When we lose our myths, we lose our place in the universe.

― Madeleine L’Engle

To begin with, we must know what a myth means. A MYTH is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in society, such as foundational tales that are closely linked to religion or spirituality. The word myth comes from Ancient Greek, meaning ‘speech, narrative, fiction, myth, plot’. Plato used mythología as a general term for “fiction” or “story-telling” of any kind. The term mythos appears in the works of Homer and other poets of Homer’s era. In these works, the term had several meanings: conversation, narrative, speech, story, tale, and word.

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Looking at these definitions and the origin and persistence of myths throughout our history, one thing is obvious: myths are crucial to our existence and are intrinsically linked to our human identities.

The functionality of myths, according to commentators, lies in the fact that they play a vital role in the formation and shaping of the society as well as social behaviour and that they might also provide religious experiences through the legends they retell. Eliade, in his work ‘Myth and Creation’ argues that all myths are, in a sense, origin myths: “myth, then, is always an account of a creation.” According to him, by telling or re-enacting myths, traditional societies detach themselves from the present, returning to the mythical age, and thereby coming closer to the divine. Devdutt Pattanaik defines mythology as “a subjective truth of people that is communicated through stories, symbols and rituals. Unlike fantasy that is nobody’s truth, and history that seeks to be everybody’s truth, mythology is somebody’s truth” in ‘Why I Insist on calling myself a mythologist’.

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Ancient philosophers postulated some ten explanations for myths, which have been resurrected from time to time right up to the present. Mythographic interpretations, philosophical criticisms, pre-scientific interpretations, allegorical explanations based on natural phenomena, etymological interpretations aimed at creating the impression that myths make ‘sense’, historical, sociological, psychological and euhemeristic interpretations are namely the ten aforementioned postulates.

In today’s time and era, we hold on to these myths to find meaning in almost everything. It need not be a traditional myth that we believe in but our own personally curated idea of looking at the world around us. We derive our perspectives from myths because we can’t deny the fact that our actions are governed by these narratives that had been laid out for us during our childhood. Myths have their own laws, their own realities and their own forms of expression. When we look at mythological stories, we find allegories and fables and see man being faced with fundamental problems of the society. We look at these tales, time and again, to find answers to the most fundamental questions that we are challenged with. Myths also provide a meaningful perspective towards the past by pitting present day situations against the problems and solutions depicted in these tales. In modern society, myth is often regarded as a collection of stories. The basis of modern visual storytelling is rooted in the mythological tradition. Many contemporary films rely on ancient myths to construct narratives.

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A myth expresses and confirms society’s religious values and norms; it provides patterns of behaviour to be imitated, testifies to the efficacy of ritual with its practical ends and establishes the sanctity of cult. The true milieu of myth is to be found in religious rites and ceremonial. The ritual acting out of myth implies the defense of the world order; by imitating sacred exemplars the world is prevented from being brought to chaos. The re-enactment of a creative event, for example, the healing wrought by a god in the beginning of time, is the common aim of myth and ritual. In this way the event is transferred to the present and its result, i.e. the healing of a sick person, can be achieved once more here and now.