Myths of Cultures and Civilizations Essay -- Civilization, Myths, Lege

From before the dawn of civilization as we know it, humans has formed myths and legends to explain the raw(a) world around them. Whether it is of Zeus and Hera or Izanami-no-Mikoto and Izanagi-no-mikoto, every civilization and culture upon this world has its own mythos. However, the age of myth is waning as it is overshadowed in this new(a) era by fundamental religion and semiempirical science. The word myth has come to connote blatant falsehood however, it was not always so. Our myths have reflected both the society and values of the culture they are from. We have also reflected our inner psyche, conscious and unconscious, unto the fabric of our myths. This reflection allows us to understand ourselves and other cultures better. Throughout the eons of humanitys existence, the myths explain natural phenomena and the cultural legends of the epic hero have reflected the foundations and the inner turmoil of the human psyche.Over the recent centuries, the definition of myth has chang e integrity into a word synonymous with falsehoods and lies. This idea of myths being completely false and therefore useless is a fairly modern one. To combat the rise of empirical science in the 1900s, theologians brought the idea of wholly literal, fundamental religion into being to combat ideas that did not perfectly align with the tenants of the religion (May 24). This was the final death fire to the idea of the metaphysical myth that was already wounded from thousands of years of being denounced as pagan or barbaric. The rise of empirical science also change to the decay of the meaning of myth. Science was able to explain the natural world far better than a myth ever could however, it lacked the metaphysical aspect. Due to these uprise ideologies, myths hav... ...ng, Ph.D.. n.p. 2002. Web. 25 Mar. 2013.Drysdale, Jilian Miller. Faces of the Goddess. Synchronicity. Dec. 1999/Jan. 2000 29-31. Sirs Renaissance. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.Freud, Sigmund. The Future of an Illusion. New Yo rk Norton & Company Inc., 1961. Print.Henderson, Joseph. Ancient Myths and Modern Men. Man and his Symbols. Ed. Carl Jung. New York Doubleday & Company Inc., 1964. 104-158. Print.Jung, Carl. Approaching the Unconscious. Man and his Symbols. Ed. Carl Jung. New York Doubleday & Company Inc., 1964. 1-104.Kromholz, Susan Foster, and P. Kyle McCarter. why Myth Endures. Johns Hopkins Magazine. Aug 1990 32-37. Sirs Issues Researcher. Web, 07 Apr. 2104.May, Rollo. The Cry for Myth. New York Norton & Company, 1991. Print.Sels, Nadia. Myth, Mind, and Metaphor On the Relation of Mythology and Psychoanalysis. n.p. 2011. Web. 25 Mar 2014.