1. What is Myth?
Dean Stevens

2. What is Myth? Fact or Fiction? μύθος Characteristics of Myth
Culture Specific or Universal?
Why Myth?
Is Myth Science? Religion? Something Else?
Theories/Classification of Myth?

3. Characteristics of Myth
Supernatural
Stories involving gods, and/or heroes
Originally Oral Tradition
Cultural World View/Prehistory
Can change, No Set Story
Can have several versions
Can be contradictory
Written myth is the end of a very long evolutionary process

4. Why Myth? To Entertain To explain the unexplainable
Retelling Prehistory

5. Why Myth?: Ancient Greeks 6th Century BCE Scientific Observation
Theagnes of Rhegion (c. 525 BCE):
--Gods are symbolic of natural processes
Anaxagoras : gods can’t be taken literally
Xenophanes: gods are immoral and are fashioned in our own image
Euhermerus of Messene 300 BCE: Fiction: Gods were mortal kings

6. Why Myth?: Modern Interpretation
2 types of Theories: External/Internal
External: Environmental
Internal: Comes from within us

7. External Theories of Myth
Nature Myth Theory
Ritual Myth Theory
Etiological Theory

8. Internal Theory Freudian Theory Wish fulfillment/violation of taboos
Dionysos is Id—repression of Dionysos leads to perversion and violent outbreaks
Explains tragedy.
Doesn’t Explain ancient cultural roots of many myths

9. Internal Theory Carl Jung Archetypal Myths Myths similar to dreams
Claude Levi-Strauss
Structuralism: World is a reflection of mind’s binary organization (good vs. evil, light vs. dark)
Myth deals with reconciliation of opposites
Divine will versus human ambition

10. Are Myths Universal?
Flood Myth
Hero Archetypes
Creation Myth

11. Flood Myth
Epic of Gilgamesh Tablet XI (700 BCE ?) Utnapishtim BCE
Epic of Atra-Hasis 1800 BCE
Torah Book of Genesis 1400 BCE Ch 6-9 Noah
Ovid Metamorphoses Deucalion and Pyrrha

12. Classifying Myth Allegory/Symbol
The Castration of Uranus: fresco by Vasari & Cristofano Gherardi c. 1560

13. Classifying Myth
Cosmology/Cosmogony/Creation Myth

14. Creation Myth: Atum 2400 BCE

15. Atum Pyramid Texts Atum –The Complete One
Rises from Primeval Water (chaos)
Maa –Order
Creates by releasing life-force into his mouth –spits out gods, life
Man created from his tears
Apophis –Dragon (Chaos) Underworld

16. Creation Myth Enuma Elish
Marduk and Tiamat BCE-1900 BCE
Apsu (Ocean) Tiamat (Primeval waters-Chaos-Dragon)
Rebellion of First Gods-Failed Tiamat Motherly Concern
2nd Rebellion
Marduk Supremacy
Nintu-Earth Creates man from mud and slain god

17. Gnosticism: Prophet Mani
Battle between Light and Dark
Time
King of Darkness
Primal Man
Adam and Eve
Jesus

18. Hesiod Theogony 750 BCE Chaos –Independent Existence
Gaea (Gaia) Independent Existence
Tartarus –The Abyss Independent Exist
Eros – Procreative Love –Independent
Chaos and Gaea can mate or create independently
Story of conflict among the gods-permeates cosomos

19. Hero Archetype The Heroic Pattern Archetypal Elements and Events
Element 1:  Early Life
The hero’s mother is a royal virgin.
His father is a king
The circumstances of his conception and birth are unusual, and
He is reputed to be the son of a god.
At birth an attempt is made, often by his father or maternal grandfather, to kill him, but
He is spirited away, and
He is reared by foster parents in a far country

20. Hero Archetype Element 2: Young Adulthood
On reaching manhood, he returns or goes to his future kingdom.
He falls under the control of an enemy.

21. Hero Archetype Element 3: Journey or Quest
He often makes a journey to the Underworld, or the shades of the dead may visit him
Has a purpose for his journey
Travels to the end of the earth
Seeks directions and/or advice
Finds women a danger to his success
Gains a guide
Is given weapons or talismans with magical powers
Crosses water
Confronts the powers of death in the form of shades and/or monsters
Tries to bring back to earth an item or person from the Underworld, but
Is at best only partly successful

22. Hero Archetype Element 4: The Return Home
11.  After victory over the king and/or a giant, dragon, or wild beast 12.  He marries a princess, often the daughter of his predecessor, and 13.  Becomes king. 14.  Eventually, he loses favor with the gods and/or his subjects, and 15.  He meets a mysterious death. 16.  His children do not succeed him. 17.  His body is not buried, but 18.  He has one or more holy sepulchers.

23. Hero Archetype Element 5: Major Themes often associated with the hero
The human quest: a journey of discovery about himself, his society, and his universe
Isolation: essentially alone, the hero’s courage, strength, and wisdom are tested
The quest as a dual struggle, both physical and psychological (a struggle to resolve the conflict between the body and the soul, between duty and desire, between the animal urges and divine aspirations, etc.)
The cycle of life, death, and rebirth
The hero as redeemer: often restores the kingdom to health and fertility
The hero as model: "by his half-divine nature, his glorious deeds, his relentless pursuit of immortality, the hero uplifts humanity from its dismal condition and reminds us of our godlike potential"

24. Myth in Greek Culture Anthropomorphic Polytheism Humanism
Individualism
Competitiveness

25. Anthropomorphic Polytheism

26. Humanism Protagoras: “Man is the measure of all things…”
Bonnie Tyler: “I need a Hero…”

27. Individualism What about me???
Achilles is about to kill Penthesileia, the Amazon Queen at Troy: Large Athenian amphora,c.540     BC, found at Vulci in Etruria.

28. Competitiveness
Achilles: Glory or Obscurity?