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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.
Nominalism/Antinomialism
"And God said, "Let there be light".
"Homer" "Daphne" (photo above: Apollo and Daphne, Bernini)
[B. Powell, Classical Myth 5 (2006), p. 174; 677.]
AETIOLOGY
‘aition’ means ‘cause’ Causes: Why is something the way it is? e.g. "Vestal Virgin"
[B. Powell, Classical Myth (2006), p. 650, 676.]
METEOROLOGY
Natural phenomena. e.g. Max Müller: sun (Helios & Phaeton), rain (Zeus), lightning (Cyclopes)
[B. Powell, Classical Myth (2006), p. 691-692.]
RITUAL
(Demeter at Eleusis)
[B. Powell, Classical Myth (2006), Ch. 9; pp. 689-691. ]
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
[B. Powell, Classical Myth (2006), p. 636-639; 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 (2006), p. 678.]
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHICAL CRITICISM:
-Xenophanes of Colophon: anthropomorphism, ethnocentrism
[B. Powell, Classical Myth (2006), p. 141, 675, 701.]
MANA
Anthopological interpretations. Spiritual ‘electricity’ ( James G. Frazer, The Golden Bough; Bronislaw Malinowski; H. J. Rose)
[B. Powell, Classical Myth (2006), p. 689-693. ]
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 (2006), p. 692-693. ]
STRUCTURALISM
bipartite theory (‘bipolar opposites’): Claude Lévi-Strauss, Structuralism; The Raw and the Cooked
[B. Powell, Classical Myth (2006), p. 695-699; 702.]
PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES:
-Sigmund Freud (Oedipus complex)
-Carl Jung (‘racial unconscious’, now called ‘collective unconscious’; animus/anima)
[B. Powell, Classical Myth (2006), p. 693--695.]
Revised October 16, 2001. 10/26/2001, 2/17/2003, 8/31/2003, 02/07/2004, 07/30/2006
