentieth-century. In his long career as a writer and speaker, he began as a specialist in medieval literature, studied Dr. Carl G. Jung’s theory of archetypal symbolism, befriended various public thinkers and sages like the disavowed Theosophist Krishnamurti, edited the English translation of The Gospel of Ramakrishna for the Vedanta Society, and after almost forty years as a college professor, starred in a six-part PBS documentary on mythology. His classic book The Hero With A Thousand Faces influenced George Lucas during the writing of Star Wars.
Campbell proposes four functions of myth: mystical, cosmological, sociological, and psychological. He describes these functions in his work Creative Mythology. The first function “is to reconcile waking consciousness to the mysterium tremendum et fascinans of the universe as it is” (4). In other words, the first function of myth is to inspire awe for the beauty of Life and enigma of existence. The second function of myth is to explain the origins of the universe and the processes of nature. The third function of myth is to locate a person in a role within an existing social order and ethical system. Campbell says, “The rise and fall of civilizations in the long, broad course of history can be seen to have been largely a function of the integrity and cogency of their supporting canons of myth” (5). The fourth function of myth is to nurture character through the stages of life, especially the transition from childhood to maturity and from old age to death. An additional aspect of the fourth function of myth is to provide unity of the individual with himself (the microcosm), the culture (the mesocosm), the universe (the macrocosm), and the imminent and transcendent omnipresent Spirit. In a society that lacks mythic vitality, the first function is delegated to religion and philosophy, the second function is delegated to astronomy and physics, the third function is usurped by economics and politics, and the fourth function is poorly tended by schooling and medical science.
Campbell was a comparativist whose unifying idea is the hero’s journey, a three-stage plot he argued is a universal mythic pattern. In The Hero With A Thousand Faces, he describes the outline of Separation > Initiation > Return as thus: “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man” (23). According to Campbell’s model, each of these stages can be further subdivided. The hero may at first refuse the call to adventure, or he may encounter a supporting cast of characters who offer special training and tools that will be useful in the quest. The hero crosses the limits of his known world on a path of tasks, temptations, and ordeals. He travels to unfamiliar and threatening places where he encounters hostile enemies. He may fail in some of his trials and may lose quest companions. In this strange, faraway place, he will overcome danger and win a prize, sometimes a woman but more often a treasure that revives society and renews the world. For example, the pattern as applied in the epic poetry of early medieval literature can be mapped as The Cave > The Dragon > The Gold.
Campbell’s monomyth can also be adapted to feminist theory by a metaphor of the womb or cocoon: Enclosure > Metamorphosis > Emergence. This mythic plot is not strictly a method for literary interpretation; according to Campbell’s fourth function of myth, heroic stories are examples for an individual’s transition through life stages. Anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep proposes a similar model for rites of passage. For instance, childhood attitudes such as dependence, ignorance, obedience, fear, and shame must be transformed into mature attitudes of friendship, generosity, compassion, courtesy, and intelligence. A boy is taken from his mother, severely tested in the wilderness by the elders, then returns to the village as a man. The process can be described as Preliminal Threshold > Liminal Transition > Postliminal Integration. Victor Turner observed the pattern in sociological changes and suggested that transgressions of social norms lead to collective drama then revision of values. This process reflecting the third function of myth can be described as: Disruption > Crisis > Remedy. Lastly, the hero’s journey is comparable to the tripartite alchemical symbolism for evolution of character and the perfection of the Cosmos: Nigredo > Albedo > Rubedo. In the blackening or dark night, there is a descent, tragic reversal, and chaotic destruction. This is followed by whitening in lunar reflection: purification, change of appearance, and reconciliation of conflicting opposites. The sequence ends at the red dawn and the permanent spiritual transformation of the individual (microcosm), social relationships (mesocosm), and nature (macrocosm).
Mythology is a subject with two aspects: first, the mapping work of the academic, what Lawrence Coupe calls mythography, and a second aspect of creative art, what Coupe calls mythopoeia. In Creative Mythology, Campbell says “scholars have traced, described, and taught schools around traditions; and for scholars as a race such work affords a career. However, it has nothing to do with creative life” (40). In Baksheesh and Brahman, the distinction is further defined: “I tend to associate the work of the creative genius in art, literature, science and mathematics with the living, creative aspect of my subject, and the work of the scholiast, priest, and academician (preserving, judging, and formulating rules on the basis of the creative works of the past) with the dead an anatomical or schematic” (161). The modern attitude considered myth obsolete, but this is a mistake! The postmodern mythological project involves not only reclaiming the stories inherited from our ancestors and recovering meaning from the dictionary of the world’s symbols, but also adding to the treasury of wisdom with imaginative innovations and new content based on mythic patterns and functions. A mythic revival can unite people with fresh perspectives and restore dignity and common purpose in a world out-of-balance.
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