Download Modern Theories of Myth

Ways of Interpreting Myth:
Modern
Modern Interpretations of Myth
Two modern meanings of “mythology”:
• a system or set of myths
• the methodological analysis of myths
A monolithic theory of myth vs. the multifunctionalism of myth
The autonomy of myth
See: Some Theories of Myth
Externalist Theories: Myths as Products of the Environment
Internalist Theories: Myths as Products of the Mind
Externalist Theories:
Myths as Products of the Environment
Myths as Aetiology
Comparative Mythology
Nature Myths
Myths as Rituals
Charter Myths
Myths as Aetiology
myth as explanation of the origin of things
myth as primitive science
myth as explanation of customs
What aetiologies are in the myth of Zeus?
Myths as Aetiology
Zeus myth explaining Greek custom regarding sacrifice:
Athenian red-figure vase, 430-420 BC. Louvre
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/greek_olympics_gallery
_02.shtml
http://quatr.us/greeks/religion/sacrifice.htm
Myths as Aetiology
Zeus myth explaining Greek custom regarding sacrifice:
Hesiod’s Theogony
(ll. 507-543) Now Iapetus took to wife the neat-ankled mad Clymene, daughter of Ocean, and went up
with her into one bed. And she bare him a stout-hearted son, Atlas: also she bare very glorious
Menoetius and clever Prometheus, full of various wiles, and scatter-brained Epimetheus who from the
first was a mischief to men who eat bread; for it was he who first took of Zeus the woman, the maiden
whom he had formed. But Menoetius was outrageous, and far-seeing Zeus struck him with a lurid
thunderbolt and sent him down to Erebus because of his mad presumption and exceeding pride. And
Atlas through hard constraint upholds the wide heaven with unwearying head and arms, standing at the
borders of the earth before the clear-voiced Hesperides; for this lot wise Zeus assigned to him. And
ready- witted Prometheus he bound with inextricable bonds, cruel chains, and drove a shaft through his
middle, and set on him a long- winged eagle, which used to eat his immortal liver; but by night the
liver grew as much again everyway as the long-winged bird devoured in the whole day. That bird
Heracles, the valiant son of shapely-ankled Alcmene, slew; and delivered the son of Iapetus from the
cruel plague, and released him from his affliction -- not without the will of Olympian Zeus who reigns
on high, that the glory of Heracles the Theban-born might be yet greater than it was before over the
plenteous earth. This, then, he regarded, and honoured his famous son; though he was angry, he ceased
from the wrath which he had before because Prometheus matched himself in wit with the almighty son
of Cronos. For when the gods and mortal men had a dispute at Mecone, even then Prometheus was
forward to cut up a great ox and set portions before them, trying to befool the mind of Zeus. Before the
rest he set flesh and inner parts thick with fat upon the hide, covering them with an ox paunch; but for
Zeus he put the white bones dressed up with cunning art and covered with shining fat. Then the father
of men and of gods said to him:
Myths as Aetiology
Zeus myth explaining Greek custom regarding sacrifice:
Hesiod’s Theogony Cont.
(ll. 543-544) `Son of Iapetus, most glorious of all lords, good sir, how unfairly you have divided the
portions!'
(ll. 545-547) So said Zeus whose wisdom is everlasting, rebuking him. But wily Prometheus answered
him, smiling softly and not forgetting his cunning trick:
(ll. 548-558) `Zeus, most glorious and greatest of the eternal gods, take which ever of these portions
your heart within you bids.' So he said, thinking trickery. But Zeus, whose wisdom is everlasting, saw
and failed not to perceive the trick, and in his heart he thought mischief against mortal men which also
was to be fulfilled. With both hands he took up the white fat and was angry at heart, and wrath came to
his spirit when he saw the white ox-bones craftily tricked out: and because of this the tribes of men
upon earth burn white bones to the deathless gods upon fragrant altars. But Zeus who drives the clouds
was greatly vexed and said to him:
(ll. 559-560) `Son of Iapetus, clever above all! So, sir, you have not yet forgotten your cunning arts!'
(ll. 561-584) So spake Zeus in anger, whose wisdom is everlasting; and from that time he was always
mindful of the trick, and would not give the power of unwearying fire to the Melian (21) race of mortal
men who live on the earth.
F. Max Müller
Nature Myths
Founder of the social scientific study of religion
Comparative approach:
Study of Vedic peoples of ancient India applied
to myths of other cultures (Greece and Rome)
Max Müller
1823-1900)
For Müller, the culture of the Vedic
peoples represented a form of nature
worship, an idea clearly influenced by
Romanticism
Aeschylus, Fragment 70 (Heliades [Daughters of Helios])
Zeus is the fiery upper air, Zeus is the earth, Zeus is the heaven;
Zeus is all things, and whatever transcends them.
