Modernising the Mythos

Leda and the swan, earlier today

It is well known even to the non-classical scholar that the Greeks, and to a lesser extent the Romans, lived largely according to their founding myths. The Greeks had Homer, of course, but also, if you consult Robert Graves's seminal work account in The Greek Myths, there are literally hundreds of these fables. Tens of dozens of mythological characters, gods metamorphosing into animals, tricks played, battles fought above the clouds, the citizens of Olympus, the gods themselves.

Now, in an essentially godless Western world, one would assume that any founding myths Europeans, the British, or the Americans ever had would be long gone, and in a way that's true. Certainly, as history is erased by a new generation of cultural wreckers, Western man becomes increasingly untethered from his past, mythological or not.

But mankind cannot live without its myths, and if none exist it is necessary to invent them. Sadly, rather than having any charm or sense of wonder, these instituted 'truths'. have a grimly proletariat feel about them, a greasy appearance, a tawdry mythos. They have nothing of nobility about them, and instead reek of the hustle and the grift, the con-trick and the sting.

Let's examine a few modern myths, all instituted by the political Left in its new incarnation. Let's take some at random.

1. There is a racist police force in America routinely beating and killing blacks in unprovoked attacks.

2. A man can become a woman, and vice versa, simply by choosing to designate themselves as such. This new identity holds good at the level of the individual as legal entity.

3. Islam is a religion of peace.

4. White people are de facto racists simply by virtue of being white.

5. Blacks cannot be racist.

6. Words are the equivalent to physical violence.

7. Any public or historical figure even remotely connected with slavery cannot be allowed to remain in the historical narrative.

8. Men can become pregnant.

9. Children can decide their gender as young as five years old.

10. Many of the world's most important inventions were made by black people.

Now we see what happens when a society is allowed to formulate its own mythology without the expert guidance of the wisdom of the ages. Zeus may not actually have turned into a swan in order to seduce Leda, but at least we can draw an educational moral from the story about the nature of seduction and subterfuge.

From the (post-) modern inventory above it, you can draw little at all except a sense of despair.