Western Culture Myth Essay

The notion of myth in contemporary Western culture is mainly used in a pejorative sense. Often associated with imaginary fantastic tales and miracles, myth has been opposed to the “truth” of sacred writings (Paden, 1994, p.70). Myth in ancient Greek tradition initially identified “anything delivered by word of mouth” (Paden, 1994, p. 70), in contrast with deeds. Later, myth became the sacred account of the world’s origin. Myth, to participants - and anthropologist and scholars of religious studies - represents a “sacred models by which one lives” (Paden, 1994, p. 69). Eliade seminal work regarded myths as important “expressions of the sacred in words in the form of narratives” (as cited in Bhattacharyya, 2011, p. 78). He stressed the importance of observing myth as religious
72). As Paden asserts, myth is not purely “about” something. Often myth can be found in performed rituals and human behavior. Myth is reenacted and applied in ceremonies and other sacred events. (Paden, 1994, p. 73).
Considerable attention is given to a specific set of myths: those stories that deal with the creation of the world. Cosmogonic myths try to resolve the problem of man's search for meaning in existence“. Accounts of the beginning of the world are the quintessential form of myth” (Paden, 1994, p. 85). Different stories of creation are evidence of different worldviews. Hopi and Japanese creation myth deals with the origin of human kind. While they both narrate how the world and human being were created, they utilize different metaphors. The Japanese myth imagines chaos at the beginning. Earth and heavens came together to create harmony. Cosmos and order were brought where disorder and infinite operated. Void was filled and many divinities appeared. They were created in order to organize and “preside over the land, sea, mountains, river, trees and herbs” (Japanese Creation Myth). For Hopi, gods