Mythology
Mythology is a set of myths that are relatively cohesive or adhered in parallel: stories that are part of a particular religion or culture. They are also called myths to the speeches, narratives or cultural expressions of sacred origin, and which were later secularized and treated as speeches related to a culture, a time or a series of beliefs of an imaginary nature.
Myths are stories based on tradition and legend, created to explain the universe, the origin of the world, natural phenomena, and any event for which there is no known explanation. However, not all myths have to have this explanatory purpose. Similarly, most myths are related to a natural force or deity, but many are simply stories and legends that have been passed down orally from generation to generation.
Etymology
The Greek term mythology is made up of two words:
- mythos (μ),θος), which in classical Greek means approximately ‘the discourse’, ‘words with deeds’ (Esquilo: «:ργ participan κοέκ μŭθ“, ‘from the word to the act’) and, by extension, a ‘ritualized speaking act’, such as that of a head in an assembly, or that of a poet or priest or a story (Squile: ‘ deκοσει μ).θον κον βραεκει λόγιγ”, ‘the full story you will hear in a brief span of time’).
- logos (λόγος), which in classical Greek means: the expression (oral or written) of thoughts and also the ability of a person to express his thoughts (logos interior).
Mythology and religion
Mythology figures prominently in most religions, and likewise, most mythologies are associated with at least one religion.
The term is most often used in this sense to refer to religions founded by ancient societies, such as Greek mythology, Roman mythology, and Scandinavian mythology. However, it is important to remember that while some people see the Scandinavian and Celtic pantheons as mere fables, others consider them religions (see Neopaganism). In the same way, this also happens when analyzing the mythologies of indigenous peoples (for example, the Mythology of South America); in which cases can be observed in which native religions are still professed.
Generally, many people do not consider the accounts surrounding the origin and development of religions such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam, as literal accounts of events, but rather as figurative or symbolic representations of their value systems.
Even so, likewise, many people, including atheists, agnostics, or believers of some of these same religions, use the words myth and mythology to characterize as false or at best dubious, the stories that appear in one or more religions, or to religions other than the one that is a believer. Thus people who belong to most of the religions that are present today are offended when their faith is taken as a set of myths; since for them, this is equivalent to saying that their religion itself is a lie, which goes against their beliefs. An example of this happens in many Christian groups in relation to the stories of the Bible, in which their believers do not generally consider that some of their stories are mythological, and that this word is only used to refer to them in a pejorative sense..
However, most people agree that every religion has a set of myths that has developed around its religious scriptures; since in itself the word myth refers to facts that cannot be verified objectively. In this way, it is also considered that one can speak of Jewish mythology, Christian mythology or Islamic mythology, to refer to the mythical elements that exist in these beliefs; without speaking of the veracity of the principles of the faith or of the versions of its history; because the belief of their religion as something true belongs to the faith and beliefs of each person, and not to the study of myths.
An example of this are today's priests and rabbis within the more liberal Jewish and Christian movements, as well as neopagans, who have no problem admitting that their religious texts contain myths. Thus, they see their sacred texts as religious truths, revealed by divine inspiration, but displayed in the language of the human race. Even so, as happens in all areas, others, on the contrary, do not agree with it.
Modern non-religious mythology
Although normally many people associate mythology with ancient cultures or religions; Is not always that way. For example, television series, books and comics, and role-playing games, among others, that manage to form their own fictional universe; they acquire very important mythological components that can even sometimes give rise to deep and complicated philosophical systems. An excellent example of this type of mythology is that developed by J. R. R. Tolkien in his books The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings, among other writings, which he called legendarium, or The Cthulhu Mythos, which arise from the unification of the novels of H. P. Lovecraft and his circle. The latter explain the entire universe starting from an unknown physics (since it assumes that our knowledge of the universe and science have erroneous premises), and the non-existence of God, where creatures beyond human comprehension inhabit the universe from the beginning. beginning of time According to this, humanity is a simple speck of dust of no importance to them. In our eyes they are like gods, called primeval, and the most powerful of them, outer gods and archetypal gods.
Other examples that can be mentioned are the fictional worlds created by the Dragonlance novels, the Star Trek series, the Star Wars films >, or the manga Saint Seiya.
Some critics argue that because the main characters and story cycles of modern narratives are not in the public domain, copyright laws prevent independent authors from continuing modern story cycles, preventing such character sagas share some of the essential characteristics of mythologies; at least until the copyright term expires and they become public domain. Despite this, copyright owners sometimes continue stories with other authors, as is the case with characters such as the Tarzan and Conan novels (originating by Robert E. Howard) by L. Sprague de Camp, or superhero comics, most of which have had dozens of authors.
