Why did great civilizations believe in what we now consider myth?

Answer 1

It would make more sense to ask why people believe in myths. It has nothing to do with historical period or level of civilization. The majority of people living today believe in myths of one kind or another; we don't recognize them as such because we convice ourselves that '''we of course are in possession of the truth'''. When people look back at the 21st century from the vantage point of centuries into the future, many myths of ours will be laid bare for all to see. And those future historical analysts will have the same self-centered attitudes that we have now.

People in ancient cultures did not, for example, consider their elaborate religions as 'myth', choosing to practice them anyway for no good reason. What we consider mythical now, they considered part of the fundamental truths of their everyday lives.

We are busy creating our world at the same time that we are busy gaining more information about it. In the broadest sense, 'myth' is the many layers of belief and conviction that we hold ''in order to make sense of the world around us''. As long as those beliefs go unchallenged, or as long as they continue to serve us somehow as templates or models of 'how the world really is', those beliefs (or many of them, at least) are really myths waiting to be exposed.