How can the same thing look one way, yet "be" another?

Of all things, Myth appears to be irrational, simplistic, or even "false", BUT the reality of myth taken poetically, symbolically, &/or metaphorically can be a very meaningful medium of expression.

Because so-called "real" heroes and "real" legends may actually be only apparent (the examples of Gen. Custer, "Superwoman" and even Hitler!), we have to be very critical in distinguishing appearance from reality. The real paradigm of a hero shows that they effect change on themselves, not others, and thus the real hero is to be emulated and honored as a model for us to live our lives by.

Joseph Campbell cited Four Functions of Myth:

• myth provides and opening of the world to mystery
• it has a cosmological aspect in its explanations of the ultimate origins and the structure of the universe
• it can provide a sociological function of law-giving and thus the regulation of the life of a people
• and it has a pedagogical function: it can teach us how to live a fully human life.

From the time of the Greeks on, human thought has progressed on a path of increasingly "discursive" thought processes. This refers to the analytic aspects of the human mind which is always "breaking down" experience into categories, particularly "paired" categories of left & right, Female and Male, Good and Bad, etc. Mythic thought characteristically transcends that kind of duality and analysis. As Campbell put it, "Everything in the field of time is dual, has opposites -- our history is in duality. Mythic thought transcends duality. It puts one in accord with the world (which is not distinct from God)."

Myth is not the "search for meaning": the rational, 'discursive' mind does that. Yet, myths "touch the eternal," address "the experience of being alive," and thus provides clues for the discursive mind to grasp the non-discursive aspect of human-kind. The language of myth is therefore different; it is closer to poetry, it is metaphorical in nature -- it is in part the language of dreams, of the pre-rational (as opposed to ir-rational) and unconscious. It is not simply a mode of thought of pre-literate peoples; it is a mode of thought that we engage in regularly. The discursive mind often presents a pejorative notion of myth as falsehood, a "mistaken paradigm of thinking" -- after all, stories of Greek Gods aren't "true", and "myths" of mis-information abound (re: "Myth of fad diets exposed!"). I want to hold that the pejorative sense is legitimate, but a limited concept of myth. If we can understand its genuine character as understood by interpreting its content symbolically we will see that myth has little to do with memorizing genealogies of fabled gods and heroes, astrology, numerology, amulets & crystals. Ultimately it has much to do with understanding the universal truths and paradigms of thinking in literature, psychology, politics, and even love.

Beyond simply understanding the nature of Myth, we stand to gain some insight into the nature of Truth, be it in religious thought, artistic expression, philosophy, or in the broadest sense, the human condition. Truth is not an exclusive property of discursive reason (that is, of facts, measurement, data, concepts, categories, etc.) rather, discursive reason reveals at best one aspect of truth, and at worst may conceal many other paths.