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?