CC 303/Mythology
Handout 1/22

Reading: Powell, Ch. 1, 22

I. DEFINITIONS/TERMS

myth

mythos

logos

folktale

legend/saga

motif

attributes and iconography

II. APPROACHES TO MYTH

Rationalism

• Allegorical interpretations: Nature and astronomical allegory, moral allegory, etymology (Müller)
• Euhemerism (Euhemerus of Messene, ca. 300 B.C.)
• Aetiological myths (aition = "cause")
• Myths as "primitive science"

Psychoanalytic theory

• Sigmund Freud: basic urges and the unconcious mind
• Carl Jung: universal archetypes

Anthropological approaches

• Comparative mythology
• Franz Boas (Tsimshian Mythology, 1916): problems in distinguishing myth from folktale; myths and folktales change over time

Functionalist theory

• Bronislaw Malinowski (Myth in Primitive Psychology, 1926): myth as social "charter"
• Myth and ritual; "myth implies ritual, ritual implies myth: they are one and the same." (Fraser)
• Arnold van Gennep: the role of rites of passage in society
• Systems theory

Structuralist theory

• Claude Levi-Strauss (The Raw and the Cooked): underlying structures in the human mind;binaries: raw/cooked, wild/domesticated, male/female
• Vladimir Propp: breaking down myths into components
• Walter Burkert (Greek Religion; Homo Necans): attempts to solve problems of structuralist interpretation; a more eclectic approach

 

TRADITION	TEXT or OBJECT	THEORY	INTERPRETATIONS
legend of the Trojan War and its aftermath	The Iliad and Odyssey (epic poems ca. 800 B.C.) Red figure cup by the Kleophrades painter (ca.480 B.C.) showing the destruction of Troy The Trojan Women, tragic play by Euripedes, ca. 415 B.C. Sculptured figures of the Trojan priest Laöcoon and his sons (1st century B.C.) Mural at Naples, parody of Aeneas and his family 16th century Italian painting by Romano: "The Trojan Horse" The Odyssey TV movie, late 20th century	Rationalist Structuralism Psychoanalysis Anthropological/functionalist etc.	Structuralist: defining Greekness by isolating non-Greek characteristics (the Other) Functionalist: justifying the social rankings of society according to duties and responsibilities; establishing models for behavior by example and counterexample Psychoanalytical: exploring the conflict caused by violent actions and their result (grief and guilt)
Greek story of the origin of the universe	The Theogony by Hesiod (epic poem ca. 700 B.C.) Great Altar of Pergamon (Turkey), decorated with sculptures of gods and giants (2nd century B.C.) Book 1 of the Metamorphoses by Ovid (ca. 14 B.C.)		Psychoanalytical: concern over the succession of father by son Functional: need to define/justify/explain organization of society by appealing to order of the cosmos Structuralist: conflict of male/female powers of reproduction, strength; resolution by unification in a single body

III.FOR REVIEW AND STUDY

1. Summarize (in a sentence or two each) the viewpoints of psychoanalysis, structuralism, functionalism, Euhemerism with regard to mythology. Give an example of a myth and its interpretation for each of these.

2. What is an aetiological myth? Give an example you know from Greek or other myth which could be interpreted as aetiological.

3. What is iconography? Name a god and some of his/her attributes. Describe a scene or figure from an artistic depiction such as a picture or sculpture (Greek or otherwise) and note which attributes help to identify it.

MYTH AND FOLKTALE: excerpt

G.S. Kirk, The Nature of Greek Myths (1974) pp. 33-37:

Perhaps the conclusion to be drawn from the Boas position, which recent anthropologists are inclining (almost unconsciously) to revive, is that there is no viable distinction between myths and folktales. Yet it is still useful, I believe, even in the absence of any hard-and-fast dividing line, to identify certain kinds of motif, plot and treatment as belonging to a folktale tradition rather than to what most people mean by myths. Folktales are concerned essentially with the life, problems and aspirations of ordinary people, the folk. They are not aristocratic in tone. Greek myths on the other hand, when they are not about gods, are about 'heroes', aristocratic figures far removed by birth and context from the ordinary people. Indeed it was this aristocratic colouring of the content of Greek myths, especially as presented by class-conscious poets like Pindar, that caused the tales of European peasants, once they were noticed in the early nineteenth century as having an interest of their own, to be labelled as 'folktales' or 'household tales' rather than myths &emdash; by which people in those days meant the exalted deeds of Theseus, Heracles, Zeus, Athena and the rest. Folktales are not concerned with large problems like the inevitability of death or the justification of kingship. Their social preoccupations are restricted to the family. Difficulties with stepmothers or jealous sisters are folktale topics, worries over incest and the limits of permissible sexual encounter are not. Supernatural elements in folktales encompass giants, monsters, witches, fairy godmothers, magical equipment or spells; they do not extend to gods in any full sense, to questions of how the world or society was formed, or to matters of religion. Folktales tend to be realistic but at the same time impersonal; they are set not in the timeless past, as myths often are, but in specific but anonymous time and place, and their characters usually have generic names. These tales are designed for the people, and for Everyman, and they are kept as general and as universal as possible. Ingenuity and unexpected success: these are the qualities that bring amusement and excitement into ordinary lives, and they are applied to ideal people in ideal landscapes simply because nothing quite like that ever happens at home.

Finally, folktales tend to be told in special ways, to be rich in simple narrative devices for introducing surprise or climax. One of their common subjcts is a test or quest; the hero has to perform some difficult and dangerous act in order to survive, win a prize or defeat a wicked enemy. Often the quest is three-fold, each stage being more challenging than the one before. That is almost a cliché of this kind of adventure, and it occurs even in Greek hero tales ... [There follows here a survey of folktale elements in the Greek Bellerophon myth]

The truth is that these folktale elements are part of the whole business of story-telling; therefore they find their way even into tales that reflect deeper preoccupations, and do not primarily depend for their traditional status on sheer narrative and dramatic value. To put it in another way, all tales rely to some extent on well-tried narrative devices and dramatic turns of events. Folktales, in which these elements are stronger than intellectual and imaginative ones, are particularly rich in such devices (which is why one refers to 'folktale motifs' and the like); but even the subtler and more complex tales, or myths, cannot avoid them altogether. Sometimes, indeed, narrative qualities take over from the others in one part of a myth, as happened predominantly with Perseus and to some extent with Bellerophon. Even the most obviously 'serious' Greek myths, including divine ones, reveal the occasional folktale touch. Hera, a venerable figure in many respects, is also the typical nagging wife who makes Zeus' social life a misery and forces him into ingenious transformations (a bull, a bear, a golden shower) that equally possess a ceratin folktale qualitiy. Kronos is chosen by Gaia, mother Earth, to be her champion because he is the youngest and bravest of her children. That is a typical folktale idea, as is the father-son conflict itself; and Kronos' severing of Ouranos' genitals (those of the sky-god who would not desist from mating with his wife the earth) has something of the ingenious-solution quality that is also common in the traditional narratives of the people.