Mythology 1.What is mythology? a.body of myths of a certain culture b.study/interpretation of such myths c.socially accepted oral narratives d.including all traditional tales: -sagas, legends, folktales; -creation stories of ancient Egypt; -sagas of Icelandic literature; -the American folktale of Paul Bunyan.

2. What distinguishes myths from sagas, legends and folktales. A 2. What distinguishes myths from sagas, legends and folktales? A.their serious purpose and their importance to the culture; B.the fact that they explain how a)the world began; b)humans/animals were shaped; c)customs-gestures, or forms of human activity originated; d)divine & human worlds interact.

3.What are the distinctive features of a saga, a legends and a folktale? a)a tale based on a great historical (or supposedly historical) event; b)a fictional story associated with a historical person or place. c)a simple narrative of adventure built on elements of character and plot

William I, known as William the Conqueror, was king of England from 1066 to 1087. As king, William reorganized the system of lords and vassals in England, making all landholders swear loyalty to him rather than to their separate lords. William also ordered an exhaustive survey of the wealth in his realm. The written results, known as the Domesday Book, helped determine the revenues owed him by his subjects.

Saint George and the Dragon This painting by Italian Renaissance artist Paolo Uccello depicts the 4th-century Christian Saint George rescuing a princess as he kills a dragon that had been terrorizing a city. After slaying the dragon, George converted the town to Christianity. Painted about 1460, Saint George and the Dragon is in the National Gallery in London, England.

Cinderella The popular fairy tale about Cinderella portrays a girl who suffers the wrath of her stepmother and stepsisters. In the scene shown here, Cinderella is visited by her fairy godmother, who outfits her and gives her horses and a coach so she can go to a masked ball. At the dance Cinderella meets the prince, but she leaves before he learns her name. The prince is so taken with Cinderella that he travels the countryside until he finds her.

4. What are the common types of myths 4.What are the common types of myths? a)cosmic myths-concerned with the world and how it is ordered, seeking to explain origin of the world, universal catastrophes, such as fire or flood, and the afterlife. b)myths of gods-focused on the gods’ activities of the in their own realm. The gods tend to form a divine family. c)hero myths-concerned with blessed men with godlike strength or beauty.

n Statue of Zeus According to the ancient Greeks, Zeus was the most powerful of all the gods. Greek sculptor Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall Statue of Zeus in about 435 BC. The statue, depicted in this engraving by 16th-century Dutch artist Maarten van Heemskerck, stood in Olympia and was perhaps the most famous sculpture in ancient Greece.

Odin, father and ruler of the Norse gods, always wore his golden helmet and carried his magic sword. His two ravens, Huginn ("Thought") and Muninn ("Memory"), bring him news from all over, and his two wolves, Geri ("Greedy") and Freki ("Gobbler") wait at his feet.

In the mythology of Scandinavia, Thor is the god of thunder and the supreme creator. Named after the Germanic word for thunder, Thor wielded a hammer, called Mjollnir, which represented a powerful thunderbolt. If thrown, the hammer would return to him like a boomerang. In this wood carving, Thor employs his powers to reconstruct the world.

Hermes and Argus According to Greek mythology, Zeus ordered his messenger, Hermes, to slay Argus. In this painting by Ubaldo Gandolfi, Hermes has lulled Argus to sleep prior to beheading him. This work belongs to the North Carolina Museum of Art.

Eshu This carved wooden staff from West Africa shows the mischievous deity known as Eshu. He is said to serve as a messenger between the gods and humans, and plays an important role in many rituals for the Yoruba, Fon, and other West African groups

Osiris and Anubis Egyptian mythological figure Osiris lived in the fabled underworld as the ruler of the dead. He is shown here, center, with the jackal-headed Anubis, another god of the dead. This depiction dates from the 18th dynasty in Egypt (1550-1307 BC) and is in the Museo Egizio in Turin, Italy.

King Arthur Legend and lore surround the life of Arthur, a medieval king of the Britons who historians believe may have existed during the 6th century. According to legend, Arthur was raised unaware of his royal ancestry and became king by pulling the magic sword Excalibur from a stone. He is depicted here in a painting by Eleanor Brickdale.

5. How did the ancient Greeks interpret myths 5.How did the ancient Greeks interpret myths? Greeks first took their truth for granted, in 6th century BC began to regard them as explanations for natural phenomena, in 4th century BC interpreted them as symbols of supernatural elements and traced the origin of the gods to the deification of human rulers by their grateful subjects

6. How did the early Hebrews and Christians interpret myths 6.How did the early Hebrews and Christians interpret myths? A concentrated on the role of a supreme god & minimized the roles of all other characters who could be considered as divine B considered pagan gods actually as human rulers mistakenly deified by their followers. Some Christians attempted to establish a parallel between Christian ideas and certain aspects of pagan mythology.

7. How were myths interpreted in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance 7.How were myths interpreted in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance? Symbolic interpretation of ancient myths predominated at the time. 8.How were myths interpreted in the Age of Enlightenment? Myths were first dismissed as absurd and superstitious fabrications by the intellectuals due to their hostility to religion and then accepted as early men’s response to their physical and social environment.

9. How were myths interpreted in the 19th century 9.How were myths interpreted in the 19th century? The character of myths varied widely, by geographical region and historical period:simple myth reflects concerns of a basic agricultural community; more involved and complex myths are the product of a more developed society. A parent mythology was so assumed behind all the European mythologies, so with Indo-European language as a parent language.

10. How did scholars interpret myths in the 20th century 10.How did scholars interpret myths in the 20th century? To condense material of experience and represent it in symbols. Freud To reveal humanity’s tendency to draw on a store of patterns in the unconscious mind that people in all cultures express through similar images and symbols. Carl Jung To resolve contradictions between life and death, nature and culture, and self and society. Levi-Strauss