Early on in The Power of Myth, Campbell outlines the “four functions of myth.” The first function is mystical. As Campbell says, myth opens the heart and the imagination to the wonders of the universe and the mystery of existence. Myth offers ways to contextualize the transcendent unknown within the conditions of the actual, physical world.
The second function is cosmological, humbly understanding that we “haven’t got all the answers.”
The third function is sociological. Myths can support, validate, or challenge certain social orders. In prehistoric societies, for example, there were violent conflicts between hunter-gatherer tribes and farming villages. Those conflicts played out with different social and mythological dimensions. In the agrarian cultures, myths emerged that correlated the seasonal cycles with those of nature and female fertility. Hunting society myths, meanwhile, were associated with death, conquest, and male virility. These contradictions came to a head in the fourth millennium B.C., which to Campbell was a critical moment in human history, as it precipitated the emergence of a nature-abhorring, male-dominated western spirituality.
But the fourth function of myth is more timeless, and that’s the instructional function. As Campbell says, myths can teach you “how to live a human lifetime under any circumstances.” This allows for modern mythologies, not grounded in ancient religions, that support our personal quests for wisdom and happiness. - taken from - https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/4-ways-myths-can-change-life-according-joseph-campbell-bookbite/32469/