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A commonly held misconception regarding cultural myths is that they always are ghost related or supernatural stuff. The truth can’t be far from this!
It’s true that most examples of cultural myths have a large share of psychic events, but many cultural myths have nothing paranormal in them.
But why should you care to learn about these myths, which might be silly at times? The reason is that you can probably have a lesson or two from a myth. Sometimes these myths are entertaining, and sometimes they’re not. But there will always be a lesson in a myth – be it cultural or historical.
In this guide, we’ve compiled a list of interesting cultural myths from around the world. You’ll surely find a good lesson or two from this write-up. So, without further ado, let’s dive into the core stuff.
Examples Of Cultural Myths
There are countless myths in various cultures. These myths actually shape our cultures and much of our mannerisms. We’ll look at some common cultural myths around the world in this article.
Self-Made Man
Senator Henry started this myth of the self-made man. This states that anyone can become rich with hard work in America if he wants to be. This actually came out to be very true and practical. A huge percentage of American population was initially poor and became rich later.
The change is possible through the help of God as well as the person’s determination and hard work, which the senator meant when he started the term. This is, in fact, one of the most practical and popular myths in the USA.
The American Dream
This myth was coined by James Truslow Adams, a writer who initially started the term in his writing. The main idea behind this myth is that people come to the USA for a better, upgraded living style. To some extent, this is true. There are a lot of negative consequences of this ideology too.
People change when they become too popular. You can see how the American Dream literally killed a lot of superstars. They became absorbed in fame and forgot other things. Overuse of drugs and other surgeries just to look beautiful are all part of the negative things that the American Dream has made people do.
Immortality
In the past, people of Egypt believed that if someone wants to become important after death, then he has to go through the underworld for a trip. But traveling to the underworld wasn’t possible in any way, let alone pass a dead spirit in it.
So, the magicians made a book of spells to make it easier for the spirits to pass through the place. Magic had been believed to be possible for a long time in the past. It was never possible to do this, though — just a myth.
Cupid
Cupid is called the God of love. He carries arrows and a bow and hits his arrows to make two people fall in love with one another or make them hate each other. He’s the son of Venus and was thought to be the controller of love in this world.
Of course, like all the myths, this is an untrue story, but the lesson we can take from this myth is a nice one. The lesson is that love can form between two people if they want it, and it may become very strong if two people are mad for each other. On the other hand, if one or both of them want to break apart, the love can’t stay anymore.
Myths can cover natural phenomena to real-life lessons, and this is just one example of how a myth can become so popular because of its connection with day-to-day lives. There’s another lesson too: how long relationships will last or change isn’t always at the hands of the people.
People can try their best only to keep a relationship in the best form. But the absolute control isn’t in their hands. This lesson teaches us to be humble and not take something for granted.
Thor
Thor was one of the most common mythological characters throughout history. Romans adopted Thor deeply in the culture and as soon as they did it, people started to know more about this character. Thor’s myth is quite popular and common in America.
Thor is the son of Norse mythological God Odin, his father, and Fjorgyn, the earth goddess, his mother. Thor has a few lessons of his own that might be some good lessons. Let’s talk about those:
Don’t Let Arrogance Take Hold of Your Best Part
While Thor was fighting with frost giants in the battle between them and Asgardians, he became angry with frost giants and started showing them arrogance. His father Odin didn’t like this behavior and took his hammer, Mjolnir, away along with the power of Thor that enabled him to call the hammer anytime.
Thor was then sent to earth and had to fight enemies without his hammer. Once he realized he did wrong because of his past arrogance, Thor felt depressed and realized he needed to change himself, which he did. He fought battles with his own power and got defeated; afterward Odin again gave him his powers back.
With more time, Thor started getting into battles with more powerful enemies, even his brother Loki. In the beginning, the enemies Thor had fought with weren’t very powerful, and Thor was easily able to defeat them with his strength as well as the hammer. It wasn’t a big feat at all, and this is what made Thor arrogant.
But once he realized there are very powerful enemies, he became concerned with his powers and started thinking about how to increase his overall strength and power. Thor realized he again needed to be very humble to find out his inner strength, which can push his powers into the hammer.
Thor was able to do this, and he fought the battles valiantly. He sometimes failed but again trained to become the best of him by getting rid of any arrogance that he may have. He realized when you’re humble and believe in yourself, anything is possible. This surely is a nice lesson that we may implement in our lives.
Grief Isn’t the End of Everything
Thor lost his mother, and later, as he became a grown man, his father and half of Asgard were destroyed by enemies. This made Thor rethink his life, and he thought he failed his parents and people. Thor went into exile on earth and avoided people completely for some time.
At some point in time, Thor remembered how his family believed in him and realized that he shouldn’t be saddened by his grief any longer. Thor again focuses on his training and becomes his true self in the process.
This is a lesson that teaches us never to think bad of ourselves. However tough things may seem, it all becomes achievable if there are intentions to overcome them.
Maintaining Strong Family Bond
Throughout his life, Thor had many occasions where he was angry with his family’s decisions and left his place as he came to earth for some time. But all the time, Thor overcame his bad feelings about his family and went back to Asgard to fix the issues.
This lesson teaches us that even though our families might misunderstand us sometimes or we may not understand our families well, there’s always a chance to figure things out.
Anansi
Anansi’s myth is quite simple. It was a spider who once thought of gaining all the world’s knowledge for himself. He gathered all the knowledge in a bucket and when he was trying to carry it to his tree room. As he was climbing up the tree, he slipped, and the pot of knowledge fell to the ground.
As soon as the pot hit the ground, the content of it started to disperse everywhere. Then a large wave from the nearby sea came and took all the knowledge away into the sea. The water from the sea continued to flow to other parts of the world, making it easier for the distribution of the pot’s contents so that others could take it.
The lesson from this myth is that you can’t keep knowledge enclosed. No one can hide it within him. Knowledge is free-flowing. It comes only to ones who want it.
Final Words
In this age, most people aren’t uneducated as they were before. We have more scientific, research-based data now that we didn’t have in the past. This is the reason why cultural myths became so popular in the old times. People couldn’t fact check so they started believing in the myths.
We’ve looked at a few cultural myths examples in this guide. Maybe you’ve learned a lesson or two from here. The stories are made up, but a story can have a nice lesson nevertheless.
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