Myth: Its Meaning and Functions in Ancient and Other Cultures
... On that view, the study of myth as myth or as metaphysics may have some value as an anthropological, sociological, or psychological curiosity, but such narratives are not to be construed to be a true account of any real state of affairs. This particular understanding of the nature and relationship of fact and myth is shared by many post-Enlightenment historians (Collingwood, 1946;Elton, 1976;Kirk, 1970). ...
Myths weave in and out of historical context, even as dreams do relative to daily life, functioning in the modern world much as they did in earlier times, operating at both the personal and cultural levels. This essay discusses three special difficulties in appreciating the power of myth and understanding its reasons for being: (a) the nearly universal tendency to situate myth as the opposite of fact and truth, (b) the problem of identifying prevailing myths in culture and private life, and (c) the challenge of acknowledging myth as more than a personal intellectual construct or a cultural construction. Transpersonal theory offers a way forward in addressing these difficulties by placing personal and cultural myths and their relationship to historic–scientific fact in a greater context that endows them with greater meaning and reason for being than ordinarily appreciated by orthodox, mainstream Western psychology. Let us explore this premise detail.
... They are ritualized speech acts (mythos) passed down from generation to generation that have become traditional sacred beliefs. Kirk (1971), after Boas and Benedict, notes a mobility from one genre to the other, especially from folktale into myth. Myths that seem no more than paradoxical fantasies often have some serious purpose beyond that of telling a story. ...
Emerging from more than two decades of research in the field and in the archives, the essays collected here explore the multifaceted topic of the Fijian firewalking ceremony, the vilavilairevo. The collection examines the intersection of the intertwined topics of cultural property, reproduction of tradition, and change with issues of (post)colonial representation, authenticity, and ethnic identity. The essays advance new insights on the tourist gaze and the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage and pose serious questions regarding the role of digital and social media as tools for preserving cultural legacies and extending traditional cultural worlds into new domains. Focusing on the response of the Sawau tribe of the island of Beqa to the commodification of the vilavilairevo as their iconic practice, this essay collection ultimately illuminates how the Christian cultural dynamics and unprecedented dogmatic schism surrounding the vilavilairevo spectacle are reshaping local notions of heritage, social sentiment, and social capital.
Historia yani tarih teriminin ve gerçek manada tarih yazımının kökenleri Antik Yunan’a uzanmaktadır. Antik Yunan’da çoğunlukla Herodotos ile başlatılan ve yazılı belgelere dayanan tarih anlayışından önce efsane geleneğine bağlı bir tarih anlatımı görülmekteydi. Efsaneye bağlı tarih geleneği yazının olmadığı ve sözlü anlatıların yaygın olduğu erken dönemlerde ortaya çıkmıştır. Tarihsel bir referans olarak da değerlendirilebilen efsanevi geleneğin en önemli temsilcisi mitlerdir. Mit ya da mitoslar, insanın evrene ve ilahi olana düzen atfetme çabalarının ilk örnekleridir. Çoğunlukla bir anlam arayışının ürünü olan mitler evrenin oluşumu, tanrıların kökeni ve tabiat olaylarının anlamlandırılması çabasından doğmuştur. İnsanlığın en eski anlatıları olan mitler yalnızca kurgu veya fantastik bir öykü olarak görülmemelidir. Çünkü tarih yazımı mitten doğmuştur ve mitler tarihi bir değeri olan en eski kaynaklardır. Antik Yunan’da efsaneye dayalı tarih anlayışının en önemli temsilcileri Homeros, Hesiodos ve Pindaros’tur.
Dans le cadre de l'œuvre de Gilbert Durand, il n'existe pas, à notre connaissance, beaucoup d'études sur sa conception du Mythe. Cette étude, qui se veut approfondie, documentée et réflexive, est basée sur une méthodologie qualitative et herméneutiquement réflexive : elle vise à contribuer à la clarification de la théorie du Mythe chez Gilbert Durand, que nous considérons comme originale, et à ce qu'elle soit connue non seulement des spécialistes, mais aussi et surtout des néophytes en la matière. Dans ce but, nous partons de la définition du Mythe que l'auteur propose dans ses Structures anthropologiques de l'imaginaire (1960) avec l'arrière-plan conceptuel que cette même définition implique. Sur cette base, nous avons structuré le texte de l'article en quatre parties : dans la première, nous nous sommes concentrés sur les concepts constitutifs de la définition du Mythe, à savoir ceux de Schème, d'Archétype et de Symbole ; dans la deuxième, nous avons traité de la sémantique du Mythe; dans la troisième, nous avons essayé d'élucider la relation que le Mythe entretient avec l'Histoire ; enfin, dans la quatrième, nous avons traité de la perpétuité et du retour du Mythe. Nous espérons donc qu'après avoir lu cet article, le lecteur aura une connaissance suffisamment claire de la conception originale du mythe dans l'œuvre durandienne.
