Importance of the Myth

The first day of class Dr. Sexon said a couple of things that really stood out as powerful to me. One thing that he said was, "It all goes back to myth." Although this might not seem overly powerful or significant at first, if one really thinks about it they will see that it is. If everything goes back to myth, and it is therefore all encompassing, one would be able to relate anything that they do or say today to something that was written or spoken hundreds of years ago. It would seem then, that the human race has not advanced as much as it is commonly thought. Yes, our technology has advanced considerably, but we are still privy to the same conflicts and situations today as the "savages" were before us. This can be tied into the five dramatic conflicts in life presented by George Steiner. The conflicts between men and women, age and youth, the individual and society, the living and dead and gods and men are still very much present today.

This leads to the next things that Dr. Sexon said, which is "Mythology is the truth, history is the facts." Although I would argue that history is not necessarily what I would call "fact," considering it is recorded and skewed by humans, mythology is surely the truth. Now there are plenty of people who would laugh at this notion because many mythological stories are fabrications of the imagination. For example, someone reading Ovid's Metamorphosis would scoff at the claim that the gods caused a woman named Salmacis and a man named Hermaphroditus actually melted into one body. It is absurd. However, it is not the actual details of a mythological story that are "true," but the themes and morals presented in them. They remind us of the human condition, and the problems that we face. An idea that ties into this, and that has also become the theme of the class, is that "the past posseses the present." Everything that is done, has been done before in one form or another.

I am not sure why exactly these ideas struck a chord within me. I suppose they just made me look at things in a different way. Before taking this class I read the Iliad and the Odyssey. After Dr. Sexton said these things I immediately thought back to these two classic epics and considered the many internal conflicts and emotions that the characters faced that can still be seen today. For example, love is still a very relevant emotion as is courage and loyalty. Achilles' thirst for fame and glory can be seen within American society as well. War, along with the death and sorrow that accompany it, is very much a part of American life with the conflict in Iraq. We share many of the same dilemmas and characteristics as those presented in the two epics despite the fact that they were written so long ago. On would find that the same concept holds true when applied to Shakespeare's writings as well as other old writers. The past does posses the present, and the concepts that are presented in mythology do hold true throughout all time.