The Key Master: "the key to the realm of the muses," that marvelous realm beyond the visible one from which imagination and inspiration guide us in shaping our lives (Campbell).
To understand how Led Zeppelin was able to evoke its emotional tie with the listener it's important to understand Joseph Campbell's "Four Functions of Myth".
Joseph Campbell, (l904-1987) was an American mythologist and scholar. He believed as he stated in the Power of Myth, in a specific structure that exists in the Psyche and is somehow reflected into myths. Campbell often described mythology as having four functions for human society.
Joseph Campbell’s "Four Functions of Myth"
From Pathways to Bliss (Novato, CA: New World Library), pp 6-10.
1. …the first function of mythology [is] to evoke in the individual a sense of grateful, affirmative awe before the monstrous mystery that is existence
2. The second function of mythology is to present an image of the cosmos, an image of the universe round about, that will maintain and elicit this experience of awe. [or] …to present an image of the cosmos that will maintain your sense of mystical awe and explain everything that you come into contact with in the universe around you.
3. The third function of a mythological order is to validate and maintain a certain sociological system: a shared set of rights and wrongs, proprieties or improprieties, on which your particular social unit depends for its existence.
4. …the fourth function of myth is psychological. That myth must carry the individual through the stages of his life, from birth through maturity through senility to death. The mythology must do so in accords with the social order of his group, the cosmos as understood by his group, and the monstrous mystery.
Campbell believed that if myths are going to continue to fulfill the function they play in today and tomorrow's cultures, they must continually change and evolve because the older mythologies, unchanged will lose relevance for the cultures of today and tomorrow, particularly in the mystical/metaphorical and sociological functions of mythology.
Joseph Campbell, (l904-1987) was an American mythologist and scholar. He believed as he stated in the Power of Myth, in a specific structure that exists in the Psyche and is somehow reflected into myths. Campbell often described mythology as having four functions for human society.
Joseph Campbell’s "Four Functions of Myth"
From Pathways to Bliss (Novato, CA: New World Library), pp 6-10.
1. …the first function of mythology [is] to evoke in the individual a sense of grateful, affirmative awe before the monstrous mystery that is existence
2. The second function of mythology is to present an image of the cosmos, an image of the universe round about, that will maintain and elicit this experience of awe. [or] …to present an image of the cosmos that will maintain your sense of mystical awe and explain everything that you come into contact with in the universe around you.
3. The third function of a mythological order is to validate and maintain a certain sociological system: a shared set of rights and wrongs, proprieties or improprieties, on which your particular social unit depends for its existence.
4. …the fourth function of myth is psychological. That myth must carry the individual through the stages of his life, from birth through maturity through senility to death. The mythology must do so in accords with the social order of his group, the cosmos as understood by his group, and the monstrous mystery.
Campbell believed that if myths are going to continue to fulfill the function they play in today and tomorrow's cultures, they must continually change and evolve because the older mythologies, unchanged will lose relevance for the cultures of today and tomorrow, particularly in the mystical/metaphorical and sociological functions of mythology.