I love watching the movie “The Clash of The Titans”; both the 1981 version and the 2010 version. There’s action and adventure and overall, a pretty good story. Now that I am a storyteller, I understand that story is called a myth. I also better understand that there are myths told about cultures around the world. What makes something a myth, as opposed to any of the other stories I have talked about so far?

The definition as I understand it

One definition that is as follows: Myths are made up to try to explain why things are as they are in nature, customs, and institutions. Many myths were once sacred or religious stories to the people who told them. (taken from a training manual provided by Robin Schulte). If you take a look at the videos that  I have provided below in the reference section, you will also see references to there being a god character in the myth as well.

A new question that popped up

In doing reading and listening I had a thought: If myths are stories about gods from religions that aren’t true, at what point will the religions of today become myths?  Think about it, the things talked about in the movie Clash of the Titans involve gods, talking creatures, miracles, sacred places, a human champion, and more. As a Christian, I have to be honest, that’s a lot of the bible stories I know. One of the stories genre’s on my listing is religious or scared stories. It makes sense to me to ask the question when will today’s religious stories become myths? I’m not sure what the tipping point is, but I do see one particular element that is needed: perspective.

As storytellers, how we deliver a story can have an impact on the perspective of the listener. It can also have an impact on what is seen as truth and fiction. Storytelling is a very influential tool. It’s important that whatever we understand our role in what is myth, and what is a scared religious story. Even more of a reason to be sure to tell a story on purpose.

Reference videos:

Crash course Mythology

What Is Myth? Crash Course World Mythology #1

What is Myth

What is Myth? (Shorts)

The Difference between Myths and Legends

The Difference Between Myths and Legends

Published by Nick Baskerville

After years of being an instructor in the military and the and the fire service, I realized I needed to improve my delivery. My students needed me to improve delivery. But how do I improve my delivery? Simple. I finally took a member of Toastmasters up on the invitation to come to a meeting. It wasn't long until I joined. Along the way of improving my skills at delivering a message, I came to understand that of all the ways to get a point across, telling stories is the best way to get it done. Around this time, another friend from Toastmasters told me about The Moth monthly story telling shows. What better way to test out my theories on storytelling. It's in my travels there to the shows that I found more and more shows, and classes, and events centered around storytelling. Despite how many people know about the storytelling world, not many people know about the storytelling world. So now, I'm out to tell the world about storytelling.

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