Mythology Quaint Tales of Origination The Cult of Death

Abstract

Mythology is concerned with the birth and death of man, and in general, for we reason backwards more easily than we do forwards, it is an endeavour to explain how man came on the planet, or on some particular part of it. The conclusion arrived at by all mythologies has a unity which is disturbed only by such differences as may be explained by geographical or climactic conditions. Naturally, each generation considers that it is wiser than the one which preceded it, and it is the effort of every generation to rationalize the knowledge bequeathed by its predecessor. In other words, it is the constant endeavour of the rationalizing mind to refer all that it is told of to something it already knows, and so we have solar, lunar, agricultural, and water myths to choose from With the Œdipus Complex as a good modern addition, and every man may find his own hat on every other man’s head, or his own bee in any other man’s bonnet. Yet in the visible world all that is to be seen may not be visible.