World mythology

Spring 2012

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Defining Mythology

• “a story about something significant in which the main figures are personalities” (Segal)

• “Traditional stories a society tells itself that encode or represent [its] world-view, beliefs, principles, and often fears” (Vandiver)

• Stories• Old or “sacred”• “special seriousness and importance” (Fry)

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“Mythology”: origins in western thought

• Mythos: story or fiction– Created by a poet: poetry is “made”

• “a beyond located in a faraway time and a distant place”– Plato: replaced by logos (“truth”) and philosophy

• Five classes of inhabitants (Plato)– Gods– Daemons– Inhabitants of Hades, the dead– Heroes– Men of the past

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“Myth” and Mythology• “-ology”: “study of”• Are we studying myth itself or the study of

myth?– “Modern” Religion versus Classical “Myth”

• Myths and Truth– “inside” vs. “outside”– Myth does not mean “false”– Everyone believes his/her myths are “true”

• Learning Disinterestedness04/18/23 4

Myths, Legends, Folktales• Myth: Gods and their rites (rituals)• Legend: traditional stories rooted in historical

fact– Pre-history vs. History

• Folktales: folk-tales, not aristocratic– primarily for “entertainment”– Humor rather than tragedy (“awe-ful”)– Actors are “like us”; ordinary people (or animals)

• Example of alligator “urban legend” (5-6)04/18/23 5

Myth and Science

• 19th Century Views: Science replaces myth• E. B. Tylor: Myth explains and understands the

world– In modern world, science does what myth did

• J. G. Frazer– Not theory, but applied “science”– Myth explained how ritual worked

• Example: “Creationism” vs. Evolutionary Theory

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Understanding Myth

• Aetiology: origin or cause of something– Not just scientific (contra p. 7)

• Psychology: How do “I” work?– what does it mean to be a human being?

• Sociology: how do groups work? – society/communities

• Anthropology: cultural values• History: what happened?– Tells us about the past

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The Trojan War: A “case study” in myth

• The Judgment of Paris: who is the most beautiful goddess

• Menelaus, Agamemnon, and the sacrifice of Iphigenia (“the family of Atreus”)

• The Trojan War lasts 10 years • The Iliad: the last year of the war• Odyssey: journey of Odysseus home• Return of Agamemnon, and murder

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The Trojan War: the judgment of Paris

• Paris son of Priam, king of Troy, who kidnapped Helen, wife of Menelaus

• Marriage of Thetis, sea-goddess– Desired by Zeus & Poseidon– Son greater than father, so married to human male– Eris (“Strife”) & Themis (justice) showed up uninvited– Eris throws in apple, “to the fairest”– Paris must decide which goddess gets the apple– Aphrodite bribes with the “most beautiful woman in

the world”

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Aphrodite (footnote)

• Not goddess of love• Goddess of sexual desire and passion– Desires someone else to meet one’s own needs

and urges– Not concern for the well-being of other– Not “romantic” love

• ≈ Ishtar (181), sexuality and war– Desires Gilgamesh (180)– Sexual passion destroys

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Questions

• What is the story “about”?• Why tell the story?• Is it a myth?– Narrative– Role of gods

• Historical Basis– H. Schliemann discovered “real Troy” and

Mycenae

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Understanding Myth and the Trojan War

• Aetiology– ruins of Mycenae– why did Paris “do it”? Why did Agamemnon

sacrifice his daughter?• Psychology: nature of sexual passion• Sociology: role of heroes; why does war

occur?• Anthropology: glory in battle, • History: led to discovery of Troy and Mycenae

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Processes of Mythic Production

• Oral, memorized• Rhythmic and/or rhymed • Formulaic: repeated, fixed, stock phrases• “Paratactic” vs. “syntactic” storytelling– different parts of the narrative exist side by side– different parts are connected, added to each other

• “Literary Frame”: retelling a story to make a specific point, communicate some new idea

• Rationalize: make up (invent) reasons

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Example of “retelling”: the Europa Myth

