The Four Functions of Myth

Summary

A clear explainer of Joseph Campbell’s four functions of myth: awe before mystery, a picture of the cosmos, a social order that “imprints on the individual the norms of that society”, and guidance through life’s stages. A mythology that fails at these “has lost its vitality”, and only one setting is left for a new one: “Earth itself.”

Rationale

Campbell’s sociological function is enculturation through myth, the process our framework is built around. His hero’s journey, centred on one individual, sits less easily with our relational focus.