Are Greek myths outdated, or still relevant?
By wandale
@wandale (95)
United States
December 18, 2006 10:08am CST
A lot of the character archetypes that we see in today's tv and movies are based on some of the characters and stories of Ancient Greek myth, at least if you believe the mythology scholar Joseph Campbell. Do we like the stories that contain these figures and ideas because they are a part of a universal human experience, or is it just that they are what we are used to seeing? I'm interested to find out if people have read any of the Greek myths, and if so where do you see their influence on todays's stories? I for one am not sure that they are as influential on today's narratives as they were during earlier decades.
2 responses
@Ashida (1370)
• United States
28 Dec 06
All myths, including Greek, are incredibly relevant today. To answer part of your question, I think we are used to seeing them because they are part of the universal human experience. To see the influence of greek myths, watch any Disney movie from Lion King on. All of them are based on the same archetypes and story models as the ancient Greek myths. How many kids watched those movies, and saw that model of storytelling and morality again and again.
I think Greek mythology is more influential on today's narratives, at least in film, because of the success of Star Wars. When Lucas indicated that he was influenced by Campbell -- everyone in Hollywood was reading it to see how they could make a hit.
Thanks for the intriguing post!
@mshmsho (118)
• Germany
18 Dec 06
I have studied Greek Mythology during my university years and I remember that I have done a comparison representation between greek mythology and the Bible. If you go deep in studying greek mythology and their gods you see that it has points in common with our present life. They were the 1st civilization on which our is based now.
