1: Myth Defined

Question 1

Etymology of Myth

Answer 1

Mythos: ‘Word’, ‘Speech’, ‘Tale’, ‘Story’ and eventually became Logos: ‘Word’, ‘Speech’, ‘Reason’

Question 2

What is Mythology based on

Answer 2

• based on logos/rational
• set of myths. Ex: Mythology of Athena
• study of myths. Ex: Classical mythology

Question 3

Definition of Myth

Answer 3

Traditional tale:
* Traditional: handed down from generation to generation; word of mouth; anonymous
* tale: story arc that has plot, structure, and characters

Important to society:
* explanatory and exemplary

Question 4

Types of Myth

Answer 4

True Myth or Myth Proper
Saga or Legend
Folktale

Question 5

True Myth or Myth Proper

Answer 5

aka divine myth
* major and minor deities
* concerned with relations with mortals

modern analogue
* science
* explanatory → etiological

Question 6

Etiological

Answer 6

Greek: Aitia > Eitia > Etia
“Cause,” “Reason”

Question 7

Saga or Legend

Answer 7

Heroes & Heroines
* Nobility: those who are known
* Hero ex: Heracles battling the bull helped by Hermes
* Heroine ex: Cassandra battling Clymenatra

Modern Analogue:
* History
* Real World Locations:
→ Troy in Turkey
→ Mycenae in Greece → Lion Gate
→ Thebes in Greece

Question 8

Folktale

Answer 8

• includes fairytales and fables.
• German for Marchen
• Written and oral
• not nobility like in Saga or Legend but regular people that rise up

Modern Analogues
* movies, novels, folktale elements
Ex: Aesop and the Fox
Ex: Cupid and Psyche: one of the earliest novels

Question 9

“It’s Just a Myth”

Answer 9

Urban legend: traditional tale
fiction vs fact

Question 10

Rationalism

Answer 10

• ancient greek interpretations that started challenging myths
• anthropomorphism: divine beings in human form

Question 11

Rationalism Philosophers

Answer 11

• Plato rejected all greek mythology
• Xenophanes: one of the first to challenge these myths. Fl. 6th c BC using anthropomorphism
• Both said that these are immoral things to teach people

Question 12

Anthropomorphism

Answer 12

• part of rationalism
• Anthropos: human; Morphos: shape
• Xenophanes said that:
  → people’s gods are perceived as human in form
  → we are biased in our approach of what diety should be like

Question 13

Allegory and types

Answer 13

Allegory: saying a thing another way
1. Physical allegory
2. Psychological/moral allegory
3. historical allegory

Question 14

Physical allegory

Answer 14

• Theagenes: 6th c. BCE
  →First attested to have used allegory
  →Apollo = Fire; Poseidon = Water

Question 15

Psychological/Moral Allegory

Answer 15

Athena: wisdom
Aphrodite: desire

Question 16

Historical Allegory

Answer 16

• Euhemerism: saw myth as early history
  → gods were just deified for their great deeds. Ex: Zeus was once a mortal king in Crete who disposed of his father, Cronus
• Antirationalists: opposite extreme of Euhemerism
  → favor metaphorical interpretations

Question 17

Euhemerus of Messene

Answer 17

Associated with euhemerism and historical allegory
* 3rd c BCE Mythographer (collects myths)
* The Sacted Scripture: golden pillar inscribed with kings and queens who had identical names to Greek gods so kings and queens were just deified
* Isodore of Seville: Christian gods were also just regular behings

Question 18

People in Psychological Theories

Answer 18

Sigmund Freud
Carl Jung

Question 19

Sigmund Freud

Answer 19

part of psychological theory
* Myths: collective and recurrent dreams. Reflect people’s waking efforts to systematize the incoherent visions and impulses of their sleep world
→ Dreams and dream-work
* Sophocles Oedipus Tyrannos → Oedipus Comple

Question 20

Dream and Dream-work

Answer 20

Sigmund Freud
* Dreams: fulfillment of wishes that have been repressed and disguised
* Dream-work: 3 primary activities
1. Condense: combination of things like centaur
2. Displacement: changed
3. Represent: transmission of elements into imagery or symbols, often sexual

Question 21

Carl Jung

Answer 21

part of psychological theory
* Myths: collective unconscious. Revelation of the continuing psychic tendencies of society
* Myths contain
→archetypes: timeless, recurent images that society as a whole has come to depend
→electra complex: aka Oedipus complex as first archetype discovered by Freud

Question 22

Archetypes

Answer 22

Carl Jung and psychological theory
* Anima: female within every male
* Animus: male within every female
* Divine Child: if born will solve all of the world’s problems
* Earth Mother
* Wise Old Man

Question 23

People in Structuralism Theories

Answer 23

Vladimir Propp
Claude Levi-Strauss
Walter Burkert

Question 24

Russian Motifemes and Parts of a Myth - Vladimir Propp

Answer 24

31 motifemes in Russian folktale
4 parts of a myth
1. Pattern or structure will emerge
2. Possible to find the same structure in other myths, making it easier to organize the study of myths
3. Possible to compare the myths of one culture to another
4. This comparison makes it easier to appreciate the development of a myth

Question 24

Vladimir Propp

Answer 24

Structuralist theorist * morphology of the folktale * russian folklorist * determined that there was a narrative structure of tales and broke it down into the smallest narrative units called motifemes * myth or folktales are fixed sequences of motifemes

Question 25

Claude Levi-Strauss

Answer 25

Structural anthropology: links myth and society * Sees myth as a mode of communication from the structure of the mind that tries to find a resolution between conflicting opposites * Draws evidence from primitve and preliterate cultures * meaning of myth - form of myth → no one version of a myth is right, all versions are valid and should be taken in as a whole * myth creates binary oppositions: pairs that contradictions each other

Question 26

Claude Levi-Strauss Assumptions

Answer 26

* All human behavior is based on certain unchanging patterns in all ages and societies * Society has a consistent structure in which every component plays a meaningful part

Question 27

Walter Burkert

Answer 27

Structuralism * classical myths have a historical and cultural dimension with layers of development * "myth is traditional tale applied" * anthropomorphic * something of collective importance

Question 28

4 Theses of Walter Burkert

Answer 28

1. Myth belongs to more general class of traditional tales 2. Identity of traditional tale found in structure of sense within tale itself 3. Tale structures, as sequences of motifemes, founded on basic biological or cultural programs of action 4. Myth: traditional tale with partial reference to something of collective importance