Welcome
There is not a single believer of Zeus or Odin in our modern society, neither is there anything to remind us constantly of our mythologies. Yet, the effects of mythology on today's society is unmistakable. From the personal level in the concepts of fate and love, on to the multi national coporations that adopt mythical names, throughout all levels of society, mythology has left its mark. In this section, we shall proceed to take a look at the effects of mythology on our modern day society, as well as to take a look at what we may learn from mythology.

The beginning to mythology may wish to read the previous four sections before reading this one, for it requires certain amounts of prior knowledge to fully understand these texts. A more experienced reader of mythology may decide to jump into this section straight, or to take a look at the section on the Great Themes of Myths, before reading this page.

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Introduction
When the team first embarked upon the web site, it seemed an impossibility to create a whole section devoted to talking about the impact that mythology has had on today's modern society. After all, it has been a good thousand years since those ancient civilizations and antique cultures existed, and few hundred other scientific discoveries and breakthroughs in between, well enough to turn mythology into nothing more than imaginative fiction in the mind of the modern reader of mythology. But that was where we were wrong.

After having done much research, one would start to realize that it is near impossible to overstate the mammoth effect mythologies have on our lives today, and on society as a whole. For sure, we can see the direct effects of mythology when Disney produced its movies "Hercules" and "Atlantis", or when "Clash of the Titans" was replayed on television for the umpteenth time, but more important than such literal impacts of mythology, are those that we do not notice.

Inarguably, just because we do not notice these effects does not mean it does not exist, and therefore we now endeavour to shed some light upon these effects and impacts of myths on today's society. And it is through this hulking system of mythology that all the wonders of the universe materialized in human culture.

Mythology has not only served its own end of explaining such wonders to the human being, but has also at times myths served humanity's end, tailoring the world to what he wanted of it. Mythology has been like the steady hand of the potter as he moulds the unwitting society according to his master plan. Of course, the real intention of such as mythology is unfathomable and difficult to define, but all the same, it has wrought the base on which much of our societies today are based on.

And yet, as mentioned above, the nature of the effects of mythology is not singularly one-wayed. Mythology in fact performed the dual tasks of both reflecting and dictating the human psyche. At many times, it may seem as though there is an overemphasis on the effects of ancient cultures more than just ancient mythology, and yet we would point out the fact that the line between the two are blurred, for ancient cultures were the very creators of these myths. We have tried on all counts to provide relevant information, to the very best of our judgment.

Much thought was put to the topic, and finally, ten large areas were identified as being prominent cornerstones at which mythology exerts its lasting influence. However, this list remains not at all exhaustive, and we strongly encourage the visitor to consider the topic too, and air his views wherever possible, so we all may learn of the various aspects that the team may not have thought of.

Some food for thought to end the introduction, I would like to pose a few questions to the visitor. These questions may or may not be mentioned in the rest of the site, But either way they serve as interesting questions to ponder on.

Who created the myths of the world that we all so cherish today?

What was the secret of mythology that led to its importance in all ancient cultures?

Why is mythology all over the world so similar, even across regions that had no contact at all?

Are there lessons that can we learn, from these myths themselves, or from the people who had created them?

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Literature
Mythology in itself was a form of literature in ancient civilizations. However, the ideas in mythology proved to be a lot more enigmatic than one's typical storybook. The ideas and elements that were created by mythology have exerted a strong influence over much of our modern day literature. We shall proceed to examine the ways in which our modern day literature has taken ideas out of mythology.

A large part of literature, in particular, those of the fantasy genre, has its roots in mythology. In many cases, ideas from mythology has been borrowed and used in similar forms. Fundamental ideas that can be seen throughout our modern literature include tales involving the afterlife. This is especially so in cultures such as those of the Chinese, in which the literary tales speak of the afterlife that in most cases follow the cosmology of Chinese mythology. In similar ways, mythology continues to affect modern literature with its view of heroism, like in the tales of Hercules and Perseus.

The idea of a single hero overcoming many odds to accomplish the impossible is a cherished thought through most mythologies and cultures, and is further popularized by means of mythology. It is interesting to note that Western mythology touts such heroism more than Eastern mythologies. In effect, the modern day literature in the East has shown a lesser tendency towards the creation of such superhuman heroes.

At many times, the various ideas and characters in mythology are also seen in literature. Most people know of fearful tales of vampires, but yet not many people know that these characters are in fact out of Slavic mythology, and have in fact just been borrowed by the authors such as Anne Rice in their literature. The most prominent example of the borrowing of characters out of mythology is in the area of Fantasy literature, and amongst this, the most prominent example in western literature is that of the famous "Lord of the Rings", by J.R.R. Tolkien.

