1. The Myth
Introduction

2. Pretest – How Much Mythology Do You Know?
Who is the chief Greek god?
Whose face launched a thousand ships and started the Trojan War?
Who is the Norse god of thunder?
What is Mount Olympus noted for (who resides there)?
Which Norse god has only one eye?
Which Greek hero was lost for 10 years after the Trojan War?
Who is credited with writing The Iliad and The Odyssey?
Who is the Roman god of the underworld?
Which Roman hero is the city of Rome named after? (Brother of Remus)
 Which Greek myth explains the changing of the seasons?
Which Greek demigod had to complete 12 labors to atone for killing his family?
What well-known Sumerian epic tells the story of an arrogant king?
What Roman epic did Virgil write?
Which heroic warrior defeats the monster Grendel?
Which popular epic trilogy is based on the Norse Volsunga Sagas/King Arthur?
Who is the Egyptian god of the dead (also a skate shoe brand)?
What is Yggdrasil in Norse Mythology?
Which Greek goddess is born from the “foam of the sea”?
Pretest – How Much Mythology Do You Know?

3. Mythology
How has mythology influenced our culture? Where do we see it or use it in our everyday lives?
Brainstorm
How many can you list?

4. Why do we read myths?
To understand the history, rituals, and beliefs of cultures different from our own
To discover the commonality of the human experience.
For entertainment and guidance
To enrich our encounters with art, language, & literature

5. Introduction to Mythology
The number one rule for reading mythology:
Don’t look at myths literally!
Myths are metaphorically and symbolically true, but factually and literally fabricated.
Events that are factual are usually exaggerated, like the Mesopotamian Flood
Myths involve characters and events that often represent other ideas, often values or beliefs.
Frost Giants in Norse mythology represent natural disasters that occurred during the Viking Age
Pandora represents human curiosity
Sirens in the Odyssey?

6. “A myth raises as many questions as it answers” – Claude Levi-Strauss, French Anthropologist
You may know other versions of myths we read!
Mythology is based on
second-hand tellings
semi-deciphered ancient inscriptions
Because of this, mythology varies. One story can be interpreted and told many different ways.

7. Definitions: Understanding Myths
*Myths (from Greek mythos, meaning story) are prose narratives which, in the society in which they are told, are considered to be truthful accounts of what happened in the remote past. They most often feature gods as the protagonists.
*Legends are similar to myths, but some characters or events are actually true. They are set in a less-distant time period.
*Epics are long, narrative poems that feature a hero who is often on a quest. Supernatural forces help or hinder the hero in his or her goal. The hero embodies the values of the society and his/her challenges represent threats to the society.

8. Why are these stories timeless?
These stories have:
Staying power: stories that have survived centuries, sometimes millennia because of the deep meaning or functional importance of these stories to the people who hear and tell them
Significance: the subject matter is about something important, something about how the world works or how the world itself got going, how things came to be.

9. With your North Partner:
Read the three shortened stories.
Use the flow chart to determine which type of story each is: myth, legend, or folktale
Make notes on the stories themselves identify why you categorized them as such.
Report Findings with Whole Group

10. With your South Partner:
Compare your answers. Create the T-Chart below in your notebook and complete it according to your new understandings from the definitions, flowchart, and stories.
A Myth Is
A Myth Is Not

11. Basic Terminology to Use and Understand
*Archetype:  An original model on which similar things are patterned, namely character types and situations.
*(Mythological) Allusion: The presence of mythology in modern literature, language, and culture.
Polytheism: The belief in more than one god
Monotheism: The belief in only one god

12. Basic Terminology to Use and Understand
God: Immortal being worshiped as having power over nature or human fortunes
Demigod: the offspring of a god and a mortal, or a mortal raised to divine rank
*Pantheon: all the gods of a people or religion collectively (e.g. the Norse Pantheon)
*Duality: the state of being twofold; necessary opposites

13. How much value should we put into mythology?
View three minutes of TED Talk:
Devdutt Pattanaik: East vs. West -- the myths that mystify (0:00- 3:10)
What makes up mythology?
-The world vs. My world
-Every culture trying to understand itself
-Different people of the world having a different understanding of the world

14. My World vs. The World (TED Talk)
Subjective
Emotional
Personal
Belief
Myth
Objective
Logical
Universal
Fact
Science

15. We all share the need to explain!
“Culture is a reaction to nature, and this understanding of our ancestors is transmitted generation from generation in the form of stories, symbols and rituals, which are always indifferent to rationality. And so, when you study it, you realize that different people of the world have a different understanding of the world. Different people see things differently -- different viewpoints.”