Myth. Why did myth survive the scientific and philosophic challenges of the classical Greek world - Essay Example

? Why did myth survive the scientific and philosophic challenges of the ical Greek world? This is the age of sciences in the nano scales. But still there are some evidences that certain Greek mythology survive the classical Greek world. This assignment is to question logically as why the myth survived the scientific and philosophical challenges of the classical Greek world. Why did the myth survive the scientific and philosophical challenges of the classical Greek world? Introduction: Myth is some idea or a belief which is absurd and fictitious and has originated in the prehistoric times which came into being naturally and inevitably. The myths developed due to the fact that the inhospitable environment that the primitive man encountered. The origin of the myth during the prehistoric times or during the childhood of mankind might due to two reasons: one may be the fear that might have been created during an occurrence of the natural phenomenon such as thunder or storm for example, and another might be as a remembrance of the events of the past. So, as the history of the mankind developed, the language and the practices also developed along with the myth. The religion, rituals and the myths are all developed in parallel but are distinct from one another. The myths have a great part in the development of the religion. However, equating the myth with the religion is not possible. Myth is the response of the mankind to the natural environment (Graff, Fritz., et al., 1996). Over the centuries, Greek culture developed and underwent many changes in this context of the myths. Until a few centuries the Greeks were supporting myths and after the eighteenth century the Greeks used to refer the word myth by ‘muthos’ which means stories and words and started defending with the evidence of the scientific evidences and facts referred by ‘logos’. So now let us discuss the role and the functions of the myth. The functions of the myth: The forms of the myth include stories depicted in the form of images drawn or sculptured, poems, songs and rituals and practices. But the main question arises is that what does the myth convey in the form of stories and images. The word ‘logos’ has different connotations such as principle, reason, argument and reasons. So the first thing is that the myth is developed out of lack of explanations. Explanations: Myth seemed to have strong thoughts on the areas where the scientific and reasoning does not produce the results. To explain briefly, myth plays a strong role where the reasoning doesn’t seem much to offer. For example, in the case to speculate what happens after the death. A common explanation is that death is a fact and can occur to anybody regardless of their age and status of their living. If we reason out this fact the next immediate question arises is that what would happen after death and it would be related to the good and the bad lives the individual had lived through out his / her lifetime. So in order to explain this question it is sorted out that the soul of those who lived good lives would go to the Elysium and the soul of those who lived bad lives would go to the Tartarus and punished to the degree of unpleasantness. Another part where the myth played its role is the place where there is unreliable and nonexistent of historical evidences. So these kinds of explanations depend on the social, cultural and the educational background of the believer and what is actually believed. Reinforcement: The reinforcement of the political, social and ethical position of the subject in the context might also be a reason for the explanations of the myths. For example the Roman emperor Nero used to identify him with Gods in order to manipulate his image. In order to impress this myth the emperor image was cast in the coins by the architects which would image him as a god. Issues: The issues which created as a result of the reinforcement of the authority are social and cultural tensions, and dilemmas. Therefore a myth could be changed and manipulated to purposely introduce the tension in the society to gain political and social powers. Allegory: The myth may hint a message that might happen or is happening with a meaning that is beyond the exact meaning. This is referred as allegory. This can be explained that a story narrative with the individual details which altogether can narrate a further message that is beyond the real meaning. So the interpretation of the narrative might be a myth. For example, in Greek mythology, the battle between the gods might be an interpretation of the conflict between the natural elements such as fire, water, air, earth. Hence the allegory is an exaggeration. So the four main points which offer to the existence of myth are the Explanations Reinforcements Issues Allegory (further messages) The myth is associated with the emotion and the reason is associated with the intellect. The Myth and the reason always have the contradicting ideas. There is always a possibility that these two may collapse under the condition that the narrative is ‘polysemous’. That is the narrative can describe too many stories. It is further reinforced that a scene in the narrative might sometimes include or exclude certain individual characters. So it is up to the narrator who describes the myth. So different imaginative are free to develop their own interpretations. So, the basic formation of the myth is the lack of the data which is precise that is found in the historical times, classical age of data and records. The speculative view of the early ages of Greeks and the society were populated with hero and heroines of the Trojan War. The poet of the epics Homer dramatized these peoples and constituted the Greek literature of the classical ages. This is further exploited by the BCE fifth century’s dramas. Thus the