Parallel Myths Read Online Free Page A

can be abolished and the time of beginning can be reestablished (this is the origin of our modern New Year’s Eve revelry). All human experience in the past derived its value from myth, which was perceived as infinitely more significant than the life of an individual. Even today it is not uncommon for a person living in a traditional culture to not know his or her chronological age; it simply doesn’t matter.
    The rituals required by traditional cultures are a return to
in illo
tempore
(Latin for “in that time”), the undated “once upon a time” period of myths providing the blueprint for all forms of human experiences and behavior.
    In order to make sense of the myths as we read them, it is necessary to understand two very different views of history, the linear and the cyclical. We live in a generally linear conception of history: It begins at a fixed point and progresses in a straight line toward the present day. In Christianity, Judaism, and Marxism, time moves toward an end of history, whether an apocalypse or the establishment of a utopia. There is a past point of beginning and a future point of ending.
    Viewed cyclically, however, history is merely a procession of identical cycles. There are eternal, endlessly repeating principles. Hindu myths do not speak of “the age of Kali” but say “in every age of Kali.” The world, in Hindu thought, has been created, destroyed, and re-created many times, abolishing what the Western mind might think of as “history.” Only Brahman * is eternal, and he takes on various avatars, or roles, to fit the stage of the cycle, whether as Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, or Shiva the Destroyer. In such a worldview, linear history and chronologies mean very little, as they are dwarfed by the eternal principles manifested in the cycles.
    The Aztecs of Mexico also viewed history in a cyclical way, in which they knew just enough about the earlier worlds to understand the redemptive principles and appropriate behaviors necessary in their present one. They really didn’t need to know details of earlier eras. The only eternal factor was Onteotl, the Supreme Being; even the other gods passed away.

THE CIVIC MYTH
     
    The destiny of the state was closely bound up with the fate of the gods worshipped at its altars. If a State suffered reverses, then theprestige of its gods declined in the same measure—and vice versa. Public religion and morals were fused: they were but different aspects of the same reality. To bring glory to the City was the same as enhancing the glory of the gods of the City; it worked both ways.
—Émile Durkheim (1858-1917), French sociologist
and philosopher, on the civic religion of the
Greek city-states
     
    What gives nations their cohesiveness? Certainly it may be common ethnicity or a common language; but in all states, and especially in ethnically diverse states, myth acts as a social “glue.” National identity is based on a shared history and shared symbols of nationhood. The basis of the founding and legitimacy of governments, the civic myths of countries unite their citizens by an acceptance of common symbols.
    American civic myth consists of many symbols such as the flag, the Statue of Liberty, and others. The best symbols of our civic myth, appropriately enough, can be found on our money, where we share the history of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln, as well as recognize the American eagle.
    On British money and stamps, we find portraits of the Queen, the symbol of national unity. In a Canadian wallet, we find her portrait as “Queen of Canada” on bank notes printed in English and French, the two national languages. The coat of arms of Canada contains both the British Union Jack and the French fleur-de-lis.
    In the former Soviet Union, the founding myth that held the nation together has crumbled. The symbols of the Soviet state, Lenin and the hammer and sickle, were the first things attacked as the Soviet government fell. A majority