From Myth to Philosophy to Science: 1 The Power of Myth

From the earliest human storytellers to the rich mythic narratives of classical Greece, humans have consistently sought to organise their experiences through symbolic meaning. This symbolic universe is not simply decorative; it is a mechanism for making sense of phenomena in a world that can be vast, unpredictable, and often overwhelming.

At the heart of mythic discourse is lexical metaphor. Through metaphor, concrete experience is reconfigured into symbolic agents, forces, and narratives. Lightning is not just a discharge of electricity — it becomes the wrath of a god. The seasons are not just cycles of growth and decay — they are the mood and motion of deities.

In terms of systemic functional linguistics (SFL), myth operates across strata as follows:

• Semantic stratum: meanings are construed metaphorically. A force of nature may be construed as an agent, a storm as a wrathful act.

• Lexicogrammar stratum: these metaphorical meanings are realised in wording that presents them as literal events.

The salient relation in myth is thus:

metaphorical semantic meaning ↔ lexicogrammatical wording

The congruent meanings grounded in direct experience exist in potential but are largely backgrounded; they do not drive the narrative. What matters is how metaphorical meanings are presented in wording to construct a coherent symbolic universe.

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Why this matters:

By organising experience symbolically, myth allows humans to project order onto phenomena, to navigate social and physical environments, and to inhabit worlds richer than immediate perception permits. It opens the first horizon of semiotic possibility, a space in which meaning can be manipulated to create worlds, explain events, and coordinate understanding across communities.

Yet, even in its sophistication, mythic discourse is oriented outward. Meaning is used to construe the world, not to interrogate the meanings themselves. Even relational meanings in myth — genealogies, hierarchies, cosmic roles — serve primarily to structure stories, not to examine the semantic potential that underlies them.

As we will see, it is precisely the detachment of relational meanings from narrative constraints, combined with the awareness of competing symbolic accounts, that sets the stage for the reflexive turn that emerges in early Greek philosophy.