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The mythology of a culture can provide some vital insights into the beliefs andvalues of that culture. By using fantastic and sometimes incredible stories tocreate an oral tradition by which to explain the wonders of the natural worldand teach lessons to younger generations, a society exposes those ideas andconcepts held most important. Just as important as the final lesson to be gatheredfrom the stories, however, are the characters and the roles they play inconveying that message.
Perhaps the epitome of mythology and its use as a tool to pass on cultural values canbe found in Aesop's Fables, told and retold during the era of the Greek Empire.Aesop, a slave who won the favor of the court through his imaginative anddescriptive tales, almost exclusively used animals to fill the roles in hisshort stories. Humans, when at all present, almost always played the part of bumblingfools struggling to learn the lesson being presented. This choice ofcharacterization allows
us tosee that the Greeks placed wisdom on a level slightly beyond humans, implyingthat deep wisdom and understanding is a universal quality sought by, ratherthan stealing from, human beings.
Aesop'sfables illustrated the central themes of humility and self-reliance, reflectingthe importance of those traits in early Greek society. The folly of humans wasused to contrast against the ultimate goal of attaining a higher level ofunderstanding and awareness of truths about nature and humanity. For example,one notable fable features a fox repeatedly trying to reach a bunch of grapeson a very high vine. After failing at several attempts, the fox gives up,making up its mind
that thegrapes were probably sour anyway. The fable's lesson, that we often play downthat which we can't achieve so as to make ourselves feel better, teaches thereader or listener in an entertaining way about one of the weaknesses of thehuman psyche.
The mythology of other cultures and societies reveal the underlying traits of theirrespective cultures just as Aesop's fables did. The stories of Roman gods,Aztec ghosts and European elves all served to train ancient generations thoselessons considered most important to their community,and today they offer apowerful looking glass by which to evaluate and consider the contextual environmentin which those culture existed.