What is Myth Dean Stevens What is Myth

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 Greeks 6 th 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 • 2 nd 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 Pattern Archetypal 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 beast 12. He marries a princess, often the daughter of his predecessor, and 13. Becomes king. 14. Eventually, he loses favor with the gods and/or his subjects, and 15. He meets a mysterious death. 16. His children do not succeed him. 17. His body is not buried, but 18. 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?