Understanding Ourselves with Stories & Myths

in #life7 years ago (edited)

.Theodoor_Rombouts_(1597-1637)_-_Prometheus_-_KMSK_Brussel_25-02-2011_12-45-49.jpg
Prometheus by Theodore rombouts(1597-1637)

This painting depicts the gruesome torture Prometheus had to go through to bring fire to humanity.

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Pinocchio(1940)
Here is Pinocchio, the fairy gives him a conscience and the ability to understand but the responsibility of being a real boy is only on him he must go through harsh trials to become what his father dreamed of.

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The Descent from the Cross Rogier van der Weyden(c.1435)

I have a great interest in stories especially fiction and I believe fiction to be truer than non-fiction and what I mean by that is, fiction represents the fundamental metaphysical truth regarding human nature, not the material one.Fiction portrays the experience of people through imagination that I may say is the capacity for creating things and going beyond what is known into the unknown.Fiction also tells us about the things we have forgotten and the things we expect.Mythology goes a step further as it portrays the collective human experience through ages these stories don't represent a single life but something that is more than life and spans across centuries taking into its wings the whole of humanity.We understand ourselves by relating to the fictional heroes or villains.The gods in many cases represent social and psychological forces.Many interpretations are possible and are left to the individual.But a little psychological analysis will be important as we go through these stories.My goal in this series will be to understand specific creation myths and their messages and to do some comparisons.Greek mythology is probably the best place to start.In the next post, I'll continue talking about the influence of stories on us and the Greek creation myth will come up as the primary subject of the article.

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