The large number of stories in which metamorphoses are essential in youth initiation rites can be separated into two types: those in which the hero or heroine is a mercurial shape-shifter, usually to escape from an adversarial follower, and those resulting from the punishment by a divine force. The transformations in folktales point to the heroes or heroines ritual journey into understanding the cosmic unity and structure, ending with a change in his/her social status. Amid classical myths, the most common transformation flight takes place between a reluctant goddess or nymph and a god-seducer.
The study of myth was often confronted with the problem of its relationship with fairy tales, a question that divided the researchers mainly into those of the opinion that fairy tales are desacralized myths, and those who believe there are no essential differences between the two.
In addition to comparing the mythical material, scholars have also toiled with the understanding of the concept of myth, and theories regarding its creation and functions are the subject of this chapter. The study of myths and the beliefs of archaic societies began to diverge based on researchers’ understanding of myth’s formation and functions. Debates frequently centered on the differences between what is considered myth versus folk stories, fairy tales, etc. Given the nature of the subject, human beliefs, the investigation often surpassed the mythic domain, extending to other culture-based fields, including: religion, anthropology, psychology, sociology, and, to a lesser degree, folklore, the stepsister of mythology.
Intertwined in a symbiotic relation are the two concepts of time, Kronos and the story of the beginnings as myth, and Aion represented in the shape of a circle, the hidden harmony behind all change, the ‘everlasting time’ as in fairy tales.
The Economic Freedom Fighters has, since its creation in 2013, attempted to attract Vot voters from the African National Congress (ANC) by presenting itself as the true hero of the South African struggle for freedom. This article indicates how political mythology can be used to unify a group behind a cause or a hero, or against an enemy. Hereafter a case is made for the use of political mythology by the ANC since 1952. Finally, the EFF's positioning towards the ANC and its reinterpretation of struggle mythology is proposed. This article wishes to contribute to the conversation on South Africa's political future, by analysing the relationship of the EFF and ANC at the deepest level, that of their shared and contested political mythology. The contemporary importance is that these two parties that might well be involved in coalitions at the highest level of South African politics in the near future.
This chapter argues that the position of Prometheus and Chiron as teachers and healers, along with their propensity to transgress the boundaries between mortals and immortals, renders them vulnerable to unending wounds. Corporal pain brings their immortal bodies closer to the mortal experience, but without death’s release from pain. In Hesiod’s Theogony, Prometheus’ wound functions as a punishment. But in Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound, Prometheus’ wound is incurred because he refuses to share his secret knowledge with Zeus, framing his injury as torture. Chiron is injured by Heracles’ poisoned arrow because he mediates between beasts and heroes. Heracles resolves both of their wounds: he kills Zeus’ eagle, releases Prometheus from his chains, and assumes Chiron’s immortality, illustrating the interdependence of transgression and limits.
The Introductory article offers a general overview of the highly complicated topic of religious and mythological consciousness discussed in sub-species narrative critique and literary theory. It also provides a detailed context for the wide array of religious matters discussed in this special volume of Religions. Each of the nineteen papers is positioned within its own particular thematic discourse.
This chapter surveys the history of the Palestinian-Israeli ‘conflict’ by looking at the myths that have plagued the ‘conflict’ since the creation of the state of Israel. I explore the myths that have been perpetuated in order to debunk them and, where relevant, I examine the consequences of these myths on the reporting of the ‘conflict’ (and their impact on the lives of the Palestinians). Finally, the chapter ends discussing the current status quo in Palestine and Israel.
