The Four Functions of Myth

[@djcottman]

Hello professor, thank you for these videos. I am studying at another university and I appreciate listening to someone who is passionate about what they are talking about. I am looking forward to watching your other videos!

[@PeterBolland]

You are very welcome. I appreciate you watching. 🙏🏼

[@abysslumine9975]

1:37 First Function 6:40 Second Function 8:43 Third Function 11:05 Fourth Function Just in case there are some from my class preparing for an upcoming oral exam. I know ya'll are here because this was the most useful I've seen out there lol. Good luck to us all!

[@hershey395]

lmaooo

[@PeterBolland]

Thanks for creating this user-friendly study aid for my video! Cool!

[@laelhwang9499]

Thank you for this wonderful information. You gave me more dept information about the four functions of myth.

[@vincentstanzione8112]

I hope people come realize how these great lectures stimulate profound thoughts about humanity and its need for a Guiding and Protecting and Imaginative Myth of Creation!!!

[@PeterBolland]

That would be wonderful.

[@ayanalove1244]

Thank you for this explanation. My text book explained Campbell’s four functions but I feel like I wasn’t completely grasping it until now.

[@PeterBolland]

Ayana, so glad to hear this video was useful for you. Thanks! What textbook are you using in your mythology class?

[@ayanalove1244]

@@PeterBolland We are using Jennifer Taylor’s Introduction to Comparative Mythology. When I first read the functions I felt like I was reading a different language! However, after watching your video and then going back to my textbook, it seems like it was immediately translated back to English. 😂 Everything else just flowed and made sense from there understanding the first function does make the others easier. I was a little worried because how am I already confused on PAGE 3! So I want to say thank you again, because I got a little discouraged with myself, but you definitely helped me gain back some confidence.

[@PeterBolland]

@@ayanalove1244 Thanks, I'm not familiar with that book. I used David Leeming's "The World of Myth" for my classes. It's strictly an anthology -- not much context or explanation. That's why I made these videos on my "A Course on World Mythology" playlist -- for my students at Southwestern College. But I'm thrilled to learn that they're finding a wider audience. Feel free to share any of them with your fellow-students or with your professor if you think they'd be helpful.

[@ayanalove1244]

@@PeterBolland I definitely will thanks a bunch 😊

[@karenw8929]

Well done! I'm an artist working in mythic themes and I plan to watch your series to help me with content. Thanks so much!

[@PeterBolland]

Excellent news! Hope you enjoy the class. Myth and art come from the same place.

[@kenanklovitch8117]

One of your best Peter, thank you.

[@PeterBolland]

So glad you’re finding these useful.

[@KeshavaMuraari]

Great classification, but hearing all of them. myth seem to be teaching a way living/thinking. It seems that for the unrest in daily lives to handle them these mythology were the best way of the times. I'm sorry if it seems to be some ideas projected.

[@PeterBolland]

Yeah, as I say in the video, Joseph Campbell claims that the fourth function, the pedagogical or teaching function, is the most important function of all--that at their best, myths teach us how to live wisely.

[@livingwithlee128]

Sorry I am commenting because I am a student at a different college, and I came across this video because we are also starting with Campbell's 4 functions and I am trying to get a better understanding. With the Metaphysical function, you spoke about the ritual killing of the animal. Forgive me if this is a terrible example but is this in some way like the movie AVATAR. There is a moment were Neytiri kills one of the animals in the forest and she says a prayer about thanking "Ewya" for this gift (the beauty of the background). She then tells Jake that even though killing the animal was to save your life, this is very sad because it is still taking a life and needs to be taken seriously (The horrors of the foreground). I am trying to understand and connect in my own way, and if I am wrong I do apologize but I do find this topic very interesting.

[@PeterBolland]

Hey good catch. That scene from Avatar is exactly like the Navajo story I tell in the video. James Cameron drew heavily from Native American culture, ideology, and ritual for his fictional world. And everyone is absolutely welcome to view and comment on any of the videos on my channel. Thanks for checking in!

[@vincentstanzione8112]

Myth sustains the Human Soul thus this Study and Story of Myth is rich food for the soul, soul food for the human in search of Self through stories of the journey of tge human soul. Man, us this good.

[@DUST35]

Great summary, thanks!

[@PeterBolland]

Thanks! 🙏🏼

[@brothernet]

👍

[@FireMAker5284]

Thank you for respecting all religions

[@PeterBolland]

@@FireMAker5284 It comes naturally for me. I love them all.

[@graciesheme946]

this helped a lot thank you very much!

[@PeterBolland]

Thanks for watching Gracie!

[@luluzyz]

Thank you

[@PeterBolland]

Thanks for watching.

[@Newfoundmike]

(Funny/Cosmic) I was just thinking about Joseph Campbell and was going to make a comment, that you explain it better/ you are easier , for me to understand. Not a slam on him though .

[@PeterBolland]

Thanks Michael. Yeah, I love Joseph Campbell, but we all express these things a little differently. I rely on his work continually, however, and owe him a great deal of respect.

[@vincentstanzione8112]

See you on the Other Side...precisely because myth enables our DIVINE yet Human Soul to travel, to journey upon the raft of imagination; Human imagination creates as it is created by myth. Myth is the seed planted in the human imagination brought to life with rains of hope; hope to create a better world with more perfectly created human beings: more empathetic, more aesthetic, more sympathetic with ourselves and our common human past. What better way to create real human diversity through knowing the Myths of the World and the Language they are written and spoken. Myth is Muthos or Language. Divine language when spoken in Ritual Recitals of Transformative Transformation enable initiates to become One with the Divine Ancestors when myth comes to life in Rituaks and Rites of Initiation. It is through these Rites of Initiation that the Metaphysical and Mystical bind with the Socio-cultural and Biological with the Cosmological found reflected in the constellations of the night sky that become tge Pedagogical backdrop that dazzles that magical, mystical eye through which we experience the Ancestral Story that says we are the Descendants of those Divine Ancestors that shine as Constelations in the Night Sky. All functions of myth function to create one rounded and squared up human being, firmed and shaped by that wonder spoken to us as Myth. Ontological and Epistemological functions if myth are what makes myth the very thought of the heart in its quest to give expression to the experience of the human soul.

[@PeterBolland]

We’ll said!