by Hew Dalrymple

Created on: April 06, 2009

How myths and metaphor are used as an essential base for communication

Myths and legends, which are sadly confined to early schooling, carry with them concepts which have an inner meaning, according to the personal acceptance and understanding. This is the essence of communication, the embedded soul'(1), through which we construct our reality.

The so called knowledge revolution, together with postmodernism and the diversity of multi-culture has put pay to the believability of myth. In spite of this, the collective psyche is heavily imbued with archetypes and metaphor that have their origin in myth. The myth is the carrier of an essential message which lies unstated and often not clearly discernable in their context. Effective in that they carried an essential message, were easily remembered and had an appeal to assure that they would be repeated. The appeal was usually due to heroic figures that formed a focal point around which the context developed; the inner meaning being architipical and the contributed to the construction of role models.

Although myths are far from our conscious mind when we formulate a sentence, we have a concept to convey and that conceptual meaning is carried in the context. Without context, words have no true significance. Can you imagine trying to converse with a person foreign to your language without a basis to converse on?

We were staying on the Island of Mikonos, Greece. My wife was attending lectures while I cared for our two little girls. We had boarded a bus and the elder of the two marched confidently up the aisle to the warm welcome of the local women to the rear. I had my language guide book in hand, hat on head, sunglasses perched on forehead, a bag of essentials over one shoulder, and a heavy responsibility in my heart. As the bus pulled out into traffic, I did a mental check: always check your arse! Then that sensation of ice crawling up the spine, where was my youngest? By then I was half way up the aisle, with shoppers and their bags between me and the driver, who didn't speak a word of Aussi- English. The Greek for "Stop the bus!" was not ready to hand. With a glance at my big girl who was already ensconced on the lap of a black garbed matron, I earnestly barged my way toward the driver yelling the only contextual word with international meaning that came to mind. "Fire!"

One word had the desired effect. Just as that contextual noun drew a response, so too do beliefs surrounding the meanings of words trigger varied response;

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