| Joseph Campbell, a preeminent scholar of world mythology, wrote often regarding the "power of myth" in our society. Myth, which serves as a metaphor to explain the world and ourselves to ourselves, can be used to further the greater good of mankind. It can also be used to inflict great harm and hardship. Myth serves as either elixir or poison depending not upon he who consumes it, but upon he who conjures it. In this essay, we will look at the lives, work and myths of two historic figures who desired nothing less than the greater glory of God and man, namely, Jesus and Socrates. We will explore the creation of the myths surrounding Socrates and Jesus as heroes (in Campbell's sense of the monomyth) and the gifts which each gives to the world (i.e. their consonant messages of egalitarian rule, equality of the sexes, living a good life and nonviolent civil disobedience). |