• Europa raped by Zeus, disguised as a bull– Taken from Phoenicia to Crete– Sons and brothers look for her

• Herodotus: Europe not descended from Europa• Rome used myth to justify power– Horace: “Stop your sobbing…half the world will

bear your name”• European Union uses this to describe and

symbolize its identity

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Greek Creation Myths: Origins of the gods

• “live forever”• Calls on Muses• Chaos (“gap”, “void”), Gaia, Ouranos– Eros “makes men weak”– Tartarus: underworld– Chaos, Night, Erebos (“darkness”)

• Sea god (Pontus), fresh water (Oceanus)• Cyclopes, Hundred Handed (see 31)– Ouranos hates them

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Muses

• 3 Titans– Practice– Song– Memory– Mothers of:

• “Olympian” Muses: music, song, dance– Nine “genres” of chanting and knowledge– E.g., epic, tragedy, comedy, history

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Eros • Desire (not “love”)• A primal god• Comes “before”

Aphrodite• Later considered son

or companion of Aphrodite

• Multiple Erotes = Cupids

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The castration of Ouranos• Ouranos hates his children – “shameful acts” (ll. 71, 77)– Genitals removed by Kronos

• Blood creates – Furies– Giants: primal powers of nature– Nymphs: spirits of ash tree

• Foam becomes Aphrodite– Accompanied by Eros– Lines 114-116

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The Titans: Kronos and Rhea• Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades,

Zeus• Kronos swallows children• Rhea replaces Zeus with stone• Kronos regurgitates children• Omphalos: sacred stone

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Zeus & his mates

• Lighting, thunder, kingship, law• Themis —> Order, Justice, Fates• Demeter —> Persephone• Mnemosyne —> the 9 Muses• Leto—> Apollo, Artemis• Hera —> Hebe (youth, first cupbearer), Ares• Other sons: Hermes, Dionysus, Heracles

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Children of Zeus and Hera without copulation

• Athena Parthenos (“the Virgin”)– Wisdom subservient to Zeus– Avoids fate of father and grandfather

• Hera– Hephaistos– Poseidon

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Pandora (1)

• “all-gifts”– Ironic?

• Bad & Good Strife– Eris: fighting – Good competition, incentive to improve

• Prometheus (“fore-thought”)– Tricked Zeus into choosing bones of sacrifice over

meat– Zeus hid fire, Prometheus stole it

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Pandora (2)• Figure of Pandora– Made of water and earth– Weaving– Charm, desire, cares– Slyness, “morals of a bitch” (“lies, crafty words, deceitful

nature”)

• Epimetheus (“after-thought”)– “don’t accept the gifts of the gods”—Why not?– Pandora opens “the cask”– Evils, diseases, cares, pain, work– Only hope remains, caught in the lid

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Ages of Man (1)

• Golden– Long lives “untouched by work and sorrow”– Died as if one went to sleep– Became “[pure] spirits of the earth,” “givers of

wealth”• Silver – Children for 100 years, short adulthood– Had never developed self-control– Failed to sacrifice– Became spirits of the underworld

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Ages of Man (2)• Bronze (from ash tree: staffs of spears)– Violent and war-mongers– Nameless in Hades

• Heroes, Demi-Gods– Just before present: e.g., Trojan War heroes– A few now live carefree life on the Blessed Isles

• Iron Age– “work and grieve unceasingly”– Future loss all morality & propriety (ll. 82, 90, 99)– Aiodos (Shame), Nemesis (Righteous Indignation)

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Ovid’s Creation Story

• “sing of metamorphoses”• “science,” i.e., speculative theories– Monism

• All is water• Not a single thing, but a boundless universe of change from one

opposite to another (e.g., wet to dry)• How can “boundless” be a thing? Density

– Pluralism• “the many” come from 4 things, which make everything through

“love” and “strife”• Not 4 things, many “seeds” ; a thing is whatever “seed”

predominates

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The World• Chaos: undefined, “confused”– “at war”

• Definition– Fire, air, water, earth– Everything has its place– Climate zones of earth, Wind

• Stars can appear• Man (not sure of origin)– “seeds of the sky”– Mixture of fire and air emulates the form of the gods

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Ages of Man according to Ovid• Gold (Saturn = Cronos)– No need for law– No intrusion into natural harmony, no farming

• Silver: rule of Jove (Zeus)– Origins of seasons, hot, cold– Man needs a house and farming

• Bronze: cruel and violent, yet not “sacrilegious”• Iron– Impiety, property, plunder, plots (ll 181-2, 200-1,

204ff.)

