Historical Overview

Paleolithic hunters

One of the earliest peoples with their own set of mythology were the hunters in the Paleolithic Period which lasted from about 20,000 to 8,000 BCE. Although they did not keep written record of the stories, fragments of their stories appeared in those of later cultures. According to Armstrong (2005), “Mythology was as essential to their survival as the hunting weapons and skills that they evolved in order to kill their prey and achieve a degree of control over their environment” (p. 12). The theme of a people using myths in order to feel a sense of control over, or explain aspects of, their environment in recurring in the study of myth across cultures. It continues with the farmers of the Neolithic Period (~8,000 to 4,000 BCE), early civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt (~4,000 to 800 BCE), and subsequent time period into modern day.

The Greek Empire was most active between about 800 and 100 BCE (The British Museum, n. d.). The Roman Period began between 200 and 100 BCE and extended until the 300’s CE. Both civilizations were active outside of these time periods as well and are still regarded as times of some of the most growth in philosophy, academics, art, and culture. Mythology was an enormous part of Greek and Roman culture. It was arguably “as important as history for...understanding...what those peoples...believed and thought and felt, and expressed in writing and in visual art” (Grant, 1962, p. xvii). Historians often look to Greek and Roman myth as a reflection of their societal practices and system of beliefs.

Stone altar of Roman gods

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, myth started to be seen as obsolete by people who would rather look to science for explanations about the world around them. This means that “intuitive, mythical modes of thought” are “neglected in favour of the more pragmatic, logical spirit of scientific rationality” (Armstrong, 2005, p. 121). Because of this modern mindset, humans are running the risk of eliminating the practice of oral mythology from our culture altogether. Various philosophers have explored the dichotomy between mythos and logos, a term referring to practicality and facts. In the nineteenth century Thomas H. Huxley called for people to “choose between mythology and rational science, and there could be no compromise” (Armstrong, 2005, p. 132). The American ideal of separation between church and state can also be related to this idea, church corresponding to mythos and state to logos.

Reading to children

Myths take unexpected form in modern times. Novels can be seen as a kind of myth, because the author is speculating on a certain aspect of life in order to explain why the universe operates the way it does. Reading aloud to children is a way to keep the oral tradition alive, passing the practice on to the next generation. Although the motivation behind the practice may have altered slightly from survival to entertainment over the centuries, humans still use oral tradition and mythos regularly just as the Paleolithic hunters used those things to gain inspiration and reason before a hunt.