"The Lord of the Rings" borrowed many creatures from Norse mythology to furnish its worlds. Such are creatures like the elves, the dwarves, the dragons and many more. Not only did the book borrow the creatures, it also borrowed certain elements from Norse cosmology, for example the realm "Middle Earth" in the story, which is the direct translation of Midgard, from Norse mythology. If one is acquainted with the prequel to the story, the book "The Hobbit", one would realize its many similarities with the story of Sigmund from the Volsung Saga of Norse mythology.

The recent craze of the book Harry Potter revolves largely about a world that is exclusively mythical. Although it is not in itself an ancient myth, it embodies the many qualities of myths, with creatures borrowed from the mythical world such as dragons, and characters like wizards with arcane magic, similar to the heroes from the courts of King Arthur. Harry Potter may not be directly advocating the various mythologies it derives its ideas from, but it provides to the reader the rich vast mythical world that is largely similar to that of its origins.

However, in ways perhaps less enigmatic than in that of Tolkien, many authors, such as the famous William Shakespeare also adopted the creatures of mythology. In his play "A Midsummer's Night Dream", many creatures such as nymphs make their appearance in a dreamy and mythical setting. These nymphs originate largely from Greek mythology, and to be used by Shakespeare ensures that it continues to be propagated through other mediums of literature, continuing to exert its influence around the world through the changing times.

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The Arts: Music, Art and Architecture
Mythology has an important part to play in the various art forms in our modern society. It has been served as an important starting point for many major evolutions in areas such as painting and sculpting, since it was largely the basis on which many of these were pioneered. We shall take a look at the role of mythology in the development of music, art and architecture.

Anyone familiar with classical music would know of the famous compositions of the German composer Richard Wagner. Amongst many other pieces, Wagner composed the famous "Ride of the Valkyries", which is commonly used to depict the Vikings, whose mythology it represented. Besides that, Wagner also composed an opera which told of the story of the Quest for the Holy Grail, from King Arthur in Celtic mythology.

Many African cultures developed their rudimentary form of music from their prayers to the gods or their rituals of life. The key to the creation of music is in inspiration, and mythology has provided much inspiration for the creative composition of composers all over the world of different cultures. Not only did mythology provide a purpose for the creation of music in many cases, it also provided the tales that would inspire those who listen to compose.

Such was the composition of the famous Chinese tune, the butterfly lovers, which is based on an age old myth of China. The tune has been very popular in the Chinese classical arena, for its fitting depiction of the lovers who die and become butterflies after death so as to preserve their union.

Similar devices have worked on art, where it can be divided into two areas, that of painting, and that of sculptures. Many artists have been fascinated with the mythical world, and have depicted in their drawings, the settings from myths, and of course the creatures of mythology such as centaurs and cherubs. In many occasions, the art of many cultures such as that of Indian and Australian Aborigines were started in their mythology, where drawing were used as sacred signs, or in the reproduction of events from myths.

It was also an important development in Greek sculpture, when they started to model the gods out of stone. The famous statues like that of Zeus and Aphrodite flank the many temples they created for the gods. This development in art has much to owe to mythology, in ways that the patronage to the gods and goddesses actually fueled the importance and the eventual flourishing of these arts.

Many other cultures are also affected by mythology this way, especially that of Celtic culture and Japanese culture. Japanese art, which may be given special notice, which is famous throughout the world in the form of comic, has its beginnings in mythology, with the eventual style developed by Japanese animators and illustrators following in the footsteps of the mythical past.

Lastly, the same impetuous that led to the advancement in sculpture in many cultures also led to a similar advancement in the area of architecture. The Egyptians are best noted for their lavish temples to the gods which required much manpower to create. These huge temples attest to the fact that mythology had indeed spurred the Egyptians to push their technologies of architecture to greater heights, encompassing important technological breakthroughs such as the understanding of trigonometry, although the actual use of trigonometry by ancient Egyptians had never been found.

Unfortunately, much of this technology based on Egyptian mythology was stopped when they were invaded and their mythology was overruled by the Romans. A look at the culture which has led to more important effects in architecture today would invariably point us at Greek architecture. The Greeks are famous for their temples such as the Parthenon, a temple in Athens dedicated to the goddess Athene.

