Things I Like: Mythology

[auraesque]

I mentioned in my last post my love of Greek Mythology, and while most
of my regular readers know I have a thing for myths, legends and fairy
tales, I realized that anyone new probably doesn't.

When I was a kid, my parents would always read to me and my sister
before bed, and as a result I started to read a lot on my own. Some of
my first books were massive collections and anthologies of fairy tales
and Greek myths--the unedited sort, too. I was reading Grimm, Hans
Christian Anderson, Charles Perrault and many more out of aged books
from my grandparent's bookshelves. In French class, I loved reading the
original Perrault versions, and I was ecstatic when my classmates and I
had the opportunity to reenact Greek myths for our final project in English.

Later, I was pleased to learn that fairy tales and myths have a
secondary purpose: they are teaching tools. I thought it was beyond cool
that our pre-literate society had developed storytelling to teach
subsequent generations about history, society and behavior. In college,
then, my love of these stories evolved into a love of language and
communication and all that entails. I continue to read and explore new
legends--in fact, right now I am exploring Native American oral
tradition. I think it is so cool how these stories developed and what
they mean for our societal development and our future. It's very cool to
think about.