Reference no: EM131554449

Discussion

One salient feature of the myths is that they generally show, through stories, how the eternal enters the life of mortals and changes things. This is one of the important ways that myths are different from fairy tales, campfire stories, legends, and fiction in general.

The eternal can be gods in the stories, or it can be Ideals or principles such as truth, justice, and so forth. The Greek word "logos" is that power of the universe that reigns over all things, even the gods--if they misbehave, they are pounished, and that is Logos. It means "the word," but in the sense that we might say, "What is the word on the economy?" It means the word about things in the sense of explaining them--how and why they work as they do.

Thus English words ending in "-ology" such as psychology mean "the word about the psyche, or mind." The Greeks believed that where there is order, there is mind, so the order of the universe indicates a mind, even above and beyond the gods. This view of things was shown in the Gospel of John--John knew Greek philosophy, and began his Gospel, "In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and was God... and the Logos became flesh and walked among us... (Christ)." (Logos is translated in King James as Word.) Thus the Christian story of creation is radically different from the Hebrew story in Genesis.

But in reading the myths, always look for the eternal, the beyond, as it reigns over our world. This is not the case in all stories, such as horror movies (werewolves) or fairy tales (Santa Claus).