Knox Daniel - Prologue of The Hero With a Thousand Faces

  In one of our very first classes, we discussed Joseph Campbell’s conception of myth and how it relates to reality. This was somewhat of a paradigm shift for me, as I’m used to a more classical view of myth. I usually think of myths as ancient stories that serve as explanations for natural phenomena or how a civilization came to be. In class though, Dr. Redick explained that the cosmos is an ordered reality and we discover that order through myth. Myth, rather than explaining, helps us explore. Another idea I had to wrap my head around was that myth defines reality and truth comes after reality. Thus, truth stems from myth. How does this affect our traditional understanding of myth? Should this conception of myth be taught more?

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