National Myths in Greece

Book excerpt: The national myths and the efforts to refute them are reliable sources in obtaining a holistic picture of a modern society. My starting point, which was to present the national myths in Modern Greece, turned into questioning “our human capacity” to live in a world distant from myths. A myth may mean from a “false story” to a “philosophical metaphor” and form a “lie” to a “unifying social story”. Myths are so widespread that one suspects that they constitute the norm of human existence. The whole endeavour is related to the construction of modern social identities and to the national perceptions vis-à-vis the self and the Other. The case of Greece illuminates drives that may be encountered in all present-day societies. One may read this book as a guide to get in acquaintance the Greeks, as well. The questions posed in this study are more numerous than the reached conclusions. For example, an unanswered but meaningful question is the following: “The grownups create stories that differ from the stories of children, but still stories that by others may be evaluated as myths. What is the difference between the belief in going to the moon riding a broom to meet a prince and the conviction of going to heaven accompanied by an angel to meet a god?”.