Myth

Definition:  Myths are ancient narratives that attempt to answer enduring and fundamental human questions--

How did the universe and world come to be?

How did we come to be here?

Who are we?

What are our proper, necessary, or inescapable roles as we relate to one another and the world at large?  

What should our values be?

How should we behave?

How should we not behave?

What are the consequences of behaving and not behaving in such ways?

(from Myth and Knowing by Scott Leonard and Michael MClure)

Summary of monomyth by Robert Ellwood:

The basic monomyth informs us that the mythological hero, setting out from an every day home, is lured or is carried away or proceeds to the threshold of adventures. He defeats a shadowy presence that guards the gateway, enters a dark passageway or even death, meets many unfamiliar forces, some of which give him threatening "tests," some of which offer magical aid. At the climax of the quest he undergoes a supreme ordeal and gains his reward: sacred marriage or sexual union with the goddess of the world, reconciliation with the father, his own divinization, or a mighty gift to bring back to the world. He then undertakes the final work of return, in which transformed, he reenters the place from whence he set out.