The Importance of Mythology

“Don’t believe that it’s just a myth” something that many people say when they are told a story so profound they automatically disregard it to be nothing more than a fictional tale with no intrinsic meaning thus missing the very real and true meaning behind them

It’s easy to think that myths are just a result of some bored people long ago crafting up stories out of thin air to entertain themselves or their children but this is rarely the case. Behind many myths you will find fascinating ways many of our ancestors where able to come up with answers to some of natures biggest secrets using the common knowledge that they possessed back then. There are many examples I could point to but for now I’ll focus on just one.

The Minotaur (greek)

This is a small summary of the origins of the Minotaur!

Before Minors was to become King of Of the Island of Crete, he competed with his brothers to rule. Minos prayed to Poseidon, the sea god, to send him a snow-white bull, as a sign of approval from the Gods to reign as king promising to then sacrifice the bull as an offering and as a symbol to the gods

Instead of killing the bull, he decided to keep it for himself. He thought Poseidon would not mind if he kept the white bull and sacrificed one of his own as the white bull was way too beautiful to sacrifice. Turns out Poseidon cared a lot.

To punish Minos, Poseidon made Pasiphaë, Minos’s wife, fall deeply in love with the bull. (the ultimate troll lool)

Pasiphaë Then called up Daedalus an incredibly gifted craftsman to make a hollow wooden cow in which she could climb into in order to get donkey fu –

“mate with the white bull” to be more politically correct (Beastiality was all the rage back then)

A couple of months later, out came Minotaur. A monstrous Child with a head of a bull and a body of a man. So what was the problem? (Apart from the whole head of a bull thing?) Minotaur was actually kind of a dick. He grew up with an appetite for eating other humans with him being half beast and all it wasn’t that of a shocking revelation to be honest. He also went around destroying things! This cause unease throughout the land causing King Minos to take action.

King Minos Called up the famous Daedalus once again to build a giant and intricate underground labyrinth beneath the island of Crete in which know one could escape from. Minotaur was then captured and then locked in middle of the Maze. Of course naturally Minotaur tries to escape and every time he hits a dead end, he throws a little tantrum which causes the entire Island to aggressively shake! You need to remember this was not just a story nor was it a myth. This was something everyone believed whole heartedly and if you lived during the same period l around the same location you would have too.

Is anything of this true? Well probably not but the meaning behind the story is what is most interesting. Lets summarise the story to its basic form.

“There is a monster living underground that causes the earth to shake every time it roars!”

With this small but vital information what do you think this myth is trying to to explain? Earthquakes!

It makes more sense when you learn a little bit more about the Island of Crete itself! Crete is located right next to a subduction zone. What does that does mean? Earthquakes and lots of it. However on Crete its even worse of than its neighbours! In 2014 alone Crete experienced more than 1,300 earthquakes with a magnitude of 2.0 and higher.

Living in the 21st century, it’s easy to just think of this as being nothing more than common sense. Of course there’s no monster underground causing earthquakes. That’s just the continental crust Aegean and Nubian Block sliding between each other. We have this knowledge ithanks to a fairly new but also a pretty ancient practise called Science. Something the ancients did not fully regard back then (even to this day some people sill disregard it). Although the story of the Minotaur may be scientifically incorrect, it did a pretty good job in explaining why the earth seem to shake the way it did.

When you come across stories that seem a little too close to the fictional side of things, try not to focus on the weird and far fetched side of it but instead focus on what the story is trying to explain and with a little bit of context, you will will get the full meaning.