Week 6 Lab.

 

Mythology Crash Course:

• Mythology and religion are tied together, but it's difficult to separate the two.
• Proper myths deal with the creation of the world
• E.B. Taylor: Primitive people use mythology to understand origins, whereas modern people use science.
• Euhemerism:
• Interpreting "myths as primitive explanations of the natural world or as time-distorted accounts of long-past historical events"
• Romans took up this ideology
• The unconscious, but make it collective
• Structuralists:
• Myth follows a pattern; binaries; good versus evil
• Campbell:
• Monomyth; the Heroes Journey
• Heroes stories superimpose a necessity to understand ourselves
• Separates, Heroes separate themselves from the world:
• The call to adventure, refusal of the call, supernatural aid, crossing the 1st threshold, the belly of the whale
• Trials and Victories of Initiation:
• The road of trials (psychological danger), The meeting with the Goddess, Woman as temptress, Atonement with the father, Apotheosis (Enlightened status), The ultimate boon
• Return:
• Refusal of the return, The magic flight, Rescue from without, Crossing the return threshold, Master of the two worlds, Freedom to live

Hercules and Cerberus. Oil on canvas, by Peter Paul Rubens 1636, Prado Museum
(Wikipedia Commons)

• Many theories and branches that go into understanding Mythology; it puts into perspective just how extensive and old myths are, and how they still give people trouble.
• Will we really understand everything about myths and their actual meanings.. probably not.
• Nevertheless, still interesting to see the different dynamics that come out of trying to understand the creation of myths, and their inherent ties to cultures.
• Not to mention, the similarity of myths throughout cultures.