{"id":55177,"date":"2021-11-19T16:10:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T20:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=55177"},"modified":"2025-10-03T11:26:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:26:04","slug":"importance-of-studying-mythology-and-folklore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/importance-of-studying-mythology-and-folklore\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Studying Mythology and Folklore"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is the importance of studying mythology and folklore in modern society? In what ways can myths be useful to us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you understand that myths bind us together and make us feel like we are a part of something much larger than ourselves, you will recognize the continued importance of studying mythology and folklore. The power of myths lies in the fact that they always yield answers to any question we ask of them. They can be stories that amuse us, they can be instructional, they can provide us with a higher meaning, and anything else we demand of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read on to learn more about the importance of studying mythology and folklore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p><em>Editor\u2019s note: This article is part of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/hub\/society-culture\/arts\/storytelling-guide\/\">Shortform\u2019s guide to storytelling<\/a>. If you like what you read here, there\u2019s plenty more to check out in the guide!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-importance-of-mythology-studies\"><strong>The Importance of Mythology Studies<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If we are to examine the importance of studying mythology and folklore in modern society, its biggest purpose is perhaps to bind us closer and provide us with a shared sense of community. Though we may lead atomized lives as husbands, wives, sons, daughters, professionals, and members of this or that nationality, we are bound together through shared myths. The ceremonies that derive from mythology, those of birth, initiation, marriage, and death, remind us that <strong>we are part of something much larger than ourselves<\/strong>. We are only a cell, an organ of a much larger being. This is as true for us as it was for the ancients. Like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/odysseus-moon-landing\/\">Odysseus<\/a>, like the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/buddha-journey\/\">Buddha<\/a>, like Cuchulainn, great marvels and unfathomable transformations await the modern hero who heeds the mythic call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A major point to buttress the importance of studying mythology is that there is no one set way to interpret the mythologies of humankind<\/strong>. Although we have traced the universal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-is-the-heros-journey\/\">hero\u2019s journey<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/monomyth-stages-heros-journey\/\">monomyth<\/a>, and explored how so many cultures across time and space have made sense of the beginnings and ends of the universe, there is an infinite variety of ways that myths are told.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Myths do not reveal themselves automatically to us; they are not self-evident<\/strong>. They will only yield up the answers to the questions that we choose to ask of them. If we look to them as simply stories to entertain or amuse us, they will provide that. If we seek in them mankind\u2019s earliest attempts at science, religion, literature, or moral instruction, they will provide that as well. And if we look to them to provide us with a higher meaning, an idea of where we come from and what we are meant to do with our existence, they can point us there, too. <strong>Indeed, the ways in which we can interpret myths are as limitless as the myths themselves.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the importance of studying mythology and folklore in modern society? In what ways can myths be useful to us? When you understand that myths bind us together and make us feel like we are a part of something much larger than ourselves, you will recognize the continued importance of studying mythology and folklore. The power of myths lies in the fact that they always yield answers to any question we ask of them. They can be stories that amuse us, they can be instructional, they can provide us with a higher meaning, and anything else we demand of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":55183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,43,24],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-55177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-self-improvement","category-society","tag-hero-with-a-thousand-faces","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Importance of Studying Mythology and Folklore - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is the importance of studying mythology and folklore in a modern society? 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Here is how myths make us feel like a part of the collective.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/importance-of-studying-mythology-and-folklore\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-19T20:10:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-03T15:26:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/lecture.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joseph Adebisi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Joseph Adebisi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/importance-of-studying-mythology-and-folklore\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/importance-of-studying-mythology-and-folklore\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Joseph Adebisi\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d8daf45671a09e8745a7a9f50a03b2a0\"},\"headline\":\"The Importance of Studying Mythology and Folklore\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-19T20:10:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-03T15:26:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/importance-of-studying-mythology-and-folklore\/\"},\"wordCount\":472,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/importance-of-studying-mythology-and-folklore\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/lecture.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Hero With A Thousand Faces\"],\"articleSection\":[\"History\",\"Self-Improvement\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/importance-of-studying-mythology-and-folklore\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/importance-of-studying-mythology-and-folklore\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/importance-of-studying-mythology-and-folklore\/\",\"name\":\"The Importance of Studying Mythology and Folklore - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/importance-of-studying-mythology-and-folklore\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/importance-of-studying-mythology-and-folklore\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/lecture.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-19T20:10:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-03T15:26:04+00:00\",\"description\":\"What is the importance of studying mythology and folklore in a modern society? 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