myths and the stories has been evolved, changed and being carried from generations to generations until the sixth centuries BCE. The origin of reasoning and science: It is a ‘paradigm shift’ at the fifth and the sixth centuries BCE where the science and philosophical beginning played roles of the thought process of the humans about the universe. Through the observations of the natural phenomenon the science broke out through the process of rational thoughts and the people thoughts start to shift from the unpredictable gods to the regularly ordered universe through observations. This age is defined as the age of revolutions. The humans cannot differentiate between the science and philosophy. All the thinkers who have been engaged in the process of finding the unveiled truths of the universe and the nature of natural phenomenon are labeled as ‘presocraties’. They are named as if they are the predecessors of Socrates. All other thinkers engaged in the art of rhetoric thinking and concentrating towards the social issues were designated as ‘sophists’. Other groups are thinkers of happenings of that age perceiving in the same direction as before sixth centuries. But there is no evidence for all the statement said above because the records might have been made but is extinct to this age because of the durability of the materials used for recordings. Few remains give us unsatisfactory information. Some of the remains of the fourth century are the works of Plato and Aristotle. The first scientific thinker who was popularly known as the ‘seven sages’ is the Thales. The early philosophers of the sixth centuries are called as the Ionian philosophers. Some of them include Herodotus, Thales, Anaximander and Aristotle. These philosophers gave several interpretation of the universe about the day and night, movement of stars and about the earth, air, water and fire. They all perceived a kind of order in the universe which was quite difficult to realize. The heavenly bodies were seen as a kind of natural happenings than the god and better explained as the rings of fire which are wrapped in vapors. The word meteorology is derived from the Greek word. The map of the world was derived in this century. It was the time which regarded as the earth was stationary. Then came is the age of Xenophanes. They perceived that human worshipped gods are like humans in appearance and different gods were worshipped by different races. The same principle is applied to the animals also. This was the perfect myth which is absurd happened in Xenophanes age. The nature of the divinity perceived by the Xenophanes seemed to be positive. The enlightenment: The fifth century BCE is described as the age of enlightenment. The city of Athens was produced in this time. The words historic were coined by the Herodotus and he was considered as the father of history. The awakening of the reasoning and questioning ability to myths was developed in this age through dramas so that it could reach as mass audiences. Noticing different habits of different races named as the historic by Herodotus. The geography of the world was perceived by Herodotus. The terms ‘sophist’ came from the Greek world used to designate one who teaches or one who possess expert knowledge in poems, music, philosophy and statesmen. Thus the dissemination of radical ideas started to spread. A key figure of the fifth century BCE is the Socrates who is responsible for the intellectual developments. But the history knows that Socrates as a personality and have almost no evidence of this intellect. He has very few writings than the presocraties. Some of the characteristics of him were described in the dramas by Plato. Socrates was sentenced to death since people of that age were not able to bear his intellectual and for the charge of corrupting the youths. People were finding it difficult to the revolution ideas given by Socrates and sentenced him to death. Myth to reasoning and questioning: The ‘logos’ and the ‘mythos’ started defending each other and the myth is explored as a myth after the findings of the scientific observations and the facts are shown in figures. Yet some of the mysterious unexplained beliefs remain a myth. Some of the examples are the belief of the god, life after death etc. The myths are proved to be myth by the arguments done on the rational basis. Myths can be used as a form of entertainment. Myths are also performing to some extent in raising the moral values to the society. Few of the behavior which is inhumane can be curbed by the myth. For example, humans are not supposed to do any harm to other humans and animals. Though it is a fact if we express it mythological like god hates such people or one will go to the Tartaus after their death then the number of people following the myth would increase at the same time raising the moral values and behaviors. Thus myth has the time to perform. But always reasoning and questioning supersedes the myth if the myth under the discussion is reasoned or questioned. Conclusion: To conclude the innovative development of the science and philosophy existed in a world where there is a strong hold on the myths and beliefs. The whole of the human race developed with the myth. The innovative ideas were given by the Greeks in the city of Athens and by many scientific philosophers. But unless it is seen in a written or sculptured by any means it would remain a myth. Under various social pressures and wars the thought of reasoning were gifted to the enlightened few. However, the myth remained in the world for some of the unanswered questions like Where do we come from? What happens after the death? How the world was made? which is difficult to reason out. Thus the traditional myths survive the classical Greek world though the enlightenment of the reasoning was there. References Graff, Fritz., Marier, Thomas., (1996), Greek Mythology: an introduction, JHU press, p. 9-79. Read More