Zeus as the Sky
• Dyaus pitr
Sanskrit
– Dyaus = “he who shines”
– pitr = father
• Zeus pater
• Jupiter
• Tiu Vater
(German)
Indo-European
Greek
Latin
Teutonic
Myths as Ritual
Sir James Frazer’ The Golden Bough
(1890-1915)
Comparative mythology
myths as by products of ritual enactments
stories to explain religious ceremonies
Turner’s “Golden Bough”
Joseph M. W. Turner (1775-1851) The Golden Bough 1834
Tate Gallery, London
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999996&workid=14718
Myths as Ritual
Sir James Frazer’ The Golden Bough
(1890-1915)
Comparative mythology
myths as by products of ritual enactments
stories to explain religious ceremonies
The Golden Bough On-Line:
http://www.bartleby.com/196/
Myths as Ritual
Zeus myth explaining Greek custom regarding sacrifice:
Athenian red-figure vase, 430-420 BC. Louvre
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/greek_olympics_gallery
_02.shtml
http://quatr.us/greeks/religion/sacrifice.htm
Charter Myths
belief-systems set up to authorize
and validate current social customs
and institutions.
Bronsilaw
Malinowski
(1884-1942)
Selected Bibliography:
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/Anthro/
Anth206/malinowski.htm
Does the myth of Zeus validate social
customs and institutions?
Myths as Ritual
Zeus myth explaining Greek custom regarding sacrifice:
Athenian red-figure vase, 430-420 BC. Louvre
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/greek_olympics_gallery
_02.shtml
http://quatr.us/greeks/religion/sacrifice.htm
Structuralism
Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-)
Jean-Paul Vernant
Pierre Vidal-Naquet
Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-)
• myth reflect the mind's binary organization
• diachronic vs. synchronic reading of myth
• humans tend to see world as reflection of their own physical and
cerebral structure ( two hands, eyes, legs, etc.)
• Left/right, raw,/cooked, pleasure/pain
• Myth deals with the perception and reconciliation of these opposites
• mediation of contradictions
How does Zeus mediate contradictions?
For more on Levi-Strauss see
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/klmno/levi
-strauss_claude.html
Mediating Contradictions in
Aeschylus’ Zeus
“Hymn to Zeus” (Aeschylus. Agamemnon 160-182)
Zeus: whatever he may be, if this name
pleases him in invocation,
thus I call upon him.
I have pondered everything
yet I cannot find a way,
only Zeus, to cast this dead weight of ignorance
finally from out my brain.
He who in time long ago was great,
throbbing with gigantic strength,
shall be as if he never were, unspoken.
He who followed him has found
his master, and is gone.
Cry aloud without fear the victory of Zeus,
you will not have failed the truth:
Zeus, who guided men to think,
who has laid it down that wisdom
comes alone through suffering.
Still there drips in sleep against the heart
grief of memory; against
our pleasure we are temperate
From the gods who sit in grandeur
grace comes somehow violent.
“Wisdom comes alone through suffering.:
Zeus is the mediation
between these two contradictions.
Zeus also mediates between
grace and violence,
Narratology
Vlaimir Propp (1895-1970)
Propp argued that all fairy tales were constructed of
certain plot elements, which he called functions, and that
these elements consistently occurred in a uniform
sequence. Based on a study of one hundred folk tales,
Propp devised a list of thirty-one generic functions,
proposing that they encompassed all of the plot
components from which fairy tales were constructed.
What narrative functions are in the myth of
Zeus?
The Hero Pattern
This pattern is based upon The Hero: A study in Tradition, Myth and Dreams by Lord Raglan
Incidents which occur with regularity in hero-myths of all cultures:
