What is Myth?

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What is Myth?

• Dean Stevens

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What is Myth?

• Fact or Fiction?
• µ????
• Characteristics of Myth
• Culture Specific or Universal?
• Why Myth?
• Is Myth Science? Religion? Something Else?
• Theories/Classification of Myth?

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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

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Why Myth?

• To Entertain
• To explain the unexplainable
• Retelling Prehistory

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Why Myth? Ancient Greeks6th Century BCE
Scientific Observation

• Theagnes of Rhegion (c. 525 BCE)
• --Gods are symbolic of natural processes
• Anaxagoras gods cant be taken literally
• Xenophanes gods are immoral and are fashioned in
  our own image
• Euhermerus of Messene 300 BCE Fiction Gods were
  mortal kings

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Why Myth? Modern Interpretation

• 2 types of Theories External/Internal
• External Environmental
• Internal Comes from within us

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External Theories of Myth

• Nature Myth Theory
• Ritual Myth Theory
• Etiological Theory

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Internal Theory

• Freudian Theory
• Wish fulfillment/violation of taboos
• Dionysos is Idrepression of Dionysos leads to
  perversion and violent outbreaks
• Explains tragedy.
• Doesnt Explain ancient cultural roots of many
  myths

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Internal Theory

• Carl Jung
• Archetypal Myths
• Myths similar to dreams
• Claude Levi-Strauss
• Structuralism World is a reflection of minds
  binary organization (good vs. evil, light vs.
  dark)
• Myth deals with reconciliation of opposites
• Divine will versus human ambition

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Are Myths Universal?

• Flood Myth
• Hero Archetypes
• Creation Myth

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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

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Classifying Myth

• Allegory/Symbol

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Classifying Myth

• Cosmology/Cosmogony/Creation Myth

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Creation Myth Atum 2400 BCE
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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

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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

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Gnosticism Prophet Mani

• Battle between Light and Dark
• Time
• King of Darkness
• Primal Man
• Adam and Eve
• Jesus

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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

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Hero Archetype

• The Heroic PatternArchetypal Elements and Events
• Element 1  Early Life
• The heros 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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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 heros 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"

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Myth in Greek Culture

• Anthropomorphic Polytheism
• Humanism
• Individualism
• Competitiveness

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Anthropomorphic Polytheism
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Humanism

• Protagoras Man is the measure of all things
• Bonnie Tyler I need a Hero

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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.
  

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Competitiveness

• Achilles Glory or Obscurity?