Lecture 1: What is Myth?

MYTHOS << MYTHEIN Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound: “She has now heard the full end of her travels; yet so she may know that she has heard no vain tale from me, I will describe the toils she has endured before she came here, giving this as a sure proof of my mythos.” Aristotle, Poetics: As then creatures and other organic structures must have a certain magnitude and yet be easily taken in by the eye, so too with mythoi: they must have length but must be easily taken in by the memory.

MYTHOS << MYTHEIN Hesiod, Works and Days: Attend thou with eye and ear, and make judgements straight with righteousness. And, Perses, I would mythein true things. Homer, Iliad: He with good intent addressed the gathering, and spoke among them: “Achilles, dear to Zeus, you bid me mythein the wrath of Apollo, the lord who strikes from afar. Therefore I will speak;

R. Martin, The Language of Heroes R. Martin, The Language of Heroes. muthos (in Homer and Hesiod) = an authoritative speech act. A public discourse of authority, which may (but does not have to) involve an imaginative traditional narrative.

Myth (n.) 1. a. A traditional story, typically involving supernatural beings or forces, which embodies and provides an explanation, aetiology, or justification for something such as the early history of a society, a religious belief or ritual, or a natural phenomenon. b. As a mass noun: such stories collectively or as a genre.

Myth (n.) 2.a. A widespread but untrue or erroneous story or belief; a widely held misconception; a misrepresentation of the truth. Also: something existing only in myth; a fictitious or imaginary person or thing. b. A person or thing held in awe or generally referred to with near reverential admiration on the basis of popularly repeated stories (whether real or fictitious). c. A popular conception of a person or thing which exaggerates or idealizes the truth.

Richard Buxton, The Complete World of Greek Mythology Richard Buxton, The Complete World of Greek Mythology. “a socially powerful traditional story”

"Myth, then, within the class of traditional tales, is nonfactual storytelling. . . . muthos is telling a tale while disclaiming responsibility: ouk emos ho mythos, this is not my tale, but I have heard it elsewhere. Just by disregarding the question of truth one may enjoy myth, or wonder, and start thinking." (Burkert, 3)

W. Burkert, Structure and History in Greek Mythology. Berkeley 1979. "A myth, qua tale, is not identical with any given text … . We know, after all, that we can remember a good tale, and a myth, by hearing it just once, without memorizing the words of a text. What is it, then, that we do remember?" (3)

…But the greeks didn’t really buy these myths, did they?

A word from Xenophanes: “In my opinion mortals have created their gods with the dress and voice and appearance of mortals. If cattle and horses had hands and wanted to draw or carve as men do, the cattle would show their gods in the form of cattle, the horses would show them as horses, with the same form and appearance of their own. The Ethiopians say that their gods have snub noses and black skins, while the Thracians say that theirs have blue eyes and red hair.” (Fragment 21 B 14-16, Diels-Krans)

P. Veyne, Did the Greeks believe in their Myths. 1988 P.Veyne, Did the Greeks believe in their Myths? 1988. "The most widespread modality of belief occurs when one trusts the word of another. I believe that Tokyo exists, although I have not yet been there, because I cannot see how the geographers and travel agencies would gain anything by tricking me. ... Westerners, at least those among us who are not bacteriologists, believe in germs and increase the sanitary precautions we take for the same reason that the Azande believe in witches and multiply their magical precautions against them: their belief is based on trust (28)."

G.Nagy, Greek Mythology and Poetics. Ithaca 1990.

"Myth, in societies where it exists as a living tradition, must not be confused with fiction, which is a matter of individual and personal creativity. Rather, myth represents a collective expression of society, an expression that society itself deems to be true and valid. From the standpoint of a given society that it articulates, myth is the primary reality. … myth can be defined as a 'traditional narrative that is used as a designation of reality.' Myth is an applied narrative. Myth describes a meaningful and important reality that applies to the aggregate, going beyond the individual." (8)

What is the Significance of Myth?

Myth and Ritual “Once we view myth as performance, we can see that myth itself is a form of ritual: rather than think of myth and ritual separately and only contrastively, we can see them as a continuum in which myth is a verbal aspect of ritual while ritual is a notional aspect of myth.“ -G. Nagy, “Can Myth Be Saved?” 243

"Myths are multivalent: the same myth may be applied to nature or history, to metaphysics or psychology, and make some sense in each field, sometimes even striking sense, according to the predilections of the interpreter; but the very plurality of applications must caution us; a myth, qua tale, cannot be pinned down as referring specifically and immediately to any kind of reality, to one 'origin' outside the tale." (Burkert, 5)

How is myth meaningful for you?