Week One: Lesson One Flashcards
What is a Myth?
A Myth is a traditional story with importance to a specific people in it’s original context.
What do myths contain?
Plot, problem, characters (the gods, royalty, demigods), and settings (outside the human world). They are timeless.
What are Divine Myths?
Can Explain:
- origin of the world
- acts as a kind of science to the ancient world
- main characters are supernatural
- ritual and beliefs
What is a Saga?
Things said - it implies a oral origin
What are Legends?
Things read - lessons learned
What are Folktales?
They have moral lessons.
- Ordinary people
Etiological Interpretation
Explains origins and facts
Rationalism
The gods were mortal men who were defied for their deeds.
Allegorical
A sustained metaphor standing in for something else. (Seasons, good and evil, night and day, ect.)
Dreamwork: Condensation
The mind condenses elements of our experiences.
Dreamwork: Displacement
Elements that are altered.
Dreamwork: Representation
Elements that are transmitted into symbols.
What are examples of Archetypes?
The divine child, the hero/heroine, the quest, the wise old man, the great mother.
(fundamental recurring patterns that are Symbols recognized by all)
Classical Myth
Has develped over a long period of time, it can change depending on how you look at it.
Literary Myths
Characteristics
- Plot (beg, mid, end)
- Recognition
- Characterization
- Tragic flaw in the protagonist
- Catharsis involving pity and fear
- Timeless
