Foundations of Mythology

FOUNDATIONS
OF MYTHOLOGY
WORLD MYTHOLOGY
HUM/105
Prof. Francisco Pesante

FOUNDATIONS OF MYTHOLOGY
Objectives
1. Differentiate how the word myth is used
popularly with how it is defined academically.
2. Identify mythological themes that are universal
among world cultures.
3. Analyze the relationship between knowledge,
belief, myth, and religion.
4. Explain how myths typify human experiences.

What are myths?
 Modern conception is usually associated with
false or fantastic knowledge.
 For example…

What are myths?
 Myths are ancient narratives that attempt to
answer the enduring and fundamental human
questions.

What are myths?
 Myths symbolize human experience and
embody the spiritual values of a culture.

What are myths?
Evolution of the term
 Hesiod (8th century BCE)
 Pre-Socratic philosophers (Xenophanes and
Heraclitus, 6th century BCE )
 Plato (427-347 BCE)
 Euhemeros of Messene (330-260 BCE)

What are myths?
Evolution of the term: Hesiod (8th century BCE)
 In Hesiod’s poem, The Theogony, Myth meant a
divinely inspired story. Myth counterpart came to
be logos, more often associated with everyday
discourse.

What are myths?
Evolution of the term: pre-Socratic philosophers
 Xenophanes and Heraclitus (about 6th century
BCE) diverged from Hesiod and Homer’s
narrative for attributing to the gods “all the
shameful things that are blameworthy among
humans”.

What are myths?
Evolution of the term: pre-Socratic philosophers
 Xenophanes and Heraclitus: Rather than mythos
they focused on logos as the story for
understanding the source of life, order or
knowledge.

What are myths?
Evolution of the term: Plato (427-347 BCE)
 He used the word in both senses, to mean “lie”
and “truth”.

What are myths?
Evolution of the term: Plato (427-347 BCE)
 Plato’s argument, that myths about gods,
heroes, and centaurs contain irrational and
therefore false elements and that philosophical
myths about origins were rational and therefore
true, was crucial to his political and philosophical
vision.

What are myths?
Evolution of the term: Euhemeros of Messene
(330-260 BCE)
 He asumed his ancestors were primitives who
lacked the scientific method, philosophical
principles, and cognitive sophistication of their
world.

What are myths?
(330-260 BCE)
 His ancestors, who were dominated by
superstition and fancy, exaggerated the facts of
actual historical events and created imaginative
explanations of historical events because they
did not have access to better forms of
knowledge.

What are myths?
(330-260 BCE)
 But, although myths were not true, they
contained the kernels of historical truth.

Why Study Myths?
 Looking at examples of ancient and more
contemporary uses of myths introduces their
varied cultural values and behaviors to us, and,
at the same time, such study helps us develop
intellectual tools with which to look at and
question our own ancient and contemporary
mythic self-understandings.

Why Study Myths?
 Studying myths introduces other cultures to us
and, at the same time, provides us with different
lenses through which to view our own.

Myth and Mythology
 For the purpose of this course and the main
textbook Myth and Knowing (Leonard &
McClure, 2004), we would be considering some
of Hesiod’s definition of myth (divinely inspired
truth) and distinguish it from mythology, defined
as the scholarly study of myths.

How do we understand mythology today (20th
century)?
 Funtionalist: Branislaw Malinowski
 Structuralist: Lévi-Strauss
 Simbologist: Freud and Jung archetypes

Understanding mythology today (20th century).
Funtionalist: Branislaw Malinowski
 Myth is not an explanation in satisfaction of a
scientific interest.

 Myth is true. It could be observed by the field
researcher in the form of oral performance,
rituals, and ceremonies, and that it visibly
influenced a living people’s sociopolitical
behavior (in his case in Melanesia-Western
Pacific Island).

 Emphasis on field research and the importance
of studying the real-world conditions in which
myths perform their functions (cultural charter
and socializing agent).

Structuralist: Lévi-Strauss
 A reaction against 19th-century literary
approaches to myth, Lévi-Strauss proposes an
“objective” way of discussing literary meaning,
avoiding subjective or idiosyncratic interpretation
of myth in culture.

 Attempted to develop a model that would
describe how all myths worked; it promised to
put investigations of myth on the firm ground of
empirical science.

 Mythic structure reveals through a limited
number of codes embodied in polar opposites
(binary oppositions).
Ex. The Raw and the Cooked (1964)

 Myths mediate the tension created by these
always present oppositions.

