Explaining the Level of Human Thought in the Parallel Civilizations Based on Formal Structure and Visual Imagination Formed in Mythical Narratives

Myth, like any other form of narrative, has an undeniable role in visual imagination based on the foundations of mythical thought. Ernst Cassirer, by recovering the fundamental principles of mythical thought, brings against them to the foundations of contemporary rational thought and defines the fundamental features of mythical thought as compared to modern rational thought. He also believes the path of human thought from mythical thought to rational consciousness. In this research, it has been attempted to provide a model for explaining the level of human thought in past civilizations using a descriptiveanalytical approach based on Cassirer’s epistemological approach to mythical consciousness as well as using archetypes presented in Joseph Campbell’s Theory of Heroic Journey. The case study is a Babylonian reading of Gilgamesh’s mythical narrative. On the basis of these studies, it can be deduced that the logic governing many of the images formed in the mythological narratives of a civilization, given the level of transcendental thought of that civilization, lies within the mere bases of mythical thought and systematic logic of rational consciousness. In the meantime, as the content logic behind the visual imagination of the mythical narratives departs from the fundamental mythical principles, the structure of that narrative, and in particular its personality, takes on a more complex form.