A myth taps into a universal cultural narrative, the collective wisdom of man. An excellent illustration of the universality of these themes is that so many peoples who have had no contact with each other create myths that are remarkably similar.
Unlike fairy tales, myths are not always optimistic. True to the nature of life, the essence of myths is such that they are as often warnings as promises; as often laments as celebrations. Many myths are instructive and act as a guide to social norms, taking on cultural taboos such as incest, fratricide, and greed.
Myths are also pervasive in the arts and advertising, for a very simple reason. Etymology is the study of word origins. For example, you could explain the name of the goddess, Aphrodite, by saying that she was born in sea-foam, since aphros is the Greek word for sea-foam. A religious aetiological myth explains the origin of a religious ritual. For example, you could explain the Greek religious ritual of the Eleusinian Mysteries by saying that they originated when the Greek goddess, Demeter, came down to the city of Eleusis and taught the people how to worship her.
Rather, all of these explanations had meaning for the ancient Greeks, who told them in order to help them understand their world. Historical myths are told about a historical event, and they help keep the memory of that event alive. Ironically, in historical myths, the accuracy is lost but meaning is gained. An angry god who shook the earth is one way. In English, we refer to them as banshees. Some believed she escorted their loved ones safely to the afterlife.
Death - like creation - is one of those inexplicable facets of life. Many cultures employed myths in order to wrap their minds around how and why these things occurred.
Izanagi and Izanami are Shinto creator gods. Izanagi and Izanami created the Japanese islands and the deities of the sea, wind, mountain, river, trees, and rice. When Izanami gave birth to a fire god, it fatally burned her. Izanagi resolved to have his wife returned to him and sought her out in the underworld. After waiting a long time Izanagi lit a torch to go find her and when he saw her rotting body he fled and sealed the door to the underworld.
Izanami then vowed to kill 1, people each day and Izanagi promised to create 1, to replace them. This myth would once have been used to explain how everything came into being and the cycle of life and death. He played a large role in the three attempts to create humankind, destroying the second generation that displeased the gods and creating the third and final version of the human race out of corn. Like earthquakes, hurricanes are often unpredictable. Marduk was possibly the most important god in Mesopotamian mythology.
Marduk led the new gods in battle against the old gods. Marduk and his army defeated the old gods and he became the supreme god. After this, Marduk created the sky and earth, as well as the first human beings. Marduk decreed that humans would do the work gods had no time for and in return the gods would care for them.
Even today, we debate the origins of the earth. This myth is another example of a culture's attempt to explain how we all came to be and our purpose in life. Some Greek and Roman myths, but by no means all, are concerned with nature. The theories of Freud and Jung are fundamental and far-reaching in their influence, and although continually challenged, provide the most searching tools for a profound, introspective interpretation of mythology. The female version has been identified by Carl Jung as the Electra complex, in which the daughter's love is towards the father with hatred of the mother.
Freud saw dreams as the expression of repressed or concealed desires. In this regard, symbols of dreams can work in much the same way as the symbols of myths. These archetypes, revealed in peoples' tales, establish patterns of behavior that can serve as exemplars, as when we note that the lives of many heroes and heroines share a remarkable number of similar features that can be identified as worthy of emulation.
Similarly, other kinds of concept are to be classified among the many and varied types of Jungian archetype embedded in our mythic heritage, e. Sir J. Similarly, the works of Jane Harrison are of seminal importance. Both Frazer and Harrison provide a wealth of comparative data, and both may be subjected to the same critical reservations about the validity of their ritualistic interpretations and their analogies between myths of primitive tribes and classical myths.
Yet both established fundamental approaches that endure to this day. The justly renowned novelist and poet Robert Graves has written an influential treatment of Greek myths, full of valuable factual information, accompanied by dubious and idiosyncratic interpretations. He definition of true myth as a kind of shorthand in narrative form for ritual mime is far too restrictive. He separates myth from tales of other kinds by wisely focusing upon the literary distinctions to be found in a variety of stories.
One of the principal aims of myth is to negotiate between binary pairs or pairs of opposites e. In this pattern Propp identified 31 functions or units of action, which have been termed motifemes. All these motifemes need not be present in one tale, but those that are will always appear in the same sequential order.
The understanding of classical mythology can be made both easier and more purposeful if underlying structures are perceived and arranged logically. The recognition that these patterns are common to stories told throughout the world is also most helpful for the study of comparative mythology.
Walter Burkert has attempted a synthesis of various theories about the nature of myths, most important being those having a structuralist and a historical point of view.
To support his synthesis, he has developed four theses:. Oral and Literary Myth. Many insist that a true myth must be oral and anonymous.
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