Unit 2 Flashcards
What is an ancient autho who undertood the academic study of myth called?
A mythographer
Who was Xenophanes and what did they write in general
Xenophanes criticised the unethical behaviour of the Greek gods, since they are very inconsistent in their treatment of humans and quite often with each other. That the gods favour some humans, but harm others, change their attitudes without any apparent reason(s), or simply be cruel for the sake of their own amusement, makes them appear less than moral.
Who was Hesiod and what did they write in general
Hesiod wrote several works about ancient Greek myth. As you shall find out in the next unit, he is our best source for the ancient Greek creation myths. His works include Theogony, Works and Days, the Catalogue of Women, and the Shield of Heracles. All of these works are important to different parts of myth which we shall cover in this course.
Who was Theagenes and what did they write?
Theagenes was a Greek philosopher of the sixth century BCE, who is thought to have suggested that myths ought not to be read literally, but as allegories.
Who was Apollodorus and what did they write?
Apollodorus, who sought to order Greek myth by writing his Bibliotheca (Library of Greek Mythology). This was the world’s first textbook of myth. This work imposed order on myths, clarifying chronology and the relationships between different myths. He is considered the best ancient authority on myth.
Who was plato and what did they write about?
Plato, who denied the poets (who sustained myth by continuing to write about it) a place in his ideal state as set out in his Republic. Other Greek thinkers were much more tolerant than Plato, but they agreed that being able to think rationally meant that myths were not needed to explain things. Overall, the Greeks were largely tolerant of these discussions, since they believed in intellectual inquiry.
What is rationalism?
An important aspect of ancient scholars was the emergence of rationalism, a line of philosophical enquiry that suggests that the gods were not necessarily responsible for everything. Humans are capable of reason, which can provide answers. It is important not to consider this atheism, since someone who advocates rationalism does not necessarily argue that the gods do not exist. Theagenes was very important in initiating this branch of thought.
What is Psychoanalysis and who are the important figures?
This approach is relatively new, initiated by Sigmund Freud in the early twentieth century, then expanded upon by Jacques Lacan. Freud was interested in exploring the subconscious and came to believe that myths were a revelation of the subconscious. If dreams could reveal the subconscious of an individual, Freud argued, myths could reveal important aspects of the culture that produced them. Freud’s readings of some myths, especially that of Oedipus, is famous and came to dominate his work: many of the terms he employed were derived from myth. To some, this approach to myth is exceptionally limiting, as it focuses far too much on reading sexual symbols in myths.
What is Narratology and Structuralism and who are the important figures?
The narratological approach involves the study of the how myth is constructed as a story (the study of narrative is the examination of the ‘–ing’ in “storytelling“, that is, the how and why of telling a story). Most myths fit nicely into what readers (or listeners) expect about a story: they have a beginning, middle, and end. There is a clearly defined plot and characters (with good and bad people easily identifiable).
The most important scholar here is the Russian folklore specialist Vladimir Propp. In his research, he identified thirty-one elements that routinely appear in Russian folktales. While few – if any – myths have all thirty-one elements, Greek hero myths contain at least some of them. Review the full list of Propp’s elements here.
Another scholar who studied the structure of myths is Joseph Campbell, whose work The Hero with a Thousand Faces first appeared in 1949. Campbell’s term monomyth indicates that almost all hero myths have common elements. Since Campbell explores myths from many cultures (in addition to Classical myth, he also analyses narratives of Buddha, Moses, and Christ), means he is also an important figure in the comparative analysis of myth (see below).
What is Idealogical Approach to Myth and who are the main proponents?
The ideological approach is perhaps the most controversial. Not all classicists are entirely convinced about the utility of this approach to myth in particular or classical studies in general. The ideologies applied to myth include a Marxist interpretation. This primarily entails identifying and explaining class divisions, especially the exploitation of the lower class by the ruling elite. Many hero myths involve a malevolent ruler (a king), who exploits his subjects, including the hero, who is often on the margins of society. The hero’s successful completion of his quest, which usually results in the overthrow of the ruler, represents a successful political revolution. In some instances one can stretch a myth to fit Marx’s pattern, but not always.
In broad terms, there is some merit here, since during the middle of the Archaic period many Greek city-states transitioned (but not necessarily directly) from monarchy to a more popular form of government. These figures often manipulated hero myths to validate the changes being initiated. The Theseus myth is the best example of this, as you will learn in unit 9.
The theories mentioned so far are relatively recent developments, that is, they arose in the second half of the nineteenth century or later. It is worth noting that most of these theories were initially developed through the study of myths and folktales of cultures other than ancient Greece and Rome. Their application to Greek and Roman myth occurred only recently (i.e., in the last fifty years).
What is comparative mythology? Who are the important figures?
The comparative study of myth is the oldest approach to myth; it is in some ways the most interesting. It involves exploring similarities and differences between Greek and Roman myth and mythologies of other ancient cultures (e.g., Egyptian, Near Eastern, Hittite, Hebrew). Scholars do this in part in order to trace the movement of a myth from one region to another over the course of time, usually from the Near East to Europe.
Closer examination of the appropriation and modification of a culture’s myths can provide exceptionally valuable insights. The strong parallels between many Greek gods and myths and earlier Near Eastern (i.e., Mesopotamian) myths is particularly noticeable. The textbook looks at one very important pre-Greek myth: Gilgamesh. This hero came from Uruk (in the south of modern Iraq, near Basra), which scholars identify as the very first substantial city built. The main source of this myth, the Epic of Gilgamesh, is the first substantial work of literature, written in the earliest writing system: Akkadian cuneiform.
A comparative approach to Greek myth, for example, would seek to explain the similarities between the story of Gilgamesh and Greek hero myths. Important note: the comparative approach is not applied to Roman appropriation of Greek myth, given the closeness of these two cultures.
The comparative approach to myth is by far the most useful approach to Classical scholars: it allows us to explore how earlier Eastern cultures influenced the ancient Greeks, and what original contributions the Greeks made to these stories (which sometimes are subtle and therefore difficult to determine precisely). Sometimes we can trace historically the movement of a god, hero, or myth from Mesopotamia (Iraq) to the Levant (Israel/ Lebanon/ Syria) and Turkey to Greece.
