Word - Similarities between myths

When we discussed myths in class, several of the creation myths seemed to sound very similar to each other. They had their obvious differences, but there were some aspects that sounded so similar that it seemed like they could have had the same tribal origins. One common concept that seems to come up in creation myths is child killing father. It happened in the Greek creation myth. Zeus killed his father Cronus because Cronus wanted to eat Zeus and kill him. In the Celtic myth, the son killed his father so he could break free from his parents' suffocating embrace that would have ultimately killed him. In both myths, the mothers helped the sons kill the fathers. It seems interesting to me that death had to occur for life to be born in both myths. It sort of plays into the idea of the circle of life. We are born, we live, and then we die. And after we die, our bodies are returned to the Earth to help give life to plants which help sustain all life on Earth. Therefore, death is necessary for life.

Because both myths sound so similar, it is reasonable to assume they could have very similar origins. Or there must be some seed of truth in these myths since widely different oral traditions are telling very similar origin stories. Maybe these things did happen and one long game of telephone happened and they came out as different stories after several generations. Or travelers that have interacted with people from the different traditions have brought the origin myths along with them and they ended up being adopted and adapted by each tradition so it fits their culture. To me, the origins of the origin myths are almost as interesting as the myths themselves.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Campbell - Time and Primal Culture

One of the major themes that we've discussed in this class throughout the semester has been comparing and contrasting oral cultures with written cultures. There are many differences, including ritual practices, moral codes, and utilization of spaces. However, another major difference that we only briefly touched upon is the way in which primal and modern cultures differ in their dense of understanding time. In today's world, time is very linear. We consider there to be a beginning and an end, and have even become so technical as to mark the years, months, days, and even hours. We measure our lives in the passing of years and death is seen as a gateway to a new life or an eternal paradise. For primal cultures, however, life is entirely cyclical. When we die, our bodies serve as food for scavenging animals or as nutrients for the soil. Our energies are passed along to other members of the natural environment, so despite our deaths, we never stop contributing to the circle of life...
Read more

Campbell - Ossian Mythology and "Oral Texts"

Abram, David.  The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World . New York: Vintage Books, 1996. I really enjoyed Abram's historical summary of how oral language developed and transitioned into written word. He begins this account with the invention of the Hebrew alphabet, or "aleph-beth," which later served as a model for Greek linguistic advancement. However, as any geography lesson will tell you, the Greek nation was geographically broken and thus the cultural climate was highly sectarian (i.e. nation-states), so the concept of written language took awhile for people to accept. Additionally, the mystification of oral chants and stories could not be directly translated into written word, and many Greeks were rather disenchanted by this loss of oral magic. As Abram explains, "the sung stories, along with the numerous ceremonies to which they were linked, were in a sense the living encyclopedias of the culture - carrying and preserving ...
Read more

Hanscom - Lion's Gate Statue

        When we had class outside at Lion's Gate, we had a good discussion about the statue at the top of the hill. The statue commemorated a man who was responsible for making the space around it a place for the public to visit and enjoy. The statue was a very tall, geometric design of a man taming a horse with a bit in the horse's mouth on top. At the bottom of the sculpture, there are four sculptures of men holding different objects representing things we really value in American culture. One of the figures was holding a painter's palette with brushes to represent art, another figure was holding a compass with some paper to represent math/science, the third figure was holding an anvil to represent the trades that use this object for metalwork, and the fourth figure was holding a book by Homer to represent literature/storytelling. These four things represented the most important aspects of American culture at the time this sculpture was made.     ...
Read more