Modern Mythologies
Stories to take us to the stars
I love mythology. It’s part of the reason I studied history. To understand the complex people, societies, and cultures you need to understand their mythologies too. For example, what kind of culture creates a pantheon as violent and incestuous as the Greek Pantheon? Our mythologies are mirrors of our societies, highlighting our flaws and anxieties back at us.
Individual gods and goddesses can even be used to highlight this. Aphrodite is the apex of female seductiveness, yet singlehandedly starts one of the most destructive wars in ancient history — the Trojan War. She is an object of reverence, devotion and intense desire, but a chaotic force on people’s lives, and this doubtless reflects the feelings of Greek men towards women, and for them, justifies their attitudes.
At least that’s how the Greeks saw it. We also do a lot of mythologising today too, much of it consisting of interrogating the old myths and breathing new life into them. Be it Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and yes, even Christian mythologising, writers in several formats are reinventing some of Western society’s most dominant myths.
There are no more Heroes… or Villains
Rather than just describing books, TV shows and films that exemplify this new wave of re-tellings, I think it’s better to think of…
