Chapter 1: Interpretation and Definition of Classical Mythology

Question 1

Origin of “Myth”

Answer 1

• Comes from the Greek word “mythos”, which means word, speech, tale, story
  
  • Aristotle used the word “mythos” to designate the plot of a play
• Most begin as oral tales and are written down at some point in their history

Question 2

Definition of “True Myth”

Answer 2

• Stories of the gods, and sometimes of their relationships with humans

Question 3

Definition of “Saga”

Answer 3

• Based on historical fact
• AKA “legend”

Question 4

Definition of “Folktales”

Answer 4

• Stories of adventure, sometimes peopled with fantastic beings and enlivened by ingenious strategies on the part of the hero or heroine, who will triumph in the end
• Goal is primarily, but not necessarily solely, to entertain

Question 5

Definition of “Fairytales”

Answer 5

• Short, imaginative, traditional tales with a high moral and magical content
• May be classified as particular kinds of folktales
  
  • Difficult to distinguish between the two

Question 6

Mircea Eliade

Answer 6

• One of the most prolific writiers about myth in the 20^th century
• Believed that
  
  • Myth, like religious sacrament, provided in the imagination a spiritual release from historical time
  • The nature of myths provided paradigms and explanations which were specifically important to an individual or society

Question 7

Definition and Origin of Etiological

Answer 7

• Explains causes (“the origin of some fact or custom”)
• Originates from the Greek word “aitia”, meaning “cause”
• From an ______ point of view, myths explain facts that cannot otherwise be explained within the limits of society’s knowledge at the time

Question 8

Euhemerus and Euhemerism

Answer 8

• ca. 300 BC
• Claimed that the gods were men deified for their great deeds
  
  • Claimed that Zeus was once a mortal king in Crete who deposed his father, Cronus
• Opoosite this theory is Metaphorical Interpretation

Question 9

Max Müller

Answer 9

• Theorized that all myths are nature myths, referring to meteorological and cosmological phenomena
  
  • Extreme development of the allegorical approach
  • Basically states that every myth is an allegory for some natural phenomenon
• Wrong - myths often try to explain physical, emotional, and spiritual matters not only literally and realistically but also figuratively and metaphorically as well

Question 10

Sigmund Freud

Answer 10

• A psychologist who looked to the allegorical properties of myth, associating myth and dreams, and emphasized sexuality, symbolism, and dreams
• Believed that dreams are the fulfillment of wishes that have been repressed and disguised
• Assumed that myth did what dreams do - address the deepest confusions and conflicts in our souls and reflect people’s waking efforts to systematize the incoherent visions and impulses of the unconscious mind

Question 11

Definition of “Dream-Work”

Answer 11

• A process through which the mind goes to protect sleep and relieve anxiety
• Theorized by Sigmund Freud
• Consists of three mental activity:
  
  • Condensation
  • Displacement
  • Representation

Question 12

The Oedipus Complex

Answer 12

• Theorizes that a male’s first sexual impulse is towards his mother, and thus his first aggressive impulse is towards his father
• Sigmund Freud’s most well-known idea
  
  • Believed that it was one of the fundamental underlying drives of mythology and primitive culture, leading to the deification of the father figure, and the totemic system in which a totem (i.e. an animal) takes the place of the slain father
• Female equivalent is the Electra Complex

Question 13

Carl Jung

Answer 13

• A Swiss psychologist and founder of analytical psychology known as Jungian Psychology
• Intepreted myths as the projection of what he called the “collective unconsciousness”
  
  • Thus theorized that myths contain images or “archetypes”

Question 14

Definition of “Collective Unconciousness”

Answer 14

• Structures of the unconscious mind which are shared among beings of the same species or society
• Theorized by Carl Jung
  
  • Believed that the human collective unconsciousness is populated by instincts and archetypes
• Embraces political and social questions involving a particular group, unlike personal unconciousness, which concerns matters of an individual’s own life
  
  • Thus dreams may be either personal or collective

Question 15

Definition of “Archetypes”

Answer 15

• Traditional expressions of collective dreams, developed over millennia, of symbols upon which the society as a whole has come to depend
  
  • Essentially behavior patterns
• Coined by Carl Jung, who believed that they comprised myths
• The archetypes of behavior with which human beings are born and which find their expression in mythological tales are called the “collective unconscious”