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Enuma Elish: Background

• Powers (58)– Sumer(ian) 3000-2350; 2100-2000– Akkad(ian) 2350-2100—>Assyrian (1600-612)– Babylon(ian) 2000-1600; 612-539

• Marshes of Persian Gulf (map bottom)– Salt and fresh water– Central Plant: Reeds– Biblical symbol: Garden of Eden, coming together

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Marshes and Reeds

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Marsh Culture

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The First Gods of Enuma Elish

• Salt water, fresh water– Tiamat: chaos, female

(see ll. 135-145, 430ff.)– Apsu, “vizier” Mumma (fog)

• Ea (at first “Nudimmud”)– Fourth generation– Also, “Enki”

(lord [en] of the earth/soil [ki])

– Comes from Apsu04/18/23 36

Noisy Gods and Ea’s conquest of Apsu

• Gods of Ea’s generation disturb the “old” gods– Tolerated by Tiamat– Confronted by Apsu and Mummu– “How can we destroy what we created?”– Apsu and Mummu plot

• Ea seizes control– “stilled the waters” (ll. 63, 68)– Kills Apsu, ties up Mummu– “set dwelling…on top of Apsu”

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Marduk created to defeat Tiamat• “superior in every way” (l. 92, see 104)– Given authority by Anu: sky/heaven

• Marduk’s “grandfather,” removed from immediate authority• Winds stir up Tiamat (ll. 110, 119, see 229)– Creates monsters as weapons– Qingu commander of army: “cast a spell” (l. 151)– Initial defeat of Anu and (father) Anshar (Ll. 173-4)

• Summoning of Marduk– “what kind of man?,” “Tiamat, of womankind” (ll. 194,

195)– Asks for council; power of unchanging decrees

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Marduk’s War against Tiamat• Gods authorize worship of Marduk (ll. 260-270)– Power of creation and destruction– “path of peace and obedience” (l. 292, see l. 471)– Winds as weapons (Tiamat has her monsters)

• Battle of spells (ll. 319, 329)– Tiamat seems to praise Marduk (331); he rejects– Who has rejected compassion (l. 338; see 45)?

• Given power to whom it does not belong• Threatened Ashar and Anu

– Marduk sends winds, Tiamat tries to swallow, Marduk shoots inside

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Division of Tiamat: primal sea controlled

• Ties up enemies; takes Tablet of Destinies• Tiamat’s body makes sky and earth– Takes over worship of older gods (ll. 400 ff.; 458 ff.)– Ribs becomes gate-posts– Constellations, time, moon, sun (Shamash)– Poison = fog; head & udder = mountains; eyes—> 2

rivers; tail and thigh fixes cosmos

• Reads tablets and establishes worship (l. 474)– Establishes Babylon

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Creation of man and Kingship of Marduk

• To serve the gods– Need a victim: Qingu incited the war

• Assigns gods to sky and earth (300 each)– Need to rest, ask for a shrine (l. 544-5; see 488)– The banquet of the gods– Anu names Marduk’s bow– Confirm Marduk’s “kingship” and “mastery”

• Fifty names of Marduk– = Elil (syncretism)

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Creation in Genesis (the Hebrew Bible)

• “in the beginning…[of?]”– Tohu va-bohu– The Deep = Tehom

= ?Tiamat– “Spirit of God was

moving over the face of the waters”

• “And God said…”

