Mythoblogia

We all wonder where we have come from and what life is all about, especially so in times of personal crisis. For some it's explained by faith. Faith in ourselves or a deity of some sort; or in our scientists hypothesising and testing their theories. Alternatively we can take a purely philosophical view and work logically within our own minds to seek answers. No matter how we go about it, it's apparent that wonderment and enquiry is part of our human nature.

Historically also, these myths and their accompanying religion or beliefs have suited the time. That is to say they met a need, or served a purpose. That raison detre may have been to explain, to empower or to enslave. In any case it supported the philosophy and power structures that existed at that time; these beliefs then evolved gradually or were overthrown as needed, by individual rulers with their own agendas.

Of course these gods, faiths and beliefs sprang from the nature of society that existed at the time. It was relevant to the time. If we accept that premise, we can imagine a Neandertal society 100,000 years ago having some rituals and beliefs surrounding, supporting and explaining fears and practical needs, such as death, the hunt, and the cycles of the seasons. There is evidence that is so. Cro Magnon man may have broadened his horizons into more artistic realms but remained enslaved to the seasons, the hunt, the need to find food and shelter. Cro Magnon's basic survival fears may have lessened but the archaeological record attests to this continuing need-based ritualism. Logically their lives remained centred around food and shelter. Survival skills, the need to maintain detailed seasonal and geographical information about dangers, the sources of our food and shelter were paramount. When such resources were scarce we looked for answers. It is only logical that the answers we found were based on what we could see or feel, be it the earth itself, the moon, or the stars above.

When more recently we were struck by the idea of staying put our faith changed again. We understood and controlled our needs to a greater extent and gradually explained away many of our fears; growing our food in one spot and sharing the excess with others allowed us to specialise and divert ourselves in new ways. The seemingly simple ideas of agriculture and animal husbandry changed our lives enormously and put new strains on our beliefs about the earth, the sun, the stars and ourselves. The emphasis of our lives had changed over time, gradually, to a more studied understanding of the seasons, the phases of the moon and so on, in tune with our agricultural needs. But as the specialisation of labour gathered pace and many more people lost touch with the earth and the cycles of life, there was a vacancy for more abstracted heroes and villains, rather than the simpler fire, mother earth and water gods of our past.

And so it goes till the present day.

My recommended reading list on this includes Jared Diamond's Guns Germs and Steel, which has an excellent and believable account of how agriculture and animal husbandry set the stage for many of our societal changes; and Joseph Campbell's Masks of God for his insights into our religious evolution.

I will cover in this blog subjects beyond literal truth. And I use truth advisedly as mathematics is the only provable truth, IMHO. Everything else is either awaiting a mathematical proof or is a belief, a theory or an assumption.

Just to explain my thinking: you may believe in what you can see, hear and/or touch, and that's cool; but it's not necessarily a literal truth. Even if a thousand people see, hear and/or touch that thing it doesn't make it true. It may be real enough to the people concerned but it's not an incontrovertible truth. It may be an illusion. It may be a shared thought. It may be a shared assumption. It's something, but it's not a literal truth. To be a literal truth requires proof. To my mind we can only be certain of mathematical proofs, as I haven't seen any other proof that convincingly lives outside the mind or perception of man.

And I could be wrong about maths. Perhaps there is no independent proof? Ahhh, but that's an undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns....

So to the first installment of my 'way out but worth it' booklist, in no particular order:

• Bill Shakespeare's works in full. An essential lesson in the use of the English language, up there with Fowler's.


• The Elegant Universe (by Brian Greene. Post-Einstein string theory to get you thinking.)


• Anything by Richard Dawkins or Stephen Jay Gould. As I said, there are mathematical proofs and there are theories. Some theories are more compelling than others.


• The Torah (the Pentateuch, the Book of Moses: a lively read, basis for Judaism and the Old Testment and a fascinating read on any level)


• The Bible (Greek for 'Books'; The Old and New Testaments: basis for the Christian cults and a brilliant read)


• The Koran (Arabic for 'Recital': another excellent piece of writing and the basis for Islam. I have the Dawood translation)


• The History of Magic (by Eliphas Levi: a great, compelling read. Spot the a ha! 'Harry Potter' moments and see the footprints of Rowling's research)


• The Theory of Celestial influence (by Rodney Collin: immensely detailed, it wallows around trying to 'prove' a case scientifically but falls magnificently short. Can be heavy, clumsy and painful to read... but still worth it for the determined!).
  

• Anything by Joseph Campbell, but Occidental Mythology is a great start. I'll get to Joe in a moment.
  

That's just for starters. Let me know what you think.

This entry was originally posted on Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006 at 9:51 am on my OODB site and is filed under No idea where this one goes, Writing, Religion and Essential Truths. You can follow any responses to this entry through the usual RSS feeds here or there. You can leave a response by commenting here , or trackback from your own site.

Welcome to my world. I grew up reading the myths and legends of Greece and Rome and I've never quite shaken the bug. I won't restrict myself to blogging about the western classical myths, I aim to take on all myths. By that I mean explore the stories and unearth what I can. I'm not trying to be judgemental... I just find it interesting.

There are plenty of other sites on the web that do a great job, but I'm not setting up to compete. This is my show, designed to suit my taste. If you find it interesting too then that's great - and a bonus.

Cheers for now, Rob.