The Significance of Mythology and Joseph Campbell

Mythologies are ingrained into all societies, and are as old as civilization itself.  They allow people to attribute meaning to themselves, society, nature, and history through stories, art, and other mediums. Arguably, a large factor in peoples fascination with ancient civilizations such as Ancient Egypt or Ancient Rome is their distinct mythologies and practices pertaining to them. None are as rich and intriguing as the mythos of Ancient Greece, and its tales of heroes, gods, fateful battles and great epics.

Greek mythology is especially captivating due to the extensive amount of stories that it produced over 6 centuries, and its subsequent influence on Roman culture, and to a large extent, culture and mythology of today. Mythos in todays society is quite separate in beliefs and practices from any ancient civilization due to the unprecedented growth of technology and science. It is not to say that mythos plays no role in modern culture, but it certainly does not emphasize gods and other religious followings that maintained in the past as a way for people to develop understanding of their world, far from todays scientific values and globalized views. Instead, we look to things such as film and literature, specifically that of science fiction to allow us to gain insight into what future society will look like, as well as the problems that will follow.  This is why George Lucas' Star Wars has become nothing less than a modern day myth with its varying characters, adventures, and tragedies,  many of which contain a great deal of influence from those who produced work to further the depth and expand Greek mythos such as Homer, Sophocles, and Herodotus

The significance and awe inspiring legacy that Star Wars has created may be attributed to a formula that has captivated audiences of all peoples for centuries is the story telling of a heroes development. Joseph Campbell was a writer and philosopher who dedicated much of his life's work to expanding on what we understand as mythology. His book "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" was a theory used to describe the development of most heroes and why they are so intriguing to humanity as whole, and I will touch on this in the next post. George Lucas has explicitly stated that Campbell's theory is what gave him inspiration and allowed him to create the undying masterpiece that is Star Wars. As the two were close friends, it is clear that much of the underlying messages and influences from other cultures, especially greek are intentional, and proof that the success of Star Wars was not just a lucky shot in the dark by Lucas. With this, I continue my own journey to connect the phenomenon that is Star Wars to the mythology of Ancient Greece, whose own mythos served as the basis for spiritual and religious story telling for a strong, civilized people long before George Lucas dreamed of Wookies and Death Stars. Here is a link to a video in which Campbell talks about the mythology of Star Wars

The source of the image can be found here
More information about Joseph Campbell can be found here