Chapter 1

What Is Myth?

What Mythology Is

• This course will provide a series of different definitions of mythology.

• In the present chapter, we approach a definition of mythology that considers the insights mythology provides into the culture that tells a particular story.

• Some of these insights also represent the role the stories play in a society, the functions of myth.

What Mythology Is Not

• False stories• Limited to stories about gods and heroes

Alligators in the Sewers

• We consider urban legends because, like the oldest myths, they are oral tales.

• Alligators in the Sewers• Psychological Insights: The struggles of

individuals to become mature human beings and useful members of society

• Anthropological Insights: Culture – the values and principles of a society

• Social or Sociological Insights: Groups that people belong to or participate in – values about group behavior, standards for admission

Myths and Legends asTrue Stories

• Mythology is made up of stories that are important to a society.

• As a result of this importance, the stories become “fossilized” and are not updated to incorporate advances in science and technology.

• It is easy to look at mythological stories and point out that they contain outdated science and technology, but this fact does not speak to the fundamental truths they represent for the societies that tell them.

What about Gods and Heroes?

• Metaphysical Insights: What it means to be human – typical characteristics and limitations of humans, their relationship to a larger reality or principle

• Psychological Insights: The struggles of individuals to become mature human beings and useful members of society

Myth and Science

• Aetiological Insights: Explaining the origin or cause of a custom or a fact of the physical universe

• Cosmological Insights: The universe as understood by the best science available at the time

• Historical Insights: Verifiable historical events reflected in mythical stories

The Trojan War:An Example of Myth

The Trojan War:An Example of Myth

• Note the “This story comes from” boxes: all myths are versions

• The Judgment of Paris• Political Background of the Trojan War• The Decision of Achilles• The Capture of Troy• The Story of Odysseus• The Coming of Age of Telemachus

Insights Provided bythe Myth of the Trojan War

• Historical Insights– Deals with: verifiable historical events

• Anthropological Insights– Deals with: culture

• Metaphysical Insights – Deals with: human limits and mortality (god and death)

• Cosmological Insights– Deals with: the universe as understood by science

• Sociological Insights– Deals with: humans in groups or social units

• Psychological Insights– Deals with: humans as individuals

Myth and Many Voices

• The experiences of Odysseus do not sum up the experiences of all Greeks.

• When you are looking at a culture from the outside, it is easy to think that you are seeing elements that resemble your own views and values.

• It is only with caution that parallels can be drawn with the experiences of different cultures.

• Victor Turner will discuss the different perspectives a student of mythology can take in looking at another culture (Ch. 27,pp. 417-418).

A Modern View of Myth

• In this book we present• Stories• Theoretical works to interpret those stories

from the standpoint of different disciplines, including history, sociology, anthropology, and psychology