Meanings in ancient Greece
The term μῦθος (mȳthos) appears in the works of Homer and other poets of Homer's time, in which the term had several meanings: 'conversation', 'narrative';, 'speech', 'tale' and 'word.
Similar to the related term λόγος (logos), mythos expresses all that can be delivered in the form of words. These may be contrasted with the Greek ἔργον (ergon, 'action', 'work' or 'work'). However, the term mythos lacks an explicit distinction between true and false narratives.
In the context of ancient Greek theater, myths referred to the myth, narrative, plot, and story of a play. According to David Wiles, the Greek term mythos at this time covered a whole spectrum of different meanings, from undeniable falsehoods to stories with religious and symbolic significance.
According to the philosopher Aristotle (384–322 BC), the spirit of a play was its myth. The term mythos was also used for the source material of Greek tragedy. The tragedians of the time could be inspired by Greek mythology, a set of "traditional stories" referring to gods and heroes. David Wiles observes that modern conceptions of Greek tragedy can be misleading. It is commonly thought that former audience members were already familiar with the myths behind a performance, and could predict the outcome of the performance. However, they did not expect Greek playwrights to faithfully reproduce traditional myths when adapting them for the stage, but instead recreated the myths and produced new versions. Storytellers such as Euripides (c. 480–406 BC) relied on suspense for excite your audiences. In one of her plays, Merope attempts to kill her son's murderer with an ax, unaware that the man in question is actually her son. According to an old description of audience reactions to this work, audience members did not know at all whether she would commit filicide or be apprehended in time. They jumped to their feet in terror and caused a ruckus.
David Wiles points out that the traditional myths of ancient Greece were mainly part of their oral tradition. The Greeks of this time were a literate culture but did not produce sacred texts. There were no definitive or authorized versions of the myths recorded in the texts and preserved forever in an immutable form. Instead, multiple variants of myths circulated. These variants were adapted to songs, dances, poetry, and visual arts. Myth performers were free to reshape their source material for a new work, adapting it to the needs of a new audience or in response to a new situation.
Children in ancient Greece were familiar with traditional myths from an early age. According to the philosopher Plato (c. 428–347 BC), mothers and nannies narrated myths and stories to the children in their care: David Wiles describes them as a repository of mythological lore.
Bruce Lincoln has drawn attention to the apparent meaning of the terms mythos and logos in the works of Hesiod. In Theogony, Hesiod attributes to the Muses the ability both to proclaim truths and to narrate plausible falsehoods (that is, falsehoods that seem like real things). The verb used to narrate the falsehoods in the text is legein, which is etymologically associated with logos. There are two variants in manuscript tradition for the verb used to proclaim truth. One variant uses gerusasthai, the other mythesasthai. The latter is a form of verbomytheomai ('to speak', 'to count'), which is etymologically associated with myth. In Works and Days, Hesiod describes his dispute with his brother Perses. He also announces to his readers his intention to tell his brother true things. The verb he uses to tell the truth is mythesaimen, another form of mytheomai.
Interpretations
Interpretations of myths in the 19th century
During the 19th century, the most important were:
- Historicism: myths considered actual stories modified and altered by the passage of time. Myth as a historical fact that over time has given rise to urban stories. Thus, Schliemann discovered Troy, because he thought that the homerical poems were true, as well as the cities that were named. On the other hand, authors like Gilbert Pilot, Víctor Berard and later Fernando Jaume Saura in "Ulysses' travels" established the real route that was narrated in the Odyssey, from Troy to Ithaca.
- Allegorism: myth as a way of expressing concepts and realities poetically. This theory was inherited by rebirth. The most important was natural allegory; this refers to the struggle between the gods of the phenomena of nature.
- Comparative mythology: developed by Max Müller, professor at the University of Oxford who in 1856 published the work “Comparative Mythology”. In the s. The study of the ancient languages (sanskrit, Latin and Greek) is carried out in the area of comparative grammar, and it is concluded that all part of the same language, the indo-European.[chuckles]required] It is believed that mythology could be explained through the language sciences, because the Indo-European gods also had a certain relationship. The divinities of the European peoples were celestial divinities, and etymology clarifies the primitive sense of their origin, since they arise from giving name to the atmospheric phenomena, they are attributed a personification, humanizing them first to, later, narrate legends from them, and they end up divinizing them.
