ISBN 9781913260545 (paperback), 206 pages
Not just ancient stories—but a code for how we think, desire, fear, and believe.
Readers’ Favorite Book Award Winner
A profound psychological approach… Fascinating stuff. —James Sale, author of Gods, Heroes, and Us
Myths have never been merely entertainment. For thousands of years, they have shaped religion, philosophy, psychology, politics, and art. But what are they really—primitive science, moral allegory, psychological truth, or something stranger still?
In The Meaning of Myth, psychiatrist and philosopher Neel Burton explores why myth still grips the modern mind—and why it refuses to fade.
Part I seeks to understand what myth is, and how it relates to religion, ritual, science, legend, fairy tale, and modern storytelling. It examines how myths shape our ideas of heroes and monsters, desire and destruction, meaning and madness—and how they continue to structure the way we interpret ourselves and the world.
Part II applies these ideas to twelve of the most powerful Greek myths, including Echo and Narcissus, Eros and Psyche, Prometheus, Orpheus and Eurydice, Medusa, Theseus and the Minotaur, and Plato’s Myth of Er. Familiar stories become strange again—sharper, deeper, newly alive.
Are myths vessels of hidden wisdom, psychological archetypes, cultural memory—or something we have never fully understood?
This book doesn’t tell you what to believe. It shows you how to see.
About the author
Dr Neel Burton FRSA is a psychiatrist and philosopher. He is a Fellow of Green-Templeton College in the University of Oxford, and the recipient of several book prizes. His work has featured in the likes of Aeon and Psychology Today, and been translated into several languages.
Listen to Neel Burton in conversation with Emily Wilson, the first female translator of the Odyssey.
Editorial reviews
Staggeringly exquisite… The Meaning of Myth by Neel Burton is teaching and writing at its most superb and is as entertaining as you could ever wish for. —Readers’ Favorite (5/5 stars)
In this fascinating read, psychiatrist and philosopher Neel Burton unpacks 12 popular tales—from Eros and Psyche to Orpheus and Eurydice—to explore the meaning of myth in today’s society and its relation to life, science, and religion. —BookBub (Featured New Release)
Burton’s erudition is apparent throughout this highly readable construction, balanced by a personable style and subtle humor. —The US Review of Books (Recommended)
Accessible and entertaining… Burton expounds some of the most intriguing Greek myths to shed light on this fascinating expression of the human imagination. —Prof Armand D’Angour, classical scholar and author of Socrates in Love
Myths aren’t lies about the past—they’re truths we still live by
Myths are usually treated as stories about the past. This book treats them as structures still active in the present.
The Meaning of Myth explores how ancient Greek myths continue to shape how we think, feel, and interpret the world today—often without us noticing. Rather than merely asking what myths mean, it focuses on what myths do: how they organise experience, shape identity, and encode patterns of thought that remain active in modern life.
In Part I, you’ll explore how myth functions beneath narrative:
- Why Plato, the master-reasoner, used myth alongside philosophy rather than opposing it
- Why Freud repeatedly returned to Oedipus as a psychological model
- Why Jung saw myth as an expression of archetypal patterns
- How heroes and monsters reflect recurring patterns of human behaviour
- Why mythic thinking survives even in scientific cultures
In Part II, these patterns are applied to twelve foundational Greek myths, including Echo and Narcissus, Eros and Psyche, Prometheus, Orpheus and Eurydice, Medusa, Theseus and the Minotaur, and Plato’s Myth of Er.
Each interpretation reveals what standard retellings leave hidden—not new meanings, but the underlying structure that makes meaning possible in the first place.
This is not a retelling of myths. It is a method of reading them.
Drawing on psychology and philosophy, Neel Burton shows how myth continues to operate as a framework for human thought—shaping perception, behaviour, and interpretation even in the modern world.
Myths do not disappear. They persist as patterns—and recognising those patterns changes how you read stories, culture, and even yourself.
Some of the ideas in this book are explored in the following articles:
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