myth lecture

1. n This introductory lecture has three
main objects.
n -The lecture beings by defining the
terms “classical” and “mythology.”
n -The second section of the lecture
considers some of the difficulties
inherent in the study of classical
mythology.
n -The third section outlines the
approach and format of the course.
Introduction

2. n What is meant by “classical
mythology”?
n “Classical” in this context
refers to the cultures of
ancient Greece and Rome.
n 1. Ancient Greek culture’s
highpoint occurred in
Athens in the 5th century
B.C.
n 2. Roman culture reached
its zenith in the 1st
centuries B.C. and A.D.
n 3. These two cultures shared the
bulk of their mythology, because
Rome simply adapted Greek
mythology wholesale.4. In this
course, I will use the terms
“classical” and “Greek” mythology
interchangeably.

3. n “Mythology” is an
ambiguous term.
n Strictly speaking, the ”-
ology” ending means “the
study of”; thus, “mythology”
means “the study of myth.”
n However, the work
“mythology” is frequently
used to mean “a culture’s
body of myths.”
n Myth is a notoriously
difficult concept to define,
as we will see in the next
two lectures.

4. n For this lecture, we need a basic, working definition to
start with.
n I define myth as “traditional stories a society tells itself
that encode or represent the world-view, beliefs,
principles, and often fears of that society.”
n We will look at definitions in much more detail in the
next two lectures, but this definition is sufficient for
now.

5. n Many scholars subdivide traditional
tales into three categories: myth,
legend, and folktale.
n In this scheme, myth refers only to
stories that concern the gods and
their rites. It is closely connected
with religious ritual.
n Legend refers to traditional stories
rooted in historical fact, describing
the (greatly exaggerated)
adventures of people who actually
lived, such as Robin Hood or
George Washington.

6. n Folktale refers to stories that are
primarily entertaining and that often
involve animals or ordinary but clever
humans, such as Little Red Riding
Hood or Goldilocks.
n These subdivisions are useful, but in
fact the categories overlap so much
that the distinctions seem artificial.
n This course will cover traditional stories
that would count as “legend” according
to this division; we will even see a few
examples of “folktale.”

7. n If myths are traditional tales that a society
tells itself about itself, then the next question
must be: which societies use myth, and why?
n All societies have myths; however, myth is
most important in preliterate cultures.
n Modern, literate cultures have many different
forms of explanation available to them,
including theology, psychology, philosophy,
ethics, history, and so on.
n All these depend on a sophisticated and long-
lived literate tradition.
n In a preliterate culture, myth is the only
means available to explain and discuss a
whole range of phenomena and concepts.

8. n This idea is important for the question of
what myth really means.
n Modern Western culture makes a
distinction between fact and fiction, true
and false, actual and imaginary.
n When myth is the only available form of
explanation, these distinctions cannot be
so clear cut. The question “What does it
really mean?” is anything but simple.
n In Greek myth, Gaia (Earth) and
Ouranos (Sky) are good examples of
this. As anthropomorphized, deities, they
are also physical “realities” –our usual
distinction between metaphorical and
literal doesn’t apply.

9. n Greek mythology, like most other mythologies,
developed in a preliterate culture. Trying to study
Greek mythology, thus, is somewhat paradoxical,
because literature is our main source of access to
that mythology.
n Many modern scholars of myth work with living
cultures.
n This anthropological approach means that scholars
of living cultures can observe myth in its “native
habitat.”
n In studying classical mythology, we are, in effect,
trying to “do” anthropology backward in time, on a
culture without living representatives.
n Our sources for this are literature and archaeological
artifacts. Both present formidable problems.

10. n Even in as well-documented
and well-studied a society as
classical Greece, the written
version of myths present
difficulties for scholars.
n Written versions of myth are
“frozen,” as in the case of
Oedipus, whose final fate was
described differently by
Sophocles and Homer.
n Because myths were the
“givens” of the society, literary
works frequently refer to myths
without giving a full synopsis of
them.

11. n Only a fraction of ancient Greek literature has survived, and it often does
not tell us what we would most like to know about people’s religious
beliefs and practices, daily lives, and so on.
n One book that we will use a great deal in this course is The Library of
Greek Mythology, by Apollodorus (who probably lived in the 1st or 2nd
century AD), which gives summaries of most of the myths we will
discuss.

12. n What are the implications for our study
of classical mythology?
n We are studying only particular
variants of the myths.
n Sometimes we can reconstruct a fairly
full version of the myth as it must have
existed in the living culture of ancient
Greece.
n Many times we cannot; references
remain tantalizingly obscure.

13. n Occasionally a work of art will
preserve what is clearly a very
different version from the ones
preserved in literature, which reminds
us that living myth is not fixed.
n We cannot recover all the nuances of
the myths’ functions in their original
society, any more than we can
recover all their variants.
n Within these limitations, however, we
can use what we know about the
society to shed light on the myths and
what we know about the myths to
shed light on the society.

14. n These lectures will concentrate on several of
the most famous and most important myths
of Greco-Roman culture. The course has
four main points:
n First, the lectures will familiarize students
with the primary classical myths that are
covered by the course. Most myths will
include some synopsis of the relevant myth’s
storyline. We will frequently address the
surviving variants of the myths and the
implications of these variants for our
understanding.
n Second, the lectures will discuss the cultural
aspects of the myths under consideration
within their formative culture (i.e., ancient
Greece).

15. n Third, we will consider how well
(or poorly) these myths “match”
carious theories about myth
and will discuss the usefulness
of these theoretical approaches
for our understanding of
classical myth.
n Finally, we will explore the use
of these myths throughout the
3000 or more years of their
existence as it was adapted in
the arts, literature and music of
the Western tradition.