Theatrical Adaptation

Myth - Educational or False

The word “myth” is often used in passing conversation to describe something that is not true. I think people sometimes use this term in reference to far-fetched stories or unproven speculations to express a feeling of disbelief. Due to this negative connotation, myths are often discredited. However, I believe a myth’s validity should not be measured literally. Before completely dismissing a myth as a misleading notion I think that one must examine it in search of deeper meaning. Perhaps myths are more than just elaborate stories or explanations. Perhaps they serve a greater purpose of offering insight into the world.

When I first think of the word “myth” I think of all the silly health tips that can be found in magazines or on the internet. Statements like “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” come to mind. Most everyone knows that eating an apple every day will not prevent from getting sick for an entire lifetime. Therefore this saying can be written off as a myth, causing people to overlook any realistic value this phrase may offer. Nonetheless, this myth has some significance or truth to it. This popular saying promotes the idea that eating healthy does the body good. It urges people to pick up carrot or a piece of fruit the next time they’re hungry, instead of going for the habitual bag of chips. This proves to be a very good message; yet this message is unfortunately lost in the phrase because people take it too literally.

The same argument can be made when examining more conventional myths, not just catchy phrases. Stories in Greek mythology are examples of these kinds of myths in that they are not proven as factual history. They also fit this definition because the events and characters in these tales are difficult to believe in a literal sense. However, one can still find a moral lesson in these stories. For example, the danger of infidelity is demonstrated when Hercules dies after leaving his wife, Deianeira, to run off with Viola. Granted, he is killed because the centaur Nessus tricks Deianeira into giving her husband a poison instead of a love potion; nonetheless one can see that nothing good can come from being unfaithful. In this case, the morality of fidelity would be overlooked if one simply dismissed this Greek myth as an erroneous story.

Therefore, a lot of insight can be neglected if one does not take a close look at examining the figurative implications that can be found in myths. Far too often, people take myths literally and thus misconstrue their entire message. Although many myths are associated with false ideas, one must attempt to extract the moral value of such a story before disregarding it as useless speculation.

posted by Layne @ 7:55 PM