I went to lunch with a friend a few days ago and after we\u2019d talked a while, he remarked that we seemed to be telling each other stories. I got to thinking about that\u2026..
The habit of telling stories is one of the most primitive characteristics of the human race. People have always told stories. The oldest stories are the myths. If you look up myth, the dictionary says\u2026.\u201da traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events.\u201d Myths were the answers of primitive science to lots of questions \u2014 the explanation of the thunder or the rains, or the origin of man, or fire or maybe of disease or death. These stories often personified natural forces and portrayed them as gods, spirits, or mythical creatures. In a lot of ancient cultures, myths were used to explain the origins of human beings, the development of social structures, and often the relationship between humanity and the divine.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As civilizations evolved, so did myths. They were integrated into various civilizations\u2019 cultural and political narratives. And they found their way into religious texts, with stories of creation, divine intervention and the afterlife. When written languages began, myths began to be recorded \u2014 preserving them for future generations and they evolved into literary forms, like epic poetry, plays and novels. Myths began as oral, but they became central to the development of literature and the arts and influenced everything from Renaissance art to modern storytelling in books, movies and television. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But while the higher, or more sophisticated myths were being transformed into art or religions of the civilized man, the ways of thinking that produced them in their original form survived in stories of less sophistication or dignity and made no claim to be either science or religion \u2014 they were just told because they entertained. These kinds of tales have come down from mouth to mouth in less sophisticated or educated communities \u2013 some many have been lost, but a number have been saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of the earlier written ones are the Aesop Fables. Today, Aesop isn\u2019t much more than a name. He was a slave from the island of Samos in about the sixth century before Christ.His name is associated with the special use of the fable for political purposes at a time when the reign of the tyrants in Greece made unveiled speech dangerous. About two hundred and fifty years after Aesop\u2019s time, Demetrius of Phaleron collected a lot of fables and and called them by Aesop\u2019s name and a version of these was turned into Latin verse. That collection is the main source of the modern \u201cAesop,\u201d but no one can be sure that any one fable that exists today is really the invention of the Samoan slave.
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I went to lunch with a friend a few days ago and after we\u2019d talked a while, he remarked that we seemed to be telling each other stories. I got to thinking about that\u2026..The habit of telling stories is one … Continue reading