---

---

	MYTH TOOLS

---

HISTORICAL CRITICS

:

-Hecataeus of Miletus: "Many are the tales (mythoi) told by the Greeks, and in my view they are laughable."

ETYMOLOGY

The name is the game: the name of a thing contains the essence of the thing. Knowing the name gives power over the thing. Nominalism/Antinomialism
"And God said, "Let there be light".
"Homer" "Daphne" (photo above: Apollo and Daphne, Bernini)
[Barry B. Powell, Classical Myth sixth edition (2008), p. 169; 644-645, 647, 650-651.]

AETIOLOGY

The Greek word ‘aition’ means ‘cause’. Causes: Why is something the way it is? e.g. Why are there "Vestal Virgins"? (story of Rhea Silvia)

[Barry B. Powell, Classical Myth (2008), p. 650-651, 676.]

METEOROLOGY

Natural phenomena. e.g. Max Müller: sun (Helios & Phaeton), rain (Zeus), lightning (Cyclopes)
[Barry B. Powell, Classical Myth (2008), p. 658-659.]

RITUAL

(anthropological theories)

(Demeter at Eleusis)
Sir James Frazer, The Golden Bough     totem
Walter Burkert Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth : (1972; 1983)
[Barry B. Powell, Classical Myth (2008), Ch. 9; and pp. 657-658. ]

ICONOGRAPHY

"eikon" pictures: mythological stories conveyed by visual means, e.g. on Greek vases, on wall paintings.

Examples:

• St. Catherine of Alexandria, and Nemesis
• "Saint Christopher"
• Aeneas fleeing Troy;
• Raphael's version of the flight story
  [Barry B. Powell, Classical Myth (2006), p. 604-605; 650.]
• Isis and Horus, Isis Queen of Heaven, Isis Savior of Ships; Mary, Queen of Heaven, Mary, Star of the Sea.

On the story of "St. Catherine of Alexandria", see: CATHERINE. The Catholic Encyclopedia.
On the story of "St. Christopher", see: CHRISTOPHER. Another: Analysis.

EUHEMERISM

[B. Powell, Classical Myth (2008), p. 646.]

ANCIENT PHILOSOPHICAL CRITICISM:

-Xenophanes of Colophon: anthropomorphism, ethnocentrism
[B. Powell, Classical Myth (2008), p. 141, 643.]

MANA

Anthopological interpretations. Spiritual ‘electricity’ ( James G. Frazer, The Golden Bough; Bronislaw Malinowski; H. J. Rose)
[B. Powell, Classical Myth (2008), p. 657-658; 669. ]

MOTHER GODDESSES

e.g. Robert Graves, The White Goddess;
Marija Gimbutas, The Living Goddesses: indigenous, Neolithic matrifocal or matriarchal societies; ‘Kurganic’ incursions; ‘rape motifs’

TRIPARTITE FUNCTION THEORY

(Indo-European philology: Georges Dumezil, Jaan Puhvel, Emile Durkheim The Division of Labor in Society)
[B. Powell, Classical Myth (2008), p. 659-660; 663-664 ]

STRUCTURALISM

bipartite theory (‘bipolar opposites’): Claude Lévi-Strauss, Structuralism; The Raw and the Cooked
[B. Powell, Classical Myth (2008), p. 659-660; 663-664.]

PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES:

-Sigmund Freud (Oedipus complex)
-Carl Jung (‘racial unconscious’, now called ‘collective unconscious’; animus/anima, archetypes)
[B. Powell, Classical Myth (2008), p. 660--662.]

---

---