The three famous columns, Ionic, Doric and Corinthian are all results from Greeks patronage to their gods, and the eventual pushing of these technologies to greater heights that have established important cornerstones like that of proportion and symmetry, to architects even till today.

Although in many cases, the effects of mythology may not be felt directly in the forms of the gods and the mythical creatures, mythology formed an important starting point for many ancient technologies, as have been mentioned many times above. Many other developments such as that in theatre and garment too have been affected by mythology, but to a much lesser extent. It is interesting to ponder on the other various aspects of our lives today that have started off as a part of mythology.

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Entertainment: Films and Games
Mythology has exerted much influence over the spheres of entertainment, where much inspiration is drawn from the ancient tales of mythology and where many ideas are reused in different forms, or at their face value. These effects are evident in the two areas that we shall proceed to discuss. They are that of films and games.

To start with films, many of the films that carry heavy mythical baggage are influenced in the same way as literature, which is discussed separately. With the conversion of these works of literature into film, the effects are carried forth to a larger audience and enacted visually, reviving many themes of mythology that are best described in picture. More importantly however, are the films that in fact stage the very tales that are found in mythology. It would require little introduction to the myriad of tales have undergone this transformation. Movies such as "Jason and the Argonauts", which was based on the story from Greek Mythology, and the "Journey to the West" from Chinese mythology, are good examples.

"The Lord of the Rings" was discussed in the area of literature. The film based on the book is due out in the years 2001, 2002 and 2003, each under the title of the three books that form the entire story. As much as modern literature owes mythology, many films do to, in similar fashions. Such films like Walt Disney's "Hercules" or "Atlantis" have been produced in recent times, representing the allure of mythology that has stayed on till modern times. Despite the difference of many over two thousand years, it still exerts a lasting influence, which serves to inspire so many people to reenact it.

Apart from that, many films today manifest ideas that occur in mythology. The most prominent of these ideas that has been used in film is that of the concept of good and evil. In the famous series of movies, "Star Wars", the two opposites in the movie are known as the "The Light" and "The Dark Side". This is reminiscent of any mythology, which sees good and evil along the two lines of brightness and darkness.

Many films today such as "Braveheart" and many Chinese tales have put Dragons in the middle of their plots. Dragons essentially have their origins in mythology, and to have dragons play such an important role in movies today surely proves the fact those movies, especially those to do with fantasy, have much to owe to the world's mythologies.

It is in the spirit of mythology that a whole array of fantasy games have evolved, and both mythical and non-mythical games alike share the inspiration that mythology has bequeathed upon the world. The game, Max Payne, is one of the latest games in the market as of the time of the writing of this article. It is a third person shooter, which boasts of the cutting edge in the latest 3D graphics technology. What is striking about the game, besides its stunning graphics, was its references to Norse mythology. A certain conspiracy in the game was named Project Valhalla, Valhalla being the hall of Odin, to those acquainted with the pantheon.

In fact, Max Payne is not the only recent game to be involved with mythology. The real time strategy game from Microsoft, which is scheduled for release soon, is named "Age of Mythology", which coincidentally shares the same name at this site. At this I would like to repeat the fact that this site is in no way affiliated with that game, and in no way was the title of this site a result of some inspiration from the game.

Under a larger portion of games that are related to mythology comes the large number of board games where players move figures across the board to play out the various scenarios and stories according to the imagination of the game master. Many of these characters included the fabled elves and dwarves out of Norse Mythology, or the mystical wizards who came out of Celtic mythology. They also sport the elemental creatures, the wyverns and many more, whom are all distinctly mythical creatures.

However, these type of games have given way to the advent of the internet, which now houses thousands of such games which are played on a text based format. These games attest to the huge influence of mythology on a sector as recent as internet gaming. However, the introduction of technology has not reduced the effect of mythology, but only proved to be a medium that has spawned a greater community for such games across the world, serving to increase the already large impact that mythology has on the gaming world.

At the end of this, one may wonder if in fact these really show conclusive effects of mythology on the various sectors mentioned in the article. It not seem as apparent at first, but by virtue that mythology has been widely utilized in the sectors abovementioned, it points to something.

It points to the fact that the scriptwriters and the game producers chose to use mythology as the basis for their products over other possible alternatives. It is because of this fact that we realise that mythology has in fact made such an impact on our society, and has ingrained itself deep within our modern day culture. This small spark has embodied itself in society today, in the manifestations, such as of films and games in our society today.

