The Origin of Greek Mythology

In order to understand the themes that my work is heavily based around, I have been researching the origins of Greek mythology. This actually turned out to be more difficult than I had anticipated, as there is more than one answer to this.

Unlike religion that we are used to in a modern world, Greek mythology doesn't just a singular book or transcript that is believed to be the origin of the beliefs and notions that are offered.

History.com claims that the earliest of these Greek myths originate from the bronze age, where they were spoken aloud. In 700 BC, Theogony by Hesiod became the first piece of writing that told the origin of the world including the gods, and therefore of Greek mythology.

Robert Graves, within his book Greek Gods and Heroes : For Young Readers claims that the question of the age of Greek mythology seems impossible to answer, as it is of many ages. He later concludes that the myths come from the Mycenaean age.

There is also the question of why these myths came about. We have an answer to when, but why and how did they emerge?

Richard Caldwell claims that myths have three psychological functions in addition to nonpsychological functions. These are to allow the expression of the repressed unconscious in a way that is accepted by society, to use the emotional content attached to such ideas to energise the non-emotional functions of myth, and lastly to provide a societal response to psychological needs - to come together.
Within the same book, he notes that Burkert believes that myth is a type of ritual in the sense that rituals help people deal with their needs via a community of people.

Caldwell compares myths to dreams, noting that both are used in order to express repressed ideas and therefore help the mental health of an individual, only dreams are personal and myths are a shared experience. In reference to my work, this is very relevant. I never anticipated an answer that would suggest that not only am I using myth as a way to help my mental health, but that is one of the functions of myth itself - escaping via myth is itself a shared experience. As these ideas are supposedly repressed, I couldn't explain what they are to me, however, I think this certainly plays on the aspect of escapism within my work. Now I have this knowledge, I feel even more so than before that my work is a way of connecting myself to generations before me, like a spider web of fantasy, myth, escapism and belief. It's incredible that the potential reasoning for myth still lives with us today.

One of the non-psychological functions of myth, is aesthetic function. This is rarely spoken about, Caldwell suggest this is because it only further complicates things as it brings up the psychological functions of myth which is also little spoken of.
"Such views, of course, fail to answer adequately the questions of why mythical subjects have been so dominant in Western art ... there is something special yet elusive about myth which compels our attention and cannot be much different from what compelled Greek artists, poets, and especially dramatists to use myth as their primary subject"
This again strengthens the link and connection of modern artists using mythology with Greeks that did the same. One of the answers to why Greek mythology exists and appreciated is simply because it is nice to hear about and to look at, and I am convinced that at its core this is because of the escapism it offers. When I look and read about these myths, it offers me escapism, and I get the same feeling from embodying these Goddesses, and editing and viewing the images.