what is myth? dean stevens. what is myth? fact or fiction? μύθος characteristics of myth...
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What is Myth?
Dean Stevens
What is Myth?
• Fact or Fiction?• μύθος • Characteristics of Myth• Culture Specific or Universal?• Why Myth?• Is Myth Science? Religion? Something
Else?• Theories/Classification of Myth?
Characteristics of Myth
• Supernatural• Stories involving gods, and/or heroes• Originally Oral Tradition• Cultural World View/Prehistory• Can change, No Set Story• Can have several versions• Can be contradictory• Written myth is the end of a very long
evolutionary process
Why Myth?
• To Entertain
• To explain the unexplainable
• Retelling Prehistory
Why Myth?: Ancient Greeks6th Century BCE Scientific Observation
• Theagnes of Rhegion (c. 525 BCE): --Gods are symbolic of natural processes
• Anaxagoras : gods can’t be taken literally• Xenophanes: gods are immoral and are fashioned in our
own image• Euhermerus of Messene 300 BCE: Fiction: Gods were
mortal kings
Why Myth?: Modern Interpretation
• 2 types of Theories: External/Internal
• External: Environmental
• Internal: Comes from within us
External Theories of Myth
• Nature Myth Theory
• Ritual Myth Theory
• Etiological Theory
Internal Theory
• Freudian Theory
• Wish fulfillment/violation of taboos
• Dionysos is Id—repression of Dionysos leads to perversion and violent outbreaks
• Explains tragedy.
• Doesn’t Explain ancient cultural roots of many myths
Internal Theory
• Carl Jung• Archetypal Myths• Myths similar to dreams
• Claude Levi-Strauss• Structuralism: World is a reflection of mind’s
binary organization (good vs. evil, light vs. dark)• Myth deals with reconciliation of opposites• Divine will versus human ambition
Are Myths Universal?
• Flood Myth
• Hero Archetypes
• Creation Myth
Flood Myth
• Epic of Gilgamesh Tablet XI (700 BCE ?) Utnapishtim 2700 BCE
• Epic of Atra-Hasis 1800 BCE
• Torah Book of Genesis 1400 BCE Ch 6-9 Noah
• Ovid Metamorphoses Deucalion and Pyrrha
Classifying Myth
• Allegory/Symbol
• The Castration of Uranus: fresco by Vasari & Cristofano Gherardi c. 1560
Classifying Myth
• Cosmology/Cosmogony/Creation Myth
Creation Myth: Atum 2400 BCE
Atum Pyramid Texts
• Atum –The Complete One
• Rises from Primeval Water (chaos)
• Maa –Order
• Creates by releasing life-force into his mouth –spits out gods, life
• Man created from his tears
• Apophis –Dragon (Chaos) Underworld
Creation Myth Enuma Elish
• Marduk and Tiamat 2800 BCE-1900 BCE• Apsu (Ocean) Tiamat (Primeval waters-Chaos-
Dragon)• Rebellion of First Gods-Failed Tiamat Motherly
Concern• 2nd Rebellion • Marduk Supremacy• Nintu-Earth Creates man from mud and slain
god
Gnosticism: Prophet Mani
• Battle between Light and Dark
• Time
• King of Darkness
• Primal Man
• Adam and Eve
• Jesus
Hesiod Theogony
• 750 BCE• Chaos –Independent Existence• Gaea (Gaia) Independent Existence• Tartarus –The Abyss Independent Exist• Eros – Procreative Love –Independent• Chaos and Gaea can mate or create
independently• Story of conflict among the gods-permeates
cosomos
Hero Archetype
• The Heroic PatternArchetypal Elements and Events
• Element 1: Early Life• The hero’s mother is a royal virgin.• His father is a king• The circumstances of his conception and birth are unusual, and• He is reputed to be the son of a god.• At birth an attempt is made, often by his father or maternal
grandfather, to kill him, but• He is spirited away, and• He is reared by foster parents in a far country
Hero Archetype
• Element 2: Young Adulthood
• On reaching manhood, he returns or goes to his future kingdom.
• He falls under the control of an enemy.
Hero Archetype
• Element 3: Journey or Quest
• He often makes a journey to the Underworld, or the shades of the dead may visit him
• Has a purpose for his journey
• Travels to the end of the earth
• Seeks directions and/or advice
• Finds women a danger to his success
• Gains a guide
• Is given weapons or talismans with magical powers
• Crosses water
• Confronts the powers of death in the form of shades and/or monsters
• Tries to bring back to earth an item or person from the Underworld, but
• Is at best only partly successful
Hero Archetype
• Element 4: The Return Home• 11. After victory over the king and/or a giant, dragon, or
wild beast12. He marries a princess, often the daughter of his predecessor, and13. Becomes king.14. Eventually, he loses favor with the gods and/or his subjects, and15. He meets a mysterious death.16. His children do not succeed him.17. His body is not buried, but18. He has one or more holy sepulchers.
Hero Archetype
• Element 5: Major Themes often associated with the hero
• The human quest: a journey of discovery about himself, his society, and his universe
• Isolation: essentially alone, the hero’s courage, strength, and wisdom are tested
• The quest as a dual struggle, both physical and psychological (a struggle to resolve the conflict between the body and the soul, between duty and desire, between the animal urges and divine aspirations, etc.)
• The cycle of life, death, and rebirth
• The hero as redeemer: often restores the kingdom to health and fertility
• The hero as model: "by his half-divine nature, his glorious deeds, his relentless pursuit of immortality, the hero uplifts humanity from its dismal condition and reminds us of our godlike potential"
Myth in Greek Culture
• Anthropomorphic Polytheism
• Humanism
• Individualism
• Competitiveness
Anthropomorphic Polytheism
Humanism
• Protagoras: “Man is the measure of all things…”
• Bonnie Tyler: “I need a Hero…”
Individualism
• What about me???
Achilles is about to kill Penthesileia, the Amazon Queen at Troy: Large Athenian amphora,c.540 BC, found at Vulci in Etruria.
Competitiveness
• Achilles: Glory or Obscurity?
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