• Light: Night and day• Firmament=expanse• Sea and dry land,

vegetation• Sun, moon, stars• animals in sea & air• Land animals, man• “very good”: God

rests

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43

The deep: Tehom Void

Night

DayLight

Dark

water

water

Based on the work of Norbert M. Samuelson

Rakiya=“firmament”/expanse

Earth, land

44

Rakiya

Earth, land

“Windows”

“seas”

“fountains of the deep”

Based on the work of Norbert M. Samuelson

The Garden of Eden, Man and Woman

• Heaven and earth already; no rain, only mist• Man formed from dust; “the breath of life”• God plants the garden “in the east”– Tree of life and tree of the knowledge of good and evil– Man to till the garden: don’t eat of the tree of

knowledge of good and evil

• A Companion for man– Naming of the animals; but none are appropriate (“fit”)– Woman created from rib– Both are naked but unashamed

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The Loss of Paradise

• Serpent: how does the woman change the command?• You will be like elohim.– Elohim (“God”) and Yhwh (“the LORD”)– Was the serpent right?

• Knowledge: nakedness– “hear the sound of the LORD God”– Ashamed

• Curses• Clothing; cast out of the garden

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Prose Edda: Historical Background

• Celts (middle Europe)

– France > British Isles > Wales, Scotland, Ireland• Germans (Nibelungenlied), Anglo-Saxon

(Beowulf)• “Norse” peoples – “Vikings,” became Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians– Iceland became Christian in 1000 CE– Swedes were sacrificing to Odin as late as 1070

• Snorri wants to preserve ancient traditions

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Utgard-LokiA giant

Ice/frost-giants

World-serpentWorld-serpent

AsgardAsgard

MidgardMidgard

“fog-world”

http://www.germanen-plakat.de/der-kosmos-die-drei-ebenen-der-germanischen-welt/

Utgard =“outer-world”

NiflheimNiflheim

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Nidhögg gnawing at world-tree, Yggdrasil

Aesir: warrior gods

• Odin (=German Wotan)– “All-Father”– Shaman, god of runes, knowledge, wisdom– Motivates warriors– Valkyries: bring dead to hall of Valhalla

• Thor– Lightning, thunder– Hammer– Giant-killer

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Vanir: fertility gods

• Njörd: lives by sea, fishing, wealth– In some stories, fathers children with sister

• Son Frey: sun, rain, fertility of land > prosperity• Daughter Freya (or, Freyja)– Object of lust of giants– Some sources say she’s a whore– I.e., excites sexual desire– Snorri: “She enjoys erotic poetry. It is good to call on

her for love.”

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The reconciliation of the gods

• War between the Aesir & Vanir• Exchange hostages– Njörd and Frey go to Aesir– The Aesir send Hoenir and Mímir– Hoenir reputed to have qualities of chieftain, but he

won’t do anything without the counsel of Mímir.– The Vanir believe themselves to be cheated, cut off

Mímir’s head, and send it back to the Aesir– Mímir’s head source of wisdom for Odin

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Key characteristics of Snorri’s retelling

• Historicizing: retelling myths as if they are history

• Euhemerism– myths are fanciful or exaggerated versions of

historical personages or events– Subtype of “rationalization”– Foundational figures or events of a community

• Syncretism: combining or synthesizing different religious beliefs or cultural customs

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Prologue• What stories does Snorri incorporate into the

prologue?– 79 bottom; 80 top; 81 middle

• “In the end they lost the very name of God”– Who is “they”?– What is Snorri trying to explain, pp. 80-81?

• How does Snorri include the gods in his tale?– What is he doing? 81 middle-82– How does he “euhemerize” the Aesir (82 middle)?– Why are these ____ assimilated to the Aesir?

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“The Deluding of Gylfi”

• How does Snorri incorporate the old tales?– Look at the structure.

• Goes the Aesir for answers• Ginnungagap– Niflheim, Hel; and Muspel (Surt)– Rivers of Niflheim: yeasty venom > rime– Ymir, first frost-ogre from melting rime– How do we explain alternative name,

“Aurgelmir”? (also, “Bergelmir” [86 bot.])

