Mythology

Mythology is a wide-ranging area of research that focuses on the development of individual identity, making the cosmos intelligible, social understanding as a collective experience, spirituality, the concept of birth and death, cultural awareness, and the relationships between these entities. It was in the 1920s that the ethnographic work of James Frazier and Joseph Campbell provided the foundational understanding of these elements and the current ideas in the field. From their work, current researchers in this area see death as a pivotal aspect, believing it to be the one unifying fear of all humanity that is expressed in narrative forms. This domain does not have a single definition of death, as the basic premise of myth is that individuals seek to understand their life-death connections as an individual emotional response. This is the case even when the individual subscribes to a collective religious belief system.

Hence, mythic response has lead to the development of a myriad of religious or spiritual beliefs, rites, and narratives. However, despite the variations, researchers in this discipline have recognized that because all of humanity are faced with death, similar themes emerge in the mythic narratives. The rituals, images, and language that describe and explain death over time and the cultural variations as well as the similar themes regarding these life-death relationships are the grist of mythic investigation with the core of understanding myths centering on three questions: Who am I? Where have I come from? and Where am I going? How individuals and groups answer these questions is related to their explanation of death within an interpretation of life.

In the death myths across the spectrum of current religious understanding, including Christianity's belief of entry into heaven after death, Buddhism's cycle of reincarnation, and Islam's rites of burial and entry into heaven, there is a universal underpinning that death is a condition of hopeful transformation. This mythic ideal of transformation has arisen due to the natural decomposition process, whether from burial or cremation, and in light of this, if life is to be meaningful there needs to be a sense death is one aspect of living representing entry into another form.

It is also generally accepted that all secular narratives place death as the core element, and that whether secular or religious, the narratives have a similar underlying theme of “death as living leading to transformation.” The concept of death and associated mythic meanings of change are embedded in narrative through a series of connected metaphorical layers of narrative patterns, words, and visual symbols.

Textual Myths: The Quest and Death of the Hero

Across cultures, myths rely on a central characteristic of undertaking a quest. In these quests there [Page 769]are sections of plot, such as call to change, overcoming personal issues, finding personal understanding, overcoming real or imagined monsters, and achieving a goal, all of which lead to the death of the hero. These plot transformation processes allow us to read and see firsthand the transformation in life of a fictional character and how life can be a preparation for death.

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