Chapter One, Lecture One Nature of Myth

The Nature of Myth “The longer I occupy myself with the questions of ancient mythology, the more diffident I become of success in dealing with them, and I am apt to think that we who spend our years in searching for solutions to these insoluble problems are like Sisyphus perpetually rolling his stone uphill only to see it revolve again into the valley.” Sir James G. Frazer ( ), author of the Golden Bough

The Nature of Myth The names of the great heroes of classical myth are familiar to us. The deeper history of their myths may not be. The myths evolved from preliterate cultures. We must first discuss what myth is.

What is a myth? A story is a narrative with plot –beginning, middle, end –characters –conflict, resolution –setting

What is a myth? Story telling is a common feature of all human cultures. One type of story is myth, but what is myth? Myth < Gk mythos –“a traditional story with collective importance.” What does that mean?

What is a myth? Myths are “traditional” tales. –< Lat. trado, “hand over.” Handed over orally and transmit a culture’s sense of itself: past wisdom, memories, and models Hence a myth has “collective importance.”

What is a myth? A myth has no identifiable author. A myth that is written down in a literary form uses a story that preceded it. –e.g. Sophocles’s Oedipus plays. Contrasted with logos –-logy- a reasoned account offered by somebody who stands by it.

What is a myth? Oral transmission will create constant changes in the myth. Various ways of emphasizing motives and meaning: –Niobê, Achilles Variants in the narrative elements: –Oedipus in Sophocles and Homer A “myth” is the complex of all variants.

Perspective 1.1 The “Myth” of Atlantis

Plato’s account of Atlantis is not “myth” strictly speaking: –It’s not an oral or traditional (having collective importance), and it has an author (Plato). –A political metaphor he made up in his dialogues the Timaeus and the Critias It has only recently been thought to preserve historical truth preserved orally until Plato’s day.

The Myth of Atlantis Ignatius Donnelly, Atlantis: The Antediluvian World (1882). Later the possible connection between a volcano on Thera and the collapse of pre- historic Crete fueled the search for Atlantis. But the dates of the volcano and the fall of Bronze Age Crete don’t match up.

Summary Myth is a traditional story with collective importance. –Oral –No identifiable author –Many variants of the same myth possible –Culturally important to the people who told them and listened to them Not everything commonly called myth is myth: Zeus, Atlantis, etc.