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Order of Society
Many myths have formed the fundamental rules of society, which dictate the way in which society is ordered and run. Such myths also serve in explaining certain social divisions, whilst at times validating it. In many cases this division has led to the same order in society today, or an evolved form thereof. We shall look under the areas of the inequality of the sexes, the aristocracy and that of social classes.

Most ancient cultures manifested different forms of sexual inequality of varying degrees. In almost all cases, the men are seen as the dominant side. There are many ways in which mythology has brought about this, which comes from two different approaches. The first approach is that of the males having performed some ritual to justify their superiority, whilst the second one is with the female committing some sort of sin which has lowered their placing in the household.

The first approach of justification of male superiority can be seen from the common practice in many tribes even toady. It is the practice of male initiation, which mythology dictates for males in a society which reach a certain age. The male is required to go and perform some act that would raise his status in society from boy to man, and effectively above that of women who lack such an avenue of self improvement, due to the inherent bias in the mythologies.

The second approach of the degradation of females in mythology can be seen from the myths like in that of the Greek myth of Pandora, where the first woman was introduced into the world to release sin. The Japanese too have such a myth, involving the primal gods, Izanagi and Izanami. When the wife of Izanagi failed to greet her husband in the style of male primacy, a terrible monster was born which had to be exiled to the sea. In order to prevent this from happening again, Izanami from then on had to greet her husband formally in the style that many Japanese practice till today.

This inequality of the sexes has come a long way into our modern society, with the introduction of feminist movement in the 1960's. However, even till today, much of the world has not been able to completely remove this sexual bias, which in part, was endowed upon humanity by mythology.

We shall now move onto the next topic of the aristocracy. Democracy was not a system of government practiced in much of ancient culture. The foremost form of government was aristocracy, which involved a governing family with absolute power, known as the royal family. In oriental cultures this was usually in the form of an emperor or sultan, while in areas in Egypt they were known as Pharaohs.

How were these families able to hold on to power? It was mythology that validated these governments. These families were often thought to be along the lineage of the gods themselves. The Japanese royal family, for example, was thought to be the children of the sun goddess Amaterasu. In Egypt, the Pharaohs were the children of Osiris and Isis, and at times the rulers claimed to be gods themselves, like that of Rome. Chinese culture believed that the emperor had the mandate of heaven, which was explicitly stated in the mythology of the Chinese.

And yet it is interesting how the structure of today's government can also be derived from mythology. A simple look at the Greek system shows us a main god, that of Zeus. Zeus had a wife, Hera, and amongst that a few key players in his court, the Olympians. To further split the job of government, the various other gods who were born from the Olympians were allocated to various jobs. These jobs come in the form such as of the god of fertility, the god of music. Although it may be considered very much simpler than anything that is run in the world today, the ideas and the fundamentals are unchanged.

The last idea is that of social classes. Many ancient cultures had systems of social classes, which at many times held barriers that were not to be transcended. These myths were usually an eventual filtering out between levels of society to form the classes, but it was justified and regimented by mythology. For example, the Chinese myth of human creation tells of how the goddess, Nu Wa, made certain human beings personally out of clay. When she got tired of making the human figures, she used her magic to produce humans en masse. Eventually, those she had made personally became those of upper classes of society, whilst those she had conjured became the lowly peasants.

These forms of social order are still held very much in societies who have not yet uprooted themselves from their tradition and mythology. It is such that we see the great effect that mythology has had on the roles of the male and female in the household, the role of mythology in preserving aristocracy and in conceptualizing governments used till today, and lastly in the forming of social classes.

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Intrinsic Concepts
Many of us are familiar with concepts such as luck and fate. These have very much accepted in society today, but what many people fail to see how these concepts are derived from mythology. For sure, mythology did not fundamentally construct the various ideas, but what they did very well was to give these concepts physical embodiments. It is in effect that people pray for luck today, or such as blame everything on fate. These involve some imperceptible yet omnipresent force, making them accessible to the imagination of society.

There are two major ways in which these concepts were manifested in mythology. The first way was in which the ideas took the idea of gods and goddesses who held the ability to manipulate these ideas. The second way was in having a god or goddess who was attributed to the concept.

The actual word 'Fate' in the English language is derived from the Greek goddesses, the fates. They were Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos. Clotho spun the thread of life, whilst Lachesis took the thread and assigned it destiny and luck, and Atropos would cut the threads at any time. The Fates were powerful goddesses, feared even by Zeus himself. The ancient Greeks used to pray to these goddesses especially in times such as weddings, for a bright future. The Norse had a similar set of gods who controlled fate. They were the Norns, and were Urd, Verthandi and Skuld, which meant past, present and future respectively.

