Joseph Campbell and Myths

Essay # 56692

Anthropology > Cultural
Literature > World

A look at how myths are intended as lessons about basic codes of society.

2,868 words () | 3 sources | APA | 2005 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper expounds on Joseph Campbell's explanation of how myths are intended to teach individuals about the society in which they function. Through examples from Campbell's text in which Campbell talks about the Greek story of Persephone and Demeter, Arthurian legends, and religious myths, this paper demonstrates Campbell's contention that myths have served as a way of either bolstering the status quo of a culture or society or of teaching that deviation from the status quo will bring ruin.

From the Paper:

"In terms of Greek and Arthurian heroes, the resolution of problems such as the acceptance of duality and harmony often pitted the individualist nature of the hero against a sort of guiding patronage system instilled by either the gods, royalty, or both. Campbell uses the Greek story of Persephone and Demeter as a guiding example, but there are many other examples in Greek myth of the gods acting as intercessors in the mortal realm and providing the sort of conservative instruction advocated by myths. Love in Greek myth is often something that is aligned with supernatural fate, as when the mortal woman who is chased by a god finds herself turned into a dryad, or into some other representational totem. Love is also the source of problematic blame in terms of the battles surrounding Troy in Greek myth and legend. But in any case, the heroes of these myths, when they are acting alone, show that they are stemming from an individual response which must be tailored by the intercession of the gods. If the hero is too individualist and denies the patronage system of the gods and oracles, as Oedipus did, the results are generally tragic."