25/03/2023
In the previous writings as we know that Sophie received the mysterious letters contained some philosophical questions, so she enrolled herself in the Philosophy course to know the answer of the fundamental questions.
The Myths is the third chapter of book Sophie’s World in which the writer explains the ‘’Mythological World Picture’’ and reasons why the philosophers rejected the mythological explanations of the life. The various religions gave almost all answers of the philosophical questions in the form of myths. A myth is a story based on gods explaining the fundamental questions of life. Those explanations had spread across the world and dominated their influence for the centuries.
The philosophers, on the other hand, rejected the mythological explanations and considered them as irrational, illogical and unsound. Prior to learning, why the philosophers unaccepted the explanations, and what was their line of thought about the philosophical questions, presenting the brief sketch of the myths is an imperative task.
Here I am writing the two popular myths, the Nordic myth and the Greek myth. Let’s first deal with Nordic myth. Before coming of Christianity in Norway, people believed that the god Thor, having a hammer with unlimited power causes lightning and thunder, is responsible for rain on the earth. In order to make the lands fertile rain was the lifeline for the Viking farmers. When the hammer causes lightning and thunders, it causes rain. Resultantly, the land becomes fertile. The Vikings, therefore, worshipped Thor as a god of fertility.
Another reason which made the Thor one of the most important of the Norse gods is being as the protector the entire world. It was the belief of the Vikings that there is always a constant threat to their home named Asgard known as the domain of the gods. Opposed to this was the kingdom of Utgard- the domain of the evil giants who left no stone unturned to destroy the Asgard. If the giants abducted the Freyja, the goddess of fertility, nothing would grow in the fields and the women would no longer have children. Thus, in this battle between the good and evil forces Thor was the most important god who could stop the evils monsters or the forces of chaos.
Moving forward and making another case of mythology world picture of the Nordic Mythology, what options left for the Vikings if god could not stop the approaching huge catastrophes such plagues and other natural disastrous, so they developed the concept of performing of various religious ceremonies and rites. Among other religious rites in the Norse times, offering occupies the central value. To strengthen the power of gods to fight against the evil forces the Vikings made sacrifices of animals or even sometimes of humans.
Further, there also existed a Mythological Picture in Greece; there were also various gods in Greece such as Zeus and Apollo, Hera and Athene, Dionysus and Asclepius, Heracles and Hephaestus etc. Homer and Hesiod wrote much of the Greek mythology, and then myths were available in the written form. The earliest Greek Philosophers criticized the mythology of Homer, and described myths nothing but human notions. The philosopher Xenophanes expounded that men have created gods in their imaginations because the gods have same physical features as humans have.
Thanks to the development of the City-States in Greece which transformed the mythological mode of thought to one based on experience and reason. In the city-states, mostly the manual work was performed by the slaves, and citizens devoted their attention and energy to the political and cultural discussions. The citizens could ask the questions and did discussion on the different topics such as politics, culture, civilization, history without referring to the ancient myths. It clearly shows that their line of thought changed from the mythological explanations to the reason and experience. Their view and attitude to the philosophical questions were directed towards the natural process rather than supernatural explanations.
Now the questions arise whether the mythological explanations of the philosophical questions were totally useless or useful. One cannot totally discard them or fully accept them because as Hegel said the ongoing processes in the history is synthesis of thesis and antithesis which result in new synthesis. In the upcoming composition we will discuss the Philosophers.
Written by Waseem Yaseen.