Other Greek creatures include that of the Hours, which is the divine embodiment of time. There was also Justice, who provided justice and fairness all around. There was Death, who took the life of people. There was Sleep and Dreams, goddess that graced the night world.

Chinese mythology is an example of the patron goddess to various concepts. In the Chinese pantheon, there were goddesses to virtues such as mercy, with the Goddess of Mercy, an important figure in Chinese mythology. There was also the God of Fortune, to which many Chinese prayed throughout the ages, for good luck and prosperity especially at the start of each year. Sleep is often embodied in the form of a god whom the people paid a visit each night. Death was embodied in the form of the book of records kept in the underworld, marking the life span of each mortal and creature in the world.

Ideas such as love are also cherished very much in mythology. The most famous character would be out of Roman mythology, that of Cupid, the winged boy who shot arrows of love. The Greek equivalent of Cupid was Eros, who performed similar tasks.

People in the modern world seldom look up to such gods and goddesses anymore, but however, the ideas live on very much. For example in the case of the Tarot deck. The Tarot deck is a famous tool for divination, and it is famous for its deck of usually seventy-eight cards, each of which represents different abstract concepts in life.

The inheritance of these concepts from mythology has led us, more often than not, to talk not of hoping to be lucky, but rather, to be praying for Luck; to be in Love, rather than to be loving each other; to be afraid of Death, rather than to be afraid of dying.

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Societal Ideals
Many societal ideals find their roots one way or another, in the very depths of mythology. It would be interesting to imagine the outcome of society today, if mythology has rejoiced in the ways of the tricksters such as Loki and Coyote, and those who dabbled in the black arts. But lo, they did not. The society we live in today has had the very concepts of good and evil gelled to that from much of mythology, in which they were based on the gods and their archenemies, the demons. With this concept, many others follow, forming the broad basis on which ideal characteristics of human beings today are built on.

One less obvious ideal in society today that came from the days of yore is that of masculinity and femininity. Today, the general model of femininity would probably be the centerfolds of fashion magazines, on which beautiful and well-endowed women are captured in moments of grace, when not of titillation. The male model is the images of well built men with huge biceps, with a six-pack for a stomach, sweating in the middle of an exercise routine.

The very image of the Greek goddess, Aphrodite, rising from the sea and being greeted by the nymphs, perhaps very aptly describes the model of femininity, which so many women try to imitate today. Aphrodite became the Greek goddess of fertility and love, along with many other cultures, which had fertility goddesses who were the hallmark of a woman.

Even in the sea nymphs, all things female and likeable were good examples of femininity in the ancient myths, and conversely, the females whom had grown in age, or were plagued by unfeminine characteristics, were largely despised in mythology, such as that of hags, witches and even in goddesses such as that of Hera, who was filled with vengeance and jealousy.

Similarly, that of Chinese mythology such as the tale of Chang E and Houyi, and how the former later floated to the moon with her grace and majesty, reflects the ideals of the female in Chinese society even till today. It is so often that females are associated with heavenly bodies such as the moon and the sun, like in Japanese mythology where the sun goddess was the famous Amaterasu, and Norse mythology, where the heavenly bodies were in fact two goddesses riding chariots across the sky. The mysterious and yet beautiful appearance of the heavenly bodies are yet another notion, exclusively feminine.

The self-sacrificing ideal of motherhood can also be seen in a myth from Egyptian mythology, where the goddess Isis was the model of a perfect mother. When her child, Horus, was bitten by a scorpion and was dying, she was so upset that her cries of grief stopped Ra's journey in the sky, and he attended to the problem immediately, thus saving her child. Thus, much of these ideas still live on very much till today.

The opposite is of masculinity, and it best can be observed in the idea of heroism. Traditionally, heroes today are viewed under the same light and with the same reverence as that of heroes in the past. The general characteristics of heroes are almost always courage, strength and integrity, as they perform deeds that are of enough magnitude to be considered heroic.

The famous Greek heroes such as Hercules as popular culture calls him, and Perseus along with the Chinese hero who shot down nine suns to avert calamity, and even the Norse god Thor, who often saved the Aesir from the giants all were heroes of their own pantheons. For the Vikings for example, the tale of how the Valkyries would choose the best of the warriors to go to Odin's hall, Vallhala, to await the day of Ragnarok was an important reason why the warriors fought so hard in battle. It has also promoted the important idea of heroism in the countries that were under its influence. In Celtic mythology, King Arthur and his knights were the epitome of heroism, as the knights perform tales of valour which has become the inspiration for many images of male masculinity.