Question 16

James Frazer

Answer 16

• Presents a ritualistic interpretation of mythology, which has become one of the most influential and enduring points of view
• Wrote The Golden Bough, which remains a seminal work of ritualistic interpretation of myth
  
  • Full of comparative data on kingship and ritual, but it is limited by Frazer’s narrow ritualistic interpretations and his eagerness to establish dubious analogies between myths of primitive tribes and classical myths

Question 17

Robert Graves

Answer 17

• A ritualist who believed that Myth was the interpretation of ritual which was also often recorded on temple walls, vases, seals, chests, shields, tapestries, etc.
• Distinguished “true myth” from twelve other categories such as philosophical allegory, satire, romance, etc.

Question 18

Ritualist Theory

Answer 18

• States that myth implies ritual, ritual implies myth, they are one and the same
• Valuable for the connection it emphasizes between myth and religion, but it is patently untenable to connect all true muth with ritual

Question 19

Bronislav Malinowski

Answer 19

• Was stranded on an island among the Trobriand Islanders off the coast of New Guinea during World War I
  
  • He studied that native people and disovered a close connection between myths and social institutions, leading him to explain myths as “charters” of social customs and beliefs
  • Observations led him to believe that myths were related to practical life and explained existing facts and institutions
    
    • The myth conforms (is a “charter” for) institutions, customs, and beliefs

Question 20

Definition of “Structuralism”

Answer 20

• A theoretical approach to mythology that attempts to organize myths by analyzing their component parts
• First developed by Vladimir Propp

Question 21

Claude Levi Strauss

Answer 21

• A theorist who acknowledged the link between myth and society, understood myth as communication, and emphasized structure
• Believed that no one version of a myth is the “true” or “right” version - all are valid because society is a living, developing organism
• Theorized that Myth is a mode by which society communicates and through which it finds resolution between conflicting opposites
  
  • Focused on opposites (i.e. life/death, males/female, nature/culture)

Question 22

Vladimir Propp

Answer 22

• Developed the structural interpretation of myth based on Russian folktale
• Theorized that there are 31 motifemes (units of action) in quest-style stories
  
  • Not all 31 motifemes are present in every story, but when they are present they are always in the same order
  • His motifemes have proved remarkably adaptable and valid for other sorts of tales in other cultures, yet they are too rigid for sagas, which are based on historical elements

Question 23

The Four Consequences of Analyzing a Myth Into Its Constituent Parts

Answer 23

1. A perceptable pattern or structure will emerge
2. It will be possible to find the same structure in other myths, thus making it easier to organize the study of myths
3. It will be possible to compare the muths of one culture with those of another
4. As a resut of this comparison, it will be easier to appreciate the development of a muth prior to its literary presentation

Question 24

Walter Burkert

Answer 24

• A structualist who theorized that the structure of traditional tales cannot be discovered without taking into account cultural and historical dimensions
  
  • The structure of a tale is shaped by its human creators and by the needs of the culture within which it is developed, making the structure “ineradicably anthropomorphic”
• Believed that Greek myths have a historical dimension with successive layers of development
  
  • This will be less true of a tale that has sacred status and has been “crystalized” in a sacred document
• Believed that Myth is a traditional tale applied (Myth has a use)

Question 25

Walter Bunkert’s Four Main Ideas

Answer 25

1. Myth belongs to the more general class of traditional tale
2. The identity of a traditional tale is to be found in a structure of sense within the myth itself
3. Tale structures, as sequences of motifemes, are founded on basic biological and cultural programs of actions
4. Myth is a traditional tale with secondary, partial reference to something of collective importance

Question 26

Comparative Mythology

Answer 26

• A field of study that analyzes and compares muth of different societies to find similarities and differences
• Dangerous given that there is a vast body of myth and the selection of elements may be made which only fit and enhance the point of view of the study

Question 27

Joseph Campbell

Answer 27

• The most popular comparative mythologist, with work that includes myths of all sorts: oral, literary, Classical, primitive, etc.
• Work is of value in showing the comparison and similarity of myths throughout cultures, but has been criticized as superficial, overly generalized, and lacking in compelling depth and specific conclusions