Narratives told in myths have many functions: religious, aesthetic, and practical. Essentially, each society's myths act as a pattern book for every aspect of that society's culture. Scholars apply two main approaches in analyzing myths: the cultural approach and the comparative approach of analyzing myths. The cultural approach focuses on discovering the culture's deeply held values and beliefs from which a myth originates. The comparative approach focuses on documenting similarities and differences across myths to observe patterns and draw interpretations from them. This essay analyzes the above two approaches, their application in analyzing myths, and their relevance in analyzing modern myths.

The Cultural Approach

The cultural approach focuses on the cultural values and beliefs of the society that the myth belongs. These beliefs consist of statements that the culture of origin perceives as true. An outsider might perceive the beliefs of a certain culture as odd or immoral, whereas the members of that culture may find them acceptable and hold them deeply. For example, in Greek mythology, Hestia was an Olympian goddess of the hearth, home, and family, who had the same rank as the gods of the seas, sky, and the underworld (Wilkinson and Philip 314).

Domestic hearths were treated as her shrine in all Greek households. It sounds odd for a non­ Greek to imagine a hearth as important as the sea and the sky. However, in ancient times, the hearth provided warmth, a place to cook, and even provided a last line of defense if, otherwise, one is unarmed. Therefore, it was valuable for the ancient Greeks.

Apart from looking for things that look odd in a story while analyzing myths using this approach to determine the central beliefs in culture, scholars also look for other indicators. These indicators include dialogues, a repeated idea or event in the story, and long descriptions. Most ancient stories did not include much dialogue between their characters; they included a series of actions done by the characters. Repetitions in narratives are used to ensure that the central idea is remembered. For example, a prophecy might be repeated severally in a myth to express the underlying cultural value of that prophecy in that culture told through the myth. Lastly, myths usually detail the theme of the narrative or the ideas of cultural relevance in the myth. For example, the Enuma Elish contains many of the early beliefs of the Mesopotamians concerning the origins of the world, their gods, and their ancestors (Thury and Devinney 98). Marduk is mentioned severally through a long song in the Enuma Elish, signifying his importance in the Babylonian culture.

The Comparative Approach

This approach involves comparing myths from different cultures to identify common themes and characteristics and then draw inferences from them. The categories that a scholar wishes to analyze are predetermined; then, the scholar looks for the similarities and differences in the myths they compare. For example, while analyzing creation myths using this approach, the scholar might choose to observe the categories such as how humans are created, who is the creator, and why they were created. The data collected from the categorization is then analyzed to observe trends and draw inferences. For instance, when analyzing creation stories from the Middle East, two commonly discussed cultures in this category stand out; the Babylonians and the Israelites. The Babylonians' creation story is found in the Enuma Elish while that of the Israelites in the Genesis narrative from the Hebrew Bible.

The creation stories presented in the Enuma Elish and the Hebrew Bible are not the same but have similarities. In Babylonian mythology, creation involves a conquest where Marduk fights Tiamat, who wanted to silence her progenies by destroying them. Marduk attacked Tiamat and cut her into two halves, from which he formed the sky and the Earth. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers sprung from her eyes. Marduk then slew Kingu and used the Tablets of Destiny to establish the cosmos. He created humankind from Kingu's blood and founded the city of Babylon to be the site of his temple (Wilkinson and Philip 145). While in the Hebrew Bible, a single transcendent God created the universe and everything in it in an intrinsic fashion in six days.

The first notable difference between these two narratives is that the deities in the Babylonian myths are anthrophonic, while for the Israelites, there is a single transcendent God. Also, the way the Earth is created differs in both narratives. In the Israelites' narrative, in the beginning, the Earth was without form and void, and it was dark. God's spirit was moving over the face of the waters until the first day of creation when God created light and separated the light from the darkness naming it day and night, respectively (Thury and Devinney 58). He then created a firmament, then created land, and the other creation for the rest of the days. Thus, these two cultures from the ancient Near East have varying explanations on how the Earth was created.

However, both the Babylonian and the Israelite's mythology exhibit a similar concept; the concept of function. Everything that was created in both stories was created for a specific purpose. In the Enuma Elish, Babylon was selected for the sole purpose of building a temple, which was created for worshiping himself. The humans were also created to care for the sacred places (Thury and Devinney 73). Similarly, in Genesis, the purpose of creating day and night is to measure time while the land is for vegetation and food production. God then created entities functioning within the functions such as birds to fly the air, fish to swim in the water, and humankind to multiply and care for the garden.

Significance of the Cultural Approach and the Comparative Approach

There are significances of applying the above two approaches of analyzing myths. First, while using the cultural approach, a reader learns the society's cultural background the myth originates. Thus, enabling the reader to understand the importance of the story to that culture. This knowledge can also be applied in deciphering the cultural values present in our urban legends and modern myths. Secondly, the comparative approach requires an individual to analyze data, look for trends, and make inferences. Such skills are essential for scholars in analyzing information for decision-making. It is important to compare data sources before presenting an argument.

Modern narratives are commonly found in films and books with various genres, such as science-fiction, heroic themes, and other movies about spies such as the Mission Impossible and James Bond Franchises. Myths are the basis for cultural identity because cultures draw their beliefs, values, and current stories from myths. Contemporary myths are present in labels and images we attach to people and events in the media and the relationships between the sets of objects we consume (Thury and Devinney 724). When an individual analyzes a modern narrative using the cultural approach, they learn about the cultural values of the society the myth originates. Thus, modern narratives provide a platform for communicating our cultural values. In addition, learning about other cultures is essential in the current multicultural corporate world.

Works Cited