These all are evidence of the pervading image of masculinity from the past that has survived till today, and has continued to undermine other forms of heroism such as that of true courage and loyalty, like that of the Chinese poet Qu Yuan, whom was once favoured by the emperor for his loyalty, but was later obscured by jealous colleagues, who managed to convince the emperor that Qu Yuan was in fact a traitor. The hero killed himself by drowning, when he was discharged from the imperial service, due to his overwhelming disappointment in the country, and the misplacement of his loyalty.

As much as society has accepted these ideals unquestioningly, the actual effect of mythology on such a view becomes evident when new tribes are discovered in the jungles in places such as the Amazon basin. Such tribes have had no contact with human civilization before, and have developed their own culture and way of life.

In one particular tribe, the concept of femininity was in having a long attractive neck, in which the females of the tribe wore rings about their neck in an attempt to lengthen it, making themselves more attractive to the men. A large part of this was endowed upon by mythology, showing the civilised people, us, how mythology has bequeathed upon us many societal ideals that we take for granted.

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Morality
The morality of the modern world today is an interesting one. It takes no introduction to the differences in morality between the East and the West today, but how does this at all relate to mythology, does it in fact have a direct link to our cultural history? Well, the answer to this question would be not completely. The moral standards around the world has undergone slow inexorable changes to evolve into what we know of today.

It would be important to note that morality as was no more than a basis on which ancient societies managed to perform optimally. These ancient cultures at many times fought for their survival, and in order for it to move on and progress, a certain set of rules had to be put down. So where does mythology come in? As mentioned in the introduction, very often mythology served man's end, in dictating how society should be run by way of fables which related various morals.

After time, many of these morals became irrelevant as the shifting needs of the various societies changed. However, the mythology remained stagnant, continuing to dictate the same rules it started off with. As such, the power of mythology has still imposed various rules over society today that might not otherwise have been adopted by societies today.

One obvious example would be that of women and their place in home. Women, being weaker physically than men, were often made to stay at home, amongst other reasons as often depicted in mythology. However, without the rigours of the wilderness in today's society, the notions have remained the same, and it has taken quite some effort from female lobbyists to have changed this mindset that used to be ingrained in society just a century back.

Most of the moral codes in mythology had to do with marriage and sex. Such differences in morality between East and West comes intuitively, with many eastern cultures especially China, having over population in the country. With this amount of a people, a stricter set of rules were placed within their mythology to ensure the continued survival of their people, and to maintain order within society, such as myths of unchanging love in the tale of the cowherd and the weaver, and punishment in various other myths. As such, the Chinese society today has taken a very conservative view of such issues of morality.

On the other hand, societies such as that of the Vikings were more liberal. In Norse mythology, the fertility goddess, Freyja, was at one point rather promiscuous and at one point slept with three dwarves for a night each. In effect, the society today reproaches the committers of infidelity less than the Eastern cultures. Morals such that of polygamy as rivaled to monogamy is also has its basis in mythology.

Besides in cases of sex, mythology also sets down many standard morals in society by the use of stories. Innu mythology, for one, address problems such as incest, cannibalism, the need to share and arrogance, and through these stories they convey the notions to people, which have been carried on today, both by necessity and mythology.

A very important reason why mythology directly influenced these morals was the fact that mythology provided the prohibition that was needed to enforce the rules. This was done mainly in the area of retribution, where in Chinese and Japanese mythology people who had committed many transgressions were punished through various levels of hell. In Egyptian mythology, the hearts of the dead were weighed against a feather, determining if the person was to go to heaven or to hell.

Very similar to the criminal system we have in modern society today, mythology also had another form of deterrence with regards to crime. This came in the form of rehabilitation where through stories, people were encouraged to maintain a good set of morals in the style of learning from other's mistakes.

Morals were in itself a form of societal ideals, which is discussed separately. The rest of morality is discussed in the topic of lessons, which talks about how mythology provides many stories with underlying morals that are used till today to educate people, and to examine what we can learn by reading myths.

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Lessons
Mythology is made up for many tales, and whilst many of these story serve no purpose than as a stage to tales of cosmic proportions, many others relate stories which hold important messages to the people who read them. These messages usually pertain to how a person should behave, and good and bad virtues thereof.

