“I think of mythology as the homeland of the muses, the inspirers of art,
the inspirers of poetry. To see life as a poem and yourself participating
in a poem is what myth does for you.” —Joseph Campbell
Without Images
The first and most essential service of a mythology is
this one, of opening the mind and heart to the
utter wonder of all being.
The second is cosmological: of representing the universe
and whole spectacle of nature, both as known to the mind
and as beheld by the eye, as an epiphany of such kind that
when lightning flashes, or a setting sun ignites the sky,
or a deer is seen standing alerted, the exclamation “Ah!”
may be uttered as a recognition of divinity…
For it is the artist who brings the images of a mythology
to manifestation, and without images (whether mental or visual)
there is no mythology.
by Joseph Cambell
from Poetry Outlaws