For tsunami science within Oceania, the vast Central and Western Pacific (CEWEP) is an anomalous region because of the scarcity of historical tsunami observations and the complete absence of dated palaeotsunami evidence. This paper therefore records the first dated high‐magnitude palaeotsunami event within the CEWEP region. A combination of both geological data and oral history is provided for a palaeotsunami that struck remote Makin island, northernmost of the Gilbert Islands in Kiribati, towards the end of the 16th century. A previously undocumented oral tradition of giant waves is well known to the people of Makin. Narration of this legend by the Wiin te Maneaba, traditional storyteller on Makin, provided important details supporting a tsunami hypothesis. The legend preserves credible information surrounding the giant‐wave origin of Rebua and Tokia, two prominent subaerial megaclasts of blade and block geometry that were transported 80–130 m shorewards from the reef‐edge source and deposited in inverted and sideways orientations. From available hydrodynamic flow transport equations, minimum flow velocities of 7.3–16.3 m s‐1 were generated, depending on whether the reefblocks were rotated or lifted onto the reef platform. The youngest U‐Th age‐dates for fossil corals retrieved from the reefblocks give a maximum age for the palaeotsunami of circa AD 1576. Several far‐field Pacific Rim and regional possibilities exist for tsunamigenesis. These include subduction‐zone seismicity and catastrophic volcanic eruption, both of which have been linked to earlier (late 15th century) palaeotsunami events recorded elsewhere in the Pacific Islands. However, the available evidence here suggests that the ~AD 1576 Makin palaeotsunami was more likely to have been locally generated by tsunamigenic offshore submarine slope failure close to Makin's western reef, associated with the giant arcuate bight structure that characterises the northern rim of Butaritati atoll.
Pathways to Contemporary Islam: New Trends in Critical Engagement highlights that the current tensions in Islam and the Muslim world are the result of historical dynamics as opposed to an alleged incompatibility between religious tradition and modernity. The emphasis on pathways indicates that critical engagement and contestation have always been intrinsic to the history of Islam. The aim of the book is to elaborate the contemporary pathways and analyse the trends that contest the Islamic intellectual tradition, the relationship between religion and politics, and the individual and collective practice of religion. The collection of essays analyses the current efforts of critical re-engagement with the Islamic intellectual tradition and underlines the historical diversity of Islamic orthodoxies that led to the establishment of various pathways in the practice and role of religion in Muslim societies.
A number of interconnected scholarly publications discussing the phenomenon of the so-called sacred triangles have appeared lately. The authors who believe in the existence of this phenomenon argue that such triangles are based on a precisely determined value of the obliquity of the ecliptic. However, a detailed analysis of some of the key tenets discussed in their publications has revealed the gratuitous nature of this hypothesis, as well as its fundamentally unscientific character and the methodological flaws inherent in its overall development. Especially worrying is the falling into the pitfall of circular argumentation (circulus vitiosus) by the authors adhering to this hypothesis, their avoidance of any dialogue with relevant scholarly literature and their questionable understanding of fundamental phenomena upon which their hypothesis is built. A glaring example of the lattermost is the misunderstanding of the obliquity of the ecliptic on the part of the adherents of the so-called sacred triangles hypothesis.
The relationship between the Italian fascist regime and Roman archaeology was based on an extreme simplification of antiquity, reduced to a set of aesthetic motifs used to exploit their symbolic power. This article aims to examine how the culture of the ruling classes of liberal Italy came to identify its past in ancient Rome and then to highlight the decontextualisation and semantic transformation of certain symbols taken from ancient Roman iconography under the fascist regime which used them for political and nationalistic purposes. Through the analysis of the process of isolation and transformation to which the ruins of ancient Rome have been subjected, the article highlights how the same dynamics were adopted for iconographic elements of antiquity, leading to the creation of modern symbols invested with supposedly ancient values.
Proponemos una lectura de Terminator: Dark Fate, la más reciente entrega de una de las sagas cinematográficas más influyentes de la ciencia ficción contemporánea, y la contrastamos con el sentido del destino trágico clásico de Las troyanas, de Eurípides. A partir de la configuración del mitema de la madre protectora en las dos protagonistas (Hécuba / Sarah Connor), destacamos los mitemas que funcionan como nexos entre ambas protagonistas. Respetando las propiedades de cada género, observamos que la figura de la mujer-madre tiene una posición activa ante el destino con la cual define su tipo heroico y la suerte de su comunidad. Concluimos afirmando que la eficacia del mitema que sostiene el texto fílmico se asienta más en el paradigma mítico que en el científico.
This article comprises a discussion of four separate passages in Homer and some of the critical problems which each involves. My intention is not to produce a blueprint or set of rules for the interpretation of Homer, but rather — a more limited aim — to increase attention to the complex texture of the poetry of the Odyssey , and to the need for a critical practice alive to such complexity. The four passages are the speech of Amphimedon's ghost; the recognition scene between Odysseus and Argus; the story telling of Menelaus and Helen; and, finally, Odysseus' first speech to Nausicaa. Each passage opens questions about how Homer is read, and, in particular, about how what is often referred to as Homer's juxtapositional technique interrelates with the role of the reader in the activity of interpretation.