In the discussion of the lesson learnt from tales, it would be impossible to comprehensively group all the tales because of the sheer number of mythical tales that represent different morals. Instead, we shall look at tales in three main areas. The first area is that of giving encouragement, the second is that of deterrence, whilst the last is of defining social protocol. Each of these will be illustrated with a story which would hopefully serve its purpose to show the different lessons that can be learnt from various mythical tales.

Under the first section, tales that provide encouragement are abundant in mythology. In the story known as Journey to the West, in Chinese mythology, the main character, a Monkey, overcomes many obstacles to travel to the west to obtain Buddhist scriptures with a group of other travelers. However, the important thing to be noted was that Monkey never was a supporter of the cause, and was only compelled by a ring that was placed over his head, and that would contract whenever he was disobedient. His attitude changed slowly throughout the story, and by the end, he had understood the meaning of the work he had undertaken and felt that everything was worthwhile.

The tale is an important cornerstone in Chinese culture, and tells an important lesson that can be applied throughout life, that many things in life are confusing and hard, but what is important is that one perseveres. Only then can one would find meaning and understanding in what they have done. It can especially be applied to that of students, many of which do not hold full appreciation for what they are studying, and who go through the meaningless and painful routine of study.

The next story we shall take a look at represents a story that tells of lessons that act as deterrence to the reader. It is the story of Narcissus and Echo, from Greek mythology. Echo was a talkative forest nymph. One day, Hera came to confront Zeus when she found him in the forest with a nymph. Echo however kept interrupting the goddess, trying to get the last line in. She angered Hera, and as punishment, Hera removed her power of speech, leaving her only to repeat the words of people after they speak. While Echo was in the forest one day, she saw a handsome youth whom she fell in love immediately. His name was Narcissus, and he was too proud to give his affections to any of the suitors. Narcissus heard Echo, but she was unable to tell him anything for she he was only able to repeat him. Her voice finally led him to a pool where he saw his reflection. He was infatuated with his reflection, and tried to get at it, but in vain. Eventually, Narcissus killed himself, leaving the poor Echo to cry until she disappeared only leaving her voice behind.

This story contains two important lessons, which can be derived quite simply. The first is of Echo when she tried to rebut Hera while she was talking, and later arguing with her. It makes no good sense in modern society to antagonize people of authority by rebutting them repeatedly, and much less when one has no play in the matter in the first place, as the saying goes, 'Uncalled for comments are best kept to yourself'. The second lesson is in Narcissus vanity, when he was so self-absorbed he did not bother about anyone who courted him. Finally he paid for his mistake by having his looks kill himself. It shows the effects of his self centeredness from a third person perspective, except with the effects on himself.

The last theme would be that of social protocol. The lessons that can be learnt from these tales include that of what is right and what is wrong in society, and how members of a family should treat each other, amongst many other ideas which would vary from story to story. Like in the case of Hercules and his twelve tasks, the hero went ahead to perform twelve tasks in order to atone for his sins of killing his wife and children under Hera's curse. This is an example of social protocol, the idea of atonement for one's sins.

A good illustration of this is the Indian epic, the Mahabharata. To put story in short, it told of the war between two groups of paternal cousins and the eventual outcome of the war. It would be too long to list out the number of themes and lessons that were covered in the long story, but some examples of it talked about was that of good and evil, and of the dangers of jealousy and respect between siblings.

It would be impossible to cover all the lessons that are derived from myths, but hopefully the examples given above would be enough to give a good idea of the various lessons that can be gain from myths, and that can even be applied to modern society today.

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Representation
Despite the fact that the names of most characters out of ancient mythologies do not actually manifest any meaning, and the fact that they are not officially accepted as words in language, these names are still used till today, representative of their mythological heritage. These are most common in various areas such as that of commercial advertisement, in the naming of space crafts, and various other areas. Due to the heavy influence of Greek on the English language, this would be a discussion mainly on that of Greek and Roman mythology, since the both systems were fundamentally the same.

Triton was the son of Poseidon, the god of the sea, and he determined the temperament of the sea by blowing into his shell which is known today as a triton conch shell. Amongst many other adaptations of its names, Triton has that of Triton submarines, the Triton shell and even a moon of Neptune to boast of. Why have these names been used for such purposes? It would be understandable why the moon of Neptune was called Triton- Neptune is the Roman equivalent of Poseidon, and would probably have been named by the ancient astronomers. Triton, his son, would naturally be attached to his father.