- Evolutionism: which assumes the cultural evolution of mythology as the axis of the historical, social and philosophical process. The most primitive thing would be animism, hence it evolves to polytheism (the step in which the Greek mythology is found) to finally reach monotheism. At the beginning of the centuryXX. An important anthropological work, “The Golden Bough”, “The Golden Branch” by James George Frazer, also includes mythology, and the evolution followed would be magic, religion and science. With magic it would refer to the intention of controlling the facts of nature through certain rites and procedures: this would be the point where Greek mythology would be found.
Interpretations of myths in the 20th century
In the XX century, the tendencies to explain mythology are:
- Symbolism: myth is, first of all, a way of expressing, understanding and feeling the world and life, different from what logic would do. The myth has a more emotional language and full of images and symbols that express something that cannot be translated into mainstream language. The images of mythical thought are not directed to understanding, but to fantasy and sensitivity; therefore they have an inducible expressive force. Interpretations were also made from the field of psychology: Freud and Jung estimate that the images are an expression of the unconscious.
- Functionality: the current that values the social function that mythology plays in everyday life. The sense of myth is fundamental to express traditional uses and norms of coexistence, giving them a narrative justification supported by tradition and accepted by all.
- New Comparative Mythology: also part of the comparison of the Indo-European peoples, but not from the point of view of the languages, but from their social structure. He notes that in these texts a constant ideological structure persists. There is a general conception of society in three groups, each with its own function. A group is made up of the priest-leader, with magical and legal sovereignty; another group is the warrior, who has physical strength, and finally the worker to whom fertility and laboriness belong. The myths of the Indo-European peoples reflect this hierarchical structure; it is a theory that still has many followers, although it emerged in 1920, with Dumezil.
- Structuralism: estimates that under an apparent narrative, myth reveals meanings in its deep structure that are repeated on many occasions. The analysis highlights three aspects: the recognition of the usefulness of specific historical data, the systematic investigation of mythical themes and their place in culture, thought and ideology; and the confrontation between myth and ritual.
- Eclectic Tendency: The current tendency, in short, exposes that the characteristic of myth is its exemplification, to belong to the world of memories, to be something that is known and collectively accepted and is in the traditions of the people. The distance from the logos is the mark of these accounts.
Interpretations of myths in the 21st century
Despite the fact that many of the aforementioned interpretations are still valid today, in the XXI century the myth-criticism arose culture by the hand of the literary theorist José Manuel Losada. This methodology allows to approach the myth from the current culture and the current culture from the myth.
According to this researcher, myth criticism requires the prior assumption of a definition of myth in each particular study; The cataloging of each myth in a typology is a guarantee of a coherent definition.
Losada defines myth as “a functional, symbolic and thematic account of extraordinary events with a sacred supernatural transcendent referent, lacking, in principle, historical testimony, and referring to an individual or collective cosmogony or eschatology, but always absolute".
It is only possible to carry out authentic myth criticism while preserving a healthy autonomy with respect to other sciences (sociology, political science, psychoanalysis, etc.). At the same time, any study of a myth must necessarily be interdisciplinary in nature.
Consequently, myth criticism, without abandoning the analysis of the symbolic imaginary, invades any cultural manifestation. This new myth criticism is in charge of studying the mythical manifestations in fields as broad as literature, cinema and television, theater, sculpture, painting, video games, music, dance, journalism, the Internet and other means of manifestation. cultural and artistic.
Finally, cultural myth criticism also develops an epistemology of myth criticism as a scientific discipline
Indigenous mythology
Mythology, in addition to being a form of language, is a way of life created by certain social groups. For this reason, it is estimated that modern sociology, in almost its entirety, does not deal with events that have to do with apparently "non-verifiable" in relation to the beliefs and experiences of indigenous communities. It must be taken into account that these societies, in the midst of their "non-intellectuality", manage ways of seeing the world, in which the so-called "civilized or intellectual" the ability to observe them. They can be appreciated in experiences, perhaps inexplicable in the eyes of science, but explainable in the face of experience. It should be noted that not everything verifiable really exists.
Mythological Archetypes
- gods of life-death-reincarnation
- gods of the Moon
- Solar gods
- the hero
- subterranean world
- liar/ladron
- Mother Earth
- manas
- mythology of Mesopotamia
- Father.
- First man
- winter solstice
Mythologies and calendars
In the current calendar, known as the Gregorian, the months and days of the week have some names derived from mythological beings and gods. This fact is evident in languages such as Spanish, although it does not mean that they come from their own mythology; Thus, in Spanish, Friday comes from Venus, the goddess of Roman mythology (in English the name of the same day, "Friday", comes from the German goddess Freyja); in both cases it would be dedicated to beings with certain similarities, to the goddesses of beauty.
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