The Emergence of Myth (Introduction to the Modernity Series)
(This is an Introduction to a new short-story series that will be made available as they are written)
Mythology is not mythology at its origin. Myths become mythical with time, and we look back in time and wonder at what all “those people” believed in. The Greeks and Romans prayed to their pantheon of gods, gave offerings and sacrifices, and built grand temples dedicated to them. Clearly, those gods and goddesses were real to them, not fairy tale myths like the are to us. Perhaps they had sufficient reason to believe in these characters, but many scholars and most people today just think that all of those colorful gods and goddesses, with their human flaws and traits, were created by the Greeks and the Romans, like characters in a story. That they were created to help the people of the times deal with the unknowable, the mysterious, and the chaotic whims of nature.
So what happens when it appears that there are no more mysteries left to plumb in this world? Or better yet, what happens when humans stop looking to the skies and in their hearts and stop wondering? Does convenience replace the need for God or gods? We modern world people like to think of our ancestors as if they weren’t as “progressive” as us. As if humans today have got it all figured out because Amazon can deliver the material goods they seek immediately (there’s no need to pray!). But if one dives into history deep enough and takes a closer look at some of the artwork, writing, music, and architecture from that era, one may change their minds about the preconceived notion of our ancestors as being less than us somehow.
The gods and goddesses of ancient times emerged in response to external stimuli in the world around them. Poseidon - ocean, Zeus - Thunder, Pan - nature, etc. They also emerged as character traits that humans seek to embody, and thus praying to them and having talismans of specific gods and goddesses would give them the power that the god embodied. Humans will always seek externally for things they desire or want to know more about, because we live in a sensory world and we are constantly seeking “data” of one form or another. Data in this sense can be anything; news on your phone, the rays of sun after a long winter, the visible and audible pleasure of breeze in the summer trees, the feel of the ocean waves pulling you around, movies, books, music, you name it. To our five senses, everything here is data, is it not?
When future humans look back on this time period, will they see our myths in the making? Or is this something we can take a closer look at right now by extrapolating what we know of the emergence of ancient myths and applying this knowledge to the current times we are in? Human desires and fears haven’t changed all that much in thousands of years, something that can also be seen with a dive into history.
What unnamed gods are we praying to now without even realizing it? What we spend the majority of our attention on is, in a sense, what we worship. Our individualized attention is in high demand these days, but why? And who or what are we giving all of our attention and time to? Sailors prayed to Poseidon to calm down the seas and for safe travels because the seas represented the unknown. Musicians gave offerings to Apollo to help them write their songs. Warriors prayed to Ares for strength and courage in battle. Women prayed to Aphrodite/Venus for assistance in the ways of love and beauty. Each of these groups of people were specifically worshipping those gods because that was where all their attention was going during certain times of their lives.
With all that being said, It may be of interest to take a closer look at what people of today and the recent past are spending their time and attention on. In this series we will be looking at all of this through the lens of a fiction short-story stories. The author will attempt to write the myths of the modern world that our many-times great grandchildren may be reading one day, via the medium of an outside perspective known here as Alethia Phos.