Besides such a literal explanation as of Triton, it may seem evident now that the names of mythical figures that are used in modern society often are used to convey the characteristics of its originator. Take Nike, for example. The multi-national company, Nike, has its name from the Greek god of athletics, although the original meaning has long been forgotten in the company's phenomenal success. In the modern day scenario of cut throat competition between retailers and manufactures alike, the adoption of mythical names may just be yet another attempt at winning the customer.

There are of course cases when the use of these names is completely unrelated to commercialism. The space shuttles, for example that of Apollo is yet another way in which the names of Greek characters are used today. It can be best assumed that the name embodied the aspirations of the people who created the space shuttle. In yet another interesting biological example, the Venus flytrap is one which has captured the imaginations of biologist who are amazed at the carnivorous plant.

Unlike the vivid depictions in many games today, with the plant snapping and shutting its jaws, the Venus flytrap in fact lures insects into its mouth like opening, after which when the insect crosses the threshold, the mouth slowly shuts, trapping the insect inside to be digested. The first portion of the name, Venus, quite obviously comes from the Roman goddess Venus, whose Greek equivalent was Aphrodite, goddess of love and fertility. In the case of the flytrap, its allure to insects most certainly got it its reference to the goddess.

It is hard to explicitly state the number of companies today that utilize mythical names in their titles, because of the large number of companies that do so. A simple look through a phone directory or any internet search engine would yield many examples. The extent of effect of Greek mythology in the area of representation is perhaps most obvious amongst all mythologies, with its close relation with Rome and the English language. The effects of other mythologies are more localized around the area their origin, and to find examples of that would be difficult and isolated. Hopefully at the end of this you would be able to understand how representation of mythology has shown itself in mythology today. It may not have had an enigmatic impact on society, but all the same, it is a clear indication of that mythology still in fact works its magic in our modern era.

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What We Can Learn
How can one learn and benefit from mythology? At the end of this site, we hope that we have been able to give you a good idea of the age of mythology. We shall now come to our final conclusion to what one may apply from learning about mythology.

In being more critical
Mythology has always been proof of the fertile imagination and the various answers that ancient cultures came up with to explain the mysteries of the world around them. Mythology on many accounts reflected the psyche of the human beings of the ancient world, which does not differ than that of human beings till today. Hopefully, after reading mythology on an analytical level, you would be able to understand the human psyche better and generally be more critical when it comes to reading other texts such as literary texts and newspaper articles. For example, to learn how the use of rhetoric in such as newspapers makes the public believe things that are but shadows of truth.

In becoming more exposed
We hope that after reading through the many tales and ideas from mythology, you would have learn much about other cultures and other forms of belief outside your own. We believe very much in the fact that cross cultural understanding is an essential part of any one person's social life, and that it truly is liberation of the mind to be exposed to ideas from other societies where ideals and fundamentals differ so much from your own.

In being inspired
Mythology has survived through the ages primarily on its ability to enchant and inspire people to continue in the art. In the same way mythology has inspired us to choose this topic, we hope that you too would be inspired by mythology and to continue in your own pursuit mythology. This site by no means provides a exhaustive source for good mythology, but what we intended this for was to light the spark that would hopefully inspire you to continue on the fascinating topic.

In learning from the tales
Most tales from mythology, no matter how obscure and how unseeming, have inherent lessons and deeper meaning inside them, which are conveyed through the tales by its creators. We hope that by learning more about these tales, you would be able to learn from the many lessons and be able to apply them to your everyday life. Also to understand better concepts such as fate and luck as they exist in the world today, and realize how they came to be in the first place. Regarding issues such as morality, we hope you would be able to understand the basis on which so many morals in our society have been formed, such as reason pertaining to necessity and tradition.

In improving our understanding
Mythology has had a huge effect on our modern day society, and by learning more about it, I hope you would be able to understand the world around you better, by knowing more of the origins of various things in society. Especially in the area of popular culture, a knowledge of mythology would enable you to better understand the various mythical factors that come into play especially in movies like Star Wars. Also, in terms of mythology like "The Lord of the Rings", a knowledge of mythology would definitely benefit you, because you would be able to gain a better insight as to the origins of these creatures, and how mythology has been adapted to modern literature.

In having fun
We hope that you have had an interesting and fun time learning more about myths in this site. After all, the spirit of mythology is in light hearted fun, unlike subjects like physics and history.

In passing it on
The fate of the tales of mythology and whether our future generations would get to know them to, lies within our hands now, and we hope that after reading this site, you would feel like sharing these tales to your children and to your friends. Mythology, after all, has no other form of propagation other than the interest and enthusiasm of our current generation in bringing it to the world.

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