The aim of this paper is to analyse the relationship between Homer’s Odyssey and Andrea Camilleri’s Maruzza Musumeci. Grounding the enquiry on macroscopic aspects concerning places, characters, parody, and orality, it scrutinises the similarities and differences between Maruzza, the novel’s female protagonist, and Homer’s Sirens. The liaison is then examined through the framework of the reused Homeric verses which come from the episodes of the Phaecians (Od. 6.242-245, 7.148-149) and the Sirens (Od. 12.18). They contribute to making Gnazio, the novel’s male protagonist and Maruzza’s husband, a kind of ‘anti- Odysseus’. As a result, while the Siren’s song dramatically enchants Aulissi and his homonymous son (Gnazio’s neighbours and Odysseus’ heirs), it does not have deathly consequences on Maruzza’s spouse. The Homeric story of the Sirens is, thus, remythologised as the modern ‘myth’ continues to mediate and naturalise anxieties and contradictions as ancient as, at least, the Odyssey.
In this paper, we argue that policy assumptions are shaped by mythical narratives carrying underlying beliefs and values. Drawing on narrative studies, organisational theory and Gramsci’s cultural hegemony theory, we examine how sense-making narratives create consensus, how they imply causation and individual agency, and finally how narratives fragment to reveal alternatives to hegemonic ‘common sense’ assumptions. Applying this framework to cultural policy we examine the place of mythic, sense-making narratives in the historical development of foundational national cultural policies in the UK and Mexico – respectively, narratives of ‘the civilising mission’ and ‘social transformation’. We then consider narrative emplotment and individualisation underpinning assumptions about individual creativity in the UK creative industries policy. Finally, we address the postmodern turn in narrative studies, showing how fragmented, polysemous narratives fracture cultural policy into ‘personalised truths’ and give voice to other, counter-hegemonic perspectives. We conclude by proposing an agenda for narrative research in cultural policy.
The events of May 1968 have entered the French national mythology in the form of a simplified and exemplary narrative: May is generally believed to have been a student-led uprising, whose transformative legacy was socio-cultural rather than political. Popular perceptions of May also contain strong elements of mythical fantasy as defined by the mythologist Geoffrey Kirk: all the rules governing normal actions, normal reasoning and normal relationships were suspended or distorted during May; consequently, as if by magic, anything suddenly became possible. Vast amounts have been written about May and about its mythological accompaniment. Studies have also been carried out into how May influenced French comic strips, notably by Aeschimann and Nicoby, as well as by Rolland. However, hardly anything has yet been said about the way the uprising itself is evoked in comic strips, despite their being a key aspect of French popular culture. This article fills a gap by studying comic strip representations of May. I draw on previous critical writings about May and about French comics, as well as on a range of strips, most of which have hitherto received little or no critical attention. The coming pages consider a historical reconstruction, a sociological study, a light-hearted comedy, a tale of the supernatural, and a CD booklet, as well as two graphic novels, two counter-factual dystopias, and various parodies. My purpose is to examine how these comics contribute to and/or contest the mythology that has grown up around May. We shall see that several artists construct myths about May, as well as exploiting the multiple possibilities mythical fantasy offers; other artists are more critical of May’s attendant mythology. However, all of the comic strips indicate that May has come to be remembered via a collective deformation of reality, which no longer corresponds to historical fact.
Résumé Une tradition bien connue et largement attestée fait du Centaure Chiron le parfait conseiller, éducateur des plus grands héros grecs. Mais s’oppose à lui un autre Centaure, Nessos, incarnation du conseiller perfide et trompeur, double inversé et contre-modèle de Chiron. Une lecture de la tragédie de Sophocle, Les Trachiniennes , permet de faire apparaître de nombreuses convergences entre les deux personnages et, ce faisant, de mettre en lumière les ambivalences du rôle et du statut de conseiller.
This paper offers a new interpretation of the Goat Island episode in Od. 9. The description of the island focuses on its potential for cultivation and settlement. Against the background of the colonization, my approach emphasizes the temporal dimension of the island, which evokes the past of the Phaeacians who fled from the violence of the Cyclopes before settling in Scheria. The narrative function of Goat Island resides within its temporal dimension that bestows it with a temporal-spatial connectedness, a chronotope in Bachtin's term.
This book is concerned with an activity that plays a central role in human knowledge and human existence—interpretation. We are engaged in interpretation all the time, whether or not we take note of the fact And the interpretations that we make have major consequences for our lives as individuals and as members of communities, and for relations among communities.
