MYTHS, LEGENDS, FABLES

 Everywhere on earth, we come across places, plant or animal life, that evoke in us memories of the origin of the world.  Today's science tries to explain the origin of the universe and the creation of life.  But for the first humans, only a divine power of unbelievable creativity could create the world and man out of nothing.  At the dawn of the human race, it was the myths, with their entourage of gods and mythical creatures, that made man understand the unthinkable and help him understand the world.

 All peoples of the earth have their own, very special myths, in which the people of earlier civilizations answer their questions about the origin of the world, the origins of man, the hereafter and incomprehensible natural phenomena.  Myths still reflect wishes and hopes and at the same time express people's fears and worries.

 Gods, heroes and demons are countless and unmissable.  They are present in literature and art, but also in cultural practices and daily habits, subliminally contribute to decisions that people make, in actions that they perform.

 The gods represented, crystallized, and manifested what was for the people the sacred, the essential, the inviolable.  They existed more in the hearts than in reality.  They expressed unconditionally the needs, desires, aspirations of the people as well as what they constituted beyond the shortcomings of their living conditions, limits of action, risks of their enterprises.  Thus the mythical narratives defy all materialistic circumstances as well as the boundaries of time and space.  They are wonderful, and in order to understand them correctly, we need to set our logic of reason aside.  They turn to another part of us which is not unconnected to our daily experience, but which rises above it with much freedom.  It is one of the essential features of the myth to be challenged and to be the cover of diverse beliefs, to allow to dream and to provoke reflection.  With great interest we enter into a world which is not ours and makes us runaways outside our mental horizon.

Click on the individual pictures, Great around them to see

Jigoku

©uwe piller 2019