Symbolist: Freud and Jung archetypes
 They investigate the relationship between myth
and the unconscious (individual/collective).

 Unconscious mind contains our biologically
based instincts (eros and thanatos) for the
primitive urges for sex and aggression.
Reference: Mcleod, S. A. (2007). Simply Psychology - Psychology
Articles for Students.Retrieved
from http://www.simplypsychology.org/unconscious-mind.html

 Mind’s strategy for making visible and
comprehensible the internal forces and conflicts
that impel our actions and shape our thoughts.

Universal Mythological Themes. Joseph Campbell
 The basic monomyth informs us that the
mythological hero, setting out from an
everyday home, is lured or is carried away or
proceeds to the threshold of adventure.

 The mythological hero defeats a shadowy
presence that guards the gateway, enters a dark
passageway or even death, meets many
unfamiliar forces, some of which give him
threatening “tests,” some of which offer magical
aid.

 At the climax of the quest he undergoes a
supreme ordeal and gains his reward: sacred
marriage or sexual union with the goddess of the
world, reconciliation with the father, his own
divinization, or a mighty gift to bring back to the
world.

 The mythological hero then undertakes the final
work of return, in which, transformed, he
reenters the place from whence he set out.

Knowledge, belief, myth, and religion. The
intersection of mythology and religion

a. knowledge: the fact or condition of knowing
something with familiarity gained through
experience or association : acquaintance with or
understanding of a science, art, or technique.

b. belief: a state or habit of mind in which trust
or confidence is placed in some person or thing.
Merriam-Webster (2012). Retrieved from: www.m-w.com

c. Religion is not simply a matter of belief; it is
primarily a part of our human experience. Ninian
Smart, a scholar of world religions, has
distinguished seven dimensions of religion.

Smart’s Dimensions of Religion include the
following:
1) Doctrines: the basic tenets of a church or sect
– examples: the nature and form of God, the
reality and form of life after death, the purpose
of life, and so forth

The intersection of mythology and religion
Smart’s Dimensions of Religion (cont.):
2) Sacred narratives: sacred stories that may
explain the religion’s cosmology (what the
universe is like, or why it is as it is), soteriology
(of the meaning of salvation), or provide
examples and non-examples of religious
behavior

3) Ethics: One of the functions of sacred
narratives is to inform disciples about the
appropriate way of living, in relationship to deity
and with others in the world.

4) Ritual: the symbolic gestures or actions,
formulas, communal sayings, and prayers that
reinforce the values of the belief – Rituals
include celebrations of special events,
punishment or atonement to overcome failure or
sin, and rites of mourning.

5) Religious experience: Though often held
suspect by the scientific community because
they do not yield to empirical observation, these
basic human experiences include conversion or
being “born again,” enlightenment, mystical
experiences, and revelations or visions.

6) Social institutions: Many religious institutions
develop various forms of communal authority
within their respective systems, which may
include churches, congregations, hierarchies,
policies, monastic orders, and so on.

The intersection of mythology and religion Smart’s
Dimensions of Religion (cont.):
7) Art and material culture: Religious belief often
results in the use or creation of sacred places
and things, particularly where they serve a
symbolic or functional purpose, such as
chapels, temples, altars, sacred utensils, and
ritual objects.

The intersection of mythology and religion Smart’s
Dimensions of Religion (cont.):
7) Art and material culture (cont.): Because
these are often aesthetic by design, the
products of creative imagination, they often
include sculpture and art, icons, music, and
poetry.

Myths are not codes to be cracked or
naive and mistaken perceptions that must
be corrected. Rather, myths are literary
truths told about the mysteries and
necessities that always have and always
will condition the human experience.

These truths, these mythoi, have made
sophisticated use of symbolic imagery and
narrative strategy, have created
unforgettable characters that continue to
typify for us abstract realities such as love,
bravery, wisdom, and treachery, and have
enacted as compellingly as any modern
novel the humor and horror, the ecstasy
and anguish, and the fear and hope of the
human drama.

Reference:
 Leonard, S., & McClure, M. (2004). Myth &
knowing: An introduction to world mythology.
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
 Rosenberg, D. (2006). World mythology: An
anthology of great myths and epics (3rd ed.).
Chicago, IL: McGraw Hill.
 Smart, N. (1996). Dimensions of the sacred: An
anatomy of the world's beliefs. Berkeley:
University of California Press.

Foundations of Mythology

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