More or less primitive homo sapiens have always secretly dreamt about, or plainly believed in immortality. All cultures had and still have beliefs, traditions, rituals, legends, old stories, and fairy tales about immortality. Unfortunately, as science and technology progressed, human immortality is a remote ideal yet. In addition, as technology development speeds up, it challenges the social nature of humankind; a possible result is people alienation. It is the purpose of this paper to propose a new prospective: opposed to the common feeling that technology alienates people - in their most intimate nature - the authors believe that modern technologies and human nature (defined by its innermost dream of immortality) converge. The ancient human dream of eternal life can be achieved through technology: i.e. human digital immortality. A day will come when the entire technical capabilities will allow personalities to be copied into a computer. Thus immortality could be provided in a virtualized form, heaven being replaced with a super computer.
After a short discussion of selected approaches to myth it is maintained that, rather than representing allegories or encoded scientific truths, myths can best be understood as incorporating narrative models accounting for specific phenomena in objective reality. In consequence, the existence of a class of myths that include considerations of astronomical/meteorological phenomena is recognised. The paper analyses two such mythic narratives, Homer's Laestrygonian episode from the Odyssey and Apollonius' Cyzicus episode from the Argonautica, and interprets them in terms of mythic astronomy or cosmology. A mythic island in the north, associated with the solstices and either the always visible or fixed arctic circle, is recognised as the cosmological location of both narratives. This is also interpreted as the myth's secondary reference to a phenomenon of common reality and collective importance verbalized by the application of a traditional tale. Finally, both narratives are associated with a pre-Homeric Argonautic tradition.
Africans throughout the continent had access to information about their brethren in the New World. Distance, geographical barriers, illiteracy and the lack of efficient means of communication never prevented the flow of information from America to Africa. Though the distribution was uneven, information about America and African-Americans reached Africans even in the remotest parts of the continent. Beginning in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Africa was recipient of a steady stream of correspondence, newspapers, periodicals and books from and about the New World, sent from America or brought in by visitors, seamen, churchmen, agents of African-American organizations, and others. To the written documentation were added oral reports, spread by African and foreign sailors who stopped at the ports and by migrant laborers and peddlers who traveled from village to village, region to region. In the twentieth century, these sources of information were supplemented by films. Africans who traveled to America or read about African-Americans were better informed; those who received information second and third-hand were less accurately informed.
Dictionaries are always a useful place to start, even if only to provide a jumping-off point for disagreement and quibble. The Oxford English Dictionary gives a surprisingly short definition of the word ‘myth’. It states it is ‘a purely fictitious narrative usually involving supernatural persons, actions, or events, and embodying some popular idea concerning natural or historical phenomena’. It points out that as a consequence it can mean ‘a fictitious or imaginary person or object’, and that there is the subsidiary meaning in standard usage of ‘an untrue or popular tale, a rumour’. In this instance, the dictionary definition does not advance us very far, since its insistence on the ‘purely fictitious’ appears to override the complex interactions between life and story that seem the generating force of myth even while its inclusion of the ‘popular’ returns it to the common domain. Perhaps mythographers will provide us with more fruitful descriptions.
Tofighian draws connections between Plato studies and the history of myth studies. He analyzes the history and impact of religious studies and mythography and identifies overlaps and influences in modern perspectives on Plato’s myths. Tofighian accounts for recent intellectual developments in myth studies and questions why they have been marginalized or ignored in studies of Plato’s myths. He also resists defining myth by using one definition or reducing myth to one or a limited number of functions. Tofighian argues that each myth needs to be examined individually (i.e., in its own philosophical, literary, and thematic context). He prepares readers for an interpretation of Plato’s dialogues that appreciates the interdependent nature of myth and philosophy, showing how the two modes of explanation operate in an interdependent unity to produce meaning.
This essay examines the Greek myth of Perseus killing the Gorgon Medusa as emblematic of the relationship between science and myth, and between culture and nature. While most people in the contemporary world dismiss myth as the product of a primitive imagination that has been superseded by scientific knowledge, scholars view myths as stories that are told and transmitted because they have social significance. Myths change to meet the interests and needs of their narrators and audiences. This will be demonstrated by examining three visual representations of the Medusa myth, as seen on three Greek vases (from 525 to 400 BC). In each case, the goddess Athena is a central figure for understanding how Perseus relates to Medusa. Athena not only gives him knowledge to defeat the monster, but she holds up her shield as a mirror through which he can reflect on his relationship to the Gorgon head. If Athena, the goddess of wisdom and technical skill, represents scientific knowledge and tools, what is the price a human like Perseus pays to conquer the sea goddess through Athena’s power? This essay juxtaposes myth and science as compatible but different discourses that in dialogue can suggest productive ways for human cultures to rethink and restructure themselves to live harmoniously with the physical world rather than to destroy it.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.