The First Assignment
The Question: What is your favorite area of mythology? For example, do you like Roman gods or Norse Valkyries? And why?
With the abundance of legends and stories available from different cultures around the world, it may be difficult to choose a favorite branch of mythology. Before this class, I never took the time to research many tales on my own, but English classes in high school often provided units that focused upon some Greek myths. At an early age, I found myself falling for the transcendent tales of lore and wished to someday incorporate stories such as these into my own writing. Since I never learned about Norse Valkyries or myths from many other cultures, it seems that I must give this question a biased answer. For that reason, I will state that I prefer Greek gods and stories over any other deities or myths.
Deciding on a particular favorite myth is not an easy task, but after pondering for a while, I have settled upon the conclusion that I prefer tales that are easily linked to psychology. The tale of Narcissus is a story that I often find myself referring to, for one of the usual characters in one of my stories suffers from an insatiable desire to peer at his image in any reflective surface he comes across. By studying both psychology and the Greek myth of Narcissus, I feel that I can successfully interpret the narcissistic personality disorder. There is much more to my character's personality, but I will not bore anyone with the details here. Other complexes in psychology have been named after characters in Greek myths. The son of Aphrodite, Phobos, lent his name to the term 'phobia,' which is defined as an irrational or severe fear of something. Even poor Oedipus, who unwittingly wed his mother, offers his name to a complex well known in the psychological community--the Oedipus complex.
Since I am unsure of even the most basic of Norse mythology, I cannot say that I do not like it more than Greek mythology, but with Greek mythology's connections to present-day psychology, I can honestly say that I do, indeed, love myths from the Greeks. If I believed that I could comprehend and stomach the classes needed in order to become a psychologist, I would have chosen psychology as a major instead of English. Even then, it would be likely that I would take a class on mythology and fairy tales in order to better understand the human condition. For now, I hope to learn more about mythology and the origination of certain terms in psychology. As our mythology textbook has already mentioned, there is truth within these myths about civilizations and beliefs. Greek mythology may be my favorite, but I have much more to learn. I know that the journey will be an exciting one.
