Do Myths Follow A Common Set Of Purpose?

Myths have been around longer than just about every other form of literature. From the beginning, it is clear that humanity has wanted some sort of explanation for the way the world works, and myths have long served that purpose. Whether it is the myth of Apollo driving his chariot across the sky each day to explain the bright light that traverses the sky (and to provide some sort of comfort that the gods are running things, even though the Greek gods certainly were not the benevolent sort) or the myth of Hades and Persephone’s twisted love that also serves as an explanation of the four seasons (as well as an insight into the stilted relations between the sexes), myths tend to follow a common set of purposes. Joseph Campbell suggests that

The first chapter of Genesis describes the process through which God created the world, over the course of seven “days.” It is fairly clear that this could not have been a literal set of seven days, because the “day” is defined as the time it takes the Earth to complete one rotation, and the sun was not even in position until the fourth “day,” and it is the interaction of the Earth and sun, with respect to gravity, that creates the rotation in the first place. However, the purpose of this was to establish a sense of grandeur in the process. The order in which the creation takes place has a sense of structure, to show planning, but it also shows the universe expanding in a glorious way throughout the entire process. The first “day” includes the creation of light, with the separation from the darkness. Then came the creation of heaven, the separation of water from land, and vegetation, in the second and third days. Then the second half of creation includes the specific lights (sun and moon), creatures in the sea, and then the creatures of the land, on the fourth, fifth and sixth days. The seventh day was set aside for rest, suggesting an additional level of grandeur to the process. After all, if this was such an undertaking that an all-powerful divine being would need a day of rest, it must indeed be an

One of the essential differences between the Judeo-Christian body of myth and many of the other cultures in the world is the personal involvement and care that God showed to His people. The Greeks have stories about Zeus and some of the other gods heading down from Mt. Olympus to rape women that they found beautiful and having children with them; these demigods formed the basis for a number of myths as well. The fact that God would mold man out of the ground, breathe life into him, and then mold the rest of the animals out of the ground and send them to the man to receive their name shows a great deal of collaboration that is rare in the collection of world myth. The creation myth is just the beginning of a series of stories that the Hebrew people could use to take comfort and solace in God throughout their lives