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Humans and Their World

• Ymir’s sweat; legs copulate• Ymir’s cow licks “the whole man” from a block of

ice: Buri (Notice: no wife for Buri)

• Identified with Aesir: – Originally, was this “really” a story about the gods, or humans?– “it is my belief…We think…you believe they are the gods”

• Buri has son “Bor” = “Bur” = “son”• Bor’s sons kill Ymir > Bergelmir escapes flood• Ymir’s blood, flesh, bones = water, earth, rocks

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Sky and Midgard• Put in place by “sons of Bor” (gods?)– Völuspa: creator gods are Odin, Hœnir, and Lódur

• Skull = sky– Four directions

• “burning embers” of Muspell= heavenly lights– Given place– Ordering of time

• Ymir’s eyebrows = Midgard– Brains = clouds

• Final version of creation of men: trees (“pieces of wood”) > “Ask” [“ash tree”] and Embla

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Aesir, Asgard, Troy

• Euhemerizes origins of Norse gods • Identifies Asgard with Troy • What is significant about the choice of Troy?• Explanation of “All-Father”• Christianization?

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Southwestern Amerind: (Pre-)history

• From Asia via Bering Strait (> 15,000 BP ?)• Shamanism (Siberia) and animism– Contacts spirit world for benefit of people

• Zuni: indigenous to region• Navaho: “Diné”: “the people” – from Canada/Alaska (“Athapaskans”) c. 1300-1400– “apachu” = “strangers” > some settled into agriculture

= “apachus of the cultivated fields [Sp. Nabahu]”– Tonal language (like east Asian languages)

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Southwestern Amerind Creation Stories

• Literary versions of earlier oral stories• Emergence Myths: Come out from under the

ground as pre-human beings• Zuni origins– pregnant Mother Earth must push Father Sky away– Spits in water > clouds; fertilized by Father Sky > rain– Earth like bowl: land surrounded by water; mtns. =

rim of bowl

• Navaho: small, dark world, water on 4 sides

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Zuni Emergence Myth: The Sun

• Dark• Disorderly: human chaos• “four days,” i.e., a general period of time• No differentiation• Beautiful world• The Sun needs “prayersticks”• Rays of sun

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Two Sons lead people out of 4th world

• Separation– “look for beautiful places”– “old enough to work”

• Go to the southwest; down into the 4th world– The 2 sons are both sons of the people, and their

fathers– People want to see Sun

• Led by priests of the four directions– Pine, spruce, silver spruce, aspen– Makes prayer sticks: “went up the prayerstick”

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Emergence into the 1st world

• bow priests (2 sons)• carriers of medicine bundles• Tears make flowers• Growth of corn by itsumawe• Take on human characteristics– In second world, are slimy beings with webbed

extremities, tails, and horns– Must be removed in 1st world

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“Humanization”

• “when the sun rose they did not mind any more”

• Separation of the community• Etiology of climate• Finding the middle– not quite where the community lives

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Navajo Creation Story: “Air-Spirit People”

• fighting and adultery– Expelled from every direction– “insurmountable wall of water”

• Fly to escape – find a sipapuni to east (and other directions)– “place of emergence”: spiritual emergence

• “Insect” people look in each direction– Nothing but bare land– “we could have told you”

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Third and Fourth Worlds• Join swallows– After 24 days, a locust is “too free” with a swallow’s

wife– Not enough food to go around– Fly up until they find another sipapuni ( > 3rd)

• Join grasshoppers, problems repeat– Sipapuni is a tendril of vine > 4th world– 4 grasshoppers join with (4 colors, like today)– Sky primarily black and blue (no sun, moon, stars)– 4 peaks, one in each direction– Meet race with houses and agriculture

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Gods make humans

• Exiles and race with agriculture intermarry• Insect people want human beings• Preparation: bathing• Ritual magic: 2 ears of corn between 2 buckskins– Care and balance

• Wind blows: man and woman (margin)• First family• Masks: kachinas to symbolize beneficent spirits

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