The Importance of Mythological Studies
When studying myths for the in-class group presentation and explaining the intricacies of how such myths came to be, along with their importance in relation to modern occurrences, parsing through the pages of myths and diverse folk tales aided well when it came time to create my own mythological website. While drafting my myth, I found that the research I had partaken in, preceding the website regarding myths, enabled me to utilize pre-existing folklore as the foundation for my original mythos. In consideration of Greek Mythology, I took many elements from the period and used them as a basis for my myth on procrastination, inserting an original Greek God into the already vast world of Greek Mythology, even taking the creative liberty of using pre-existing Gods and events to further my mythos.
In terms of differences in researching myths versus creating my own, I found that making my own myth was creatively liberating, as I did not need to worry so much about piecing together the intricacies or origins of a culture and its characters and qualities in relation to myths. When researching myths on trickster figures, I was often confused during mentions of culturally specific details, and some of the texts' messages were entirely lost on me. While I did rely on the foundation of trickster myths to formulate my myth, I had more creative range to build my own mythological world that made sense to me, and that coincided with a problem I myself struggle with.
In relation to teaching, learning about myths is important, as it allows for an understanding of differing cultures and moral lessons. From my experience studying myths, I found that I had a better understanding of cultures and repeating patterns, as many of the folktales consisted of similar themes and moral lessons. Teaching myths can therefore cultivate cultural empathy, showing students the similarities and unique aspects of ethnic groups.
Hey Rachel! I like how you mentioned that you took your knowledge of Greek mythology and inserted it into your myth. I feel like that's such a great idea because Greek mythology is one of the most known in our generation because of paintings or movies or anything else really. My first introduction to Greek mythology (or at least a version of it) was the movie, Hercules, by Disney. I loved it and it sent me into a rabbit hole of what else there was in Greek mythology. I like how you mentioned some of the problems you ran into because creating a myth was not an easy task, at least not for me. The fact that you were able to work through those problems and create something is amazing! Cultural empathy in a classroom is very important because it's something every human should have and the classroom is a wonderful place to first learn about it.
ReplyDeleteHi there, Rachel! I agree with Giselle. I, too, like how you incorporated your knowledge of Greek mythology into your own myth. In my opinion, integrating that into your myth not only makes it more creative but also more believable. Additionally, I believe those elements can give you a creative spin on pre-existing myths about Gods/Goddesses. Therefore, I too believe that this project allowed one to be very creative, not only in creating a myth but also in offering a different perspective or interpretation of a symbolic meaning or message. Reading further into your post, another thing you mentioned was the importance of teaching/ learning myths and incorporating culture. I believe myths play a significant role in cultures because they are explanations of their experiences and how they make sense of the world. Oftentimes, myths are also something that allows us to explain and/or understand the moral of the lesson. Thus, allowing one to learn myths from different cultures and their perspectives for moral lessons and experiences.
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