1. Hero's mother is a royal virgin;
2. His father is a king, and
3. Often a near relative of his mother, but
4. The circumstances of his conception are unusual, and
5. He is also reputed to be the son of a god.
6. At birth an attempt is made, usually by his father or his maternal grand father to kill him, but
7. he is spirited away, and
8. Reared by foster -parents in a far country.
9. We are told nothing of his childhood, but
10. On reaching manhood he returns or goes to his future Kingdom.
11. After a 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. And becomes king.
14. For a time he reigns uneventfully and
Click on the name to see the pattern applied to the life of :
15. Prescribes laws, but
Mithradates VI of Pontus (22) / Krishna (21) / Moses (20)
16. Later he loses favor with the gods and/or his subjects, and
/ Romulus (19) / King Arthur (19) / Perseus (18) / Jesus (18) / Watu
17. Is driven from the throne and city, after which
Gunung of Java (18) / Heracles (17) Mohammad (17) / Beowulf (15)
18. He meets with a mysterious death,
/ Buddha (15) / Czar Nicholas II (14) / Zeus (14) / Nyikang, a cult19. Often at the top of a hill,
hero of the Shiluk tribe of the Upper Nile (14) / Samson (13)
20. His children, if any do not succeed him.
/ Sunjata, the Lion-King of Ancient Mali (11) / Achilles (10)
21. His body is not buried, but nevertheless
/ Odysseus (8) / Harry Potter (8)
22. He has one or more holy sepulchres.
Johann Jakob Bachofen
(1815 – 1887)
Feminist Approaches to Myth
Marija Gimbutas (1921-1994)
Marija Gimbutas was an archaeologist with a scholarly background in
folklore and linguistics, making her uniquely qualified to synthesize
information from science and myth into a controversial theory of a
Goddess-based culture in prehistoric Europe. Joseph Campbell said
that, if her work had been available to him, he would have held very
different views about the archetypes of the female Divine in world
mythology.
Primacy of Matriarchy
What about Zeus?
Matriarchy and Patriarchy
Hesiod’s Theogony
(ll. 886-900) Now Zeus, king of the gods, made Metis his wife first, and she was
wisest among gods and mortal men. But when she was about to bring forth the
goddess bright-eyed Athene, Zeus craftily deceived her with cunning words and
put her in his own belly, as Earth and starry Heaven advised. For they advised him
so, to the end that no other should hold royal sway over the eternal gods in place of
Zeus; for very wise children were destined to be born of her, first the maiden
bright-eyed Tritogeneia, equal to her father in strength and in wise
understanding; but afterwards she was to bear a son of overbearing spirit, king of
gods and men. But Zeus put her into his own belly first, that the goddess might
devise for him both good and evil.
Myths as Products of the Mind
Individual Mind
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
id / ego / superego
dream world of the individual
Does Zeus appeal to our individual
dream world?
Myths as Products of the Mind
Collective Mind
Carl Jung (1875-1961)
dream world of society
collective unconscious
archetypes: recurring myths characters, situations and
events
archetype as primal form or pattern from which all other
versions are derived
Does Zeus appeal to our collective unconscious?
Students of Jung
Ernst Cassirer (1874-1975)
Mircea Eliade (1907-1986)
Victor Turner (1920-1983)
Joseph Campbell (1904-1987)
Mircea Eliade
(1907-1986)
Eliade's analysis of religion assumes the existence of "the
sacred" as the object of worship of religious humanity.
Myths reflect a creative era, a sacred time, a vanished epoch of
unique holiness. Is Zeus living in a vanished epoch?
More on Eliade: http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/bodhidharma/mircea.html
Joseph Campbell
1904-1987
Hero's rite of passage
journey of maturation
Growth into true selfhood (Jung's individuation)
More on Campbell: http://www.jcf.org/about_jc.php
Myth and Dream
Myths as Products of the MIND
The Monomyth (James Joyce’s Finnegan’s
Wake)
Rite of Passage
separation—initiation--return
(See Hero Pg. 30)
Tragedy and Comedy in the
Monomyth
– “The universal tragedy of man”
– “The happy ending of the fairy tale, the myth,
and the divine comedy of the soul, is to be read
, not as a contradiction, but as a transcendence
of the universal tragedy of man.” (pg. 28)
– It is the business of mythology proper, and of
the fairy tale, to reveal the specific dangers and
techniques of the dark interior way from
tragedy to comedy. (pg. 29)
– Is Zeus part of the Monomyth?
The World Navel
The world navel is ubiquitous. And since it is the source of all
existence, it yields the world’s plentitude of both good and evil.”
(Campbell, Pg. 44)
The omphalos
The effect of the
successful adventure of
the hero is the unlocking
and release again of the
flow of life into the body
of the world.
(Campbell, pg. 40)
Delphi, the navel of the Greek world
Zeus and the Omphalos
The famous Omphalos (“navel” of the world) was
an undecorated holy stone kept in the innermost of
the temple in Delphi, covered with a knotted
woolen net. It was flanked by two golden eagles.
This stone indicated the exact centre of the world,
as proven by a scientific experiment by the god
Zeus. He had two eagles, one from the eastern end
of the earth and one from the west, flying towards
each other. The point where they met (at Delphi)
had to be the exact centre. The stone which is
exhibited in the museum (decorated with the same
net) probably stood in front of the temple, being a
copy of the original.
http://www.pausanias-footsteps.nl/english/delphieng.html