Mythology’s Definition and Time

Over on the Incidental Mythology YouTube channel, I recently posted up a video essay on how video games are mythology. In it, we focus on what it means that video games are mythology and how someone would go about actually studying them as mythology.

I bring this up because I got an interesting comment on the video over on YouTube. It was a long post, and feel free to read it yourself. I’m so happy to say that most of the people who comment on my videos are positive, encouraging, and highly insightful, and this comment fits right in with it. The gist of the comment is questioning the relationship time has on definitions and considerations of mythology. The commenter says they think that notions of time passing should also factor into definitions of myth. They bring up a good point: should we consider stories that have staying power as more influential than newer stories that have yet to be tested? And if so, then wouldn’t the term “myth” be a perfect fit for that?

So, today, I want to talk about this idea. It’s an important one when we talk about the nature of pop culture as mythology, and so I think it’s worth giving a little bit of time to.

First, let’s review the definition of mythology that I use: a myth is a narrative, or something akin to a narrative, that an individual or a community uses to understand themselves and/or the world around them. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I’m perfectly happy adjusting this definition when given new information or new considerations. I see definitions as something to play with, and think with, and not steadfast things to adhere to without alteration. So let’s think about this definition. Nowhere in it do we talk about time, meaning new narratives can sit alongside old ones. So the critique that time being important not fitting with our consideration is a valid one. If we take on the argument, we would need to alter our definition. So is there credence to alter it?

God of War, a retelling of an old myth.

Before we turn our attention to mythology, I want to take the same argument over to a different arena, one where I have far more experience looking at this very question: religion. Religion and mythology can be tied, so it’s not too far a step to the side. The argument about the relationship of time passing is also one levied in the discussions of new religions. They are often dismissed as less important because they don’t have the staying power. “Real” religions are ones that have lasted throughout time, that have embedded themselves into the landscape and culture of a group of people.

So let’s grab one of the newer religions. Not something that’s super fresh, but also not one with four centuries under it’s belt. We’ll pick something in between: Mormonism. The Church of Latter Day saints stretches back to the early 1800’s. So while that does give us a good two centuries, it’s also two centuries of very documented time, and still not nearly as long as something like Catholicism.

Anyway. The effect Mormonism has had on the United States, and subsequently the world, was not exactly a slow crawl. It very quickly embedded itself into the cultural lives of many people, leading to a community who sacrificed their lives, their families, and their future to something inherently new. The reason why Joseph Smith and the early Mormons had to leave New York was because they were being violently persecuted. And rather than change their beliefs away from the “tried and true” religion from before, they risked their lives to stay firm, and even packed up their families and their lives and moved to a new place, somewhere un-established, to set up a new life far away in Utah.

One of the Witch Trees of Grovely Wood. A point of connection between landscape and an old story that continues to this day.

Now, I’m not a Mormon, but this feels like the actions of a belief that has taken deep root. And this all happened during the time of Joseph Smith, not centuries and centuries later. We can now see the effect of this deep rooted belief in 2024, nearly 200 years after the church’s creation.

So let’s now shift to mythology proper, and popular culture. As our lovely commenter says, if we rely on time we can consider pop culture as potential myths, stories that have yet to have the time spent required to know its staying power. But we can still see their potentional, we can note how it’s affecting others and take note, hoping that - maybe - in the future things will be demonstrated as mythology in the future.

But when we think about stories, it’s very rare that stories remain the same. We’ve talked about this several times, and will continue to do so because it’s not only one of the most interesting aspects of stories but also the most important. Stories are meant to change, they’re not meant to stay static. We tell things differently because we want to relate the story to our contemporary life, or the people telling the story.

The Slender Man, image by Victor Surge.

The story of Hades and Persephone, for example, has been retold in a variety of ways, over and over again. And not just in popular culture, but also way before that. As times alter, people change, culture moves on, our stories develop around that.

So when we think about a story having staying power, what do we mean? What version of it? Because if it’s only one version, one telling, one perspective, than there isn’t a single narrative that has had major lasting power over centuries.

So, in essence, I don’t think I’ll be changing my definition over time. Time is important, sure, and it helps to give us some credence to something powerful. The fact that the Slender Man is still kicking around the internet - a landscape that has a notoriously short attention span - is something that shows us this narrative is interesting and important. So it’s not that time is irrelevant, it’s that time isn’t a deciding factor.