Axis mundi:

[Navel of the World]

An Introduction to Mythology
and Folklore

Developed by: Richard M. Bañez

Batangas State University,
JPLPC Campus
 Module 1:
Introduction to Mythology and Folklore
 Topic 1:
The Nature of Mythology and Folklore
 The Nature of Mythology and Folklore

Philippine Lower Mythology. A painting in oil that shows creatures of the night and
deities of the underworld. (Joel Magpayo Snr.)
The Nature of Mythology and Folklore

Anituo. a Pilipino
Reconstructionist
religion based on the
Pre-Hispanic beliefs of
the people of what is
now known as the
Philippines prior to the
arrival of Christianity
and colonialism.
 The Nature of Mythology and Folklore
Mythology
It is the study of myths and the myths
themselves, which are stories told as
symbols of fundamental truths within
societies having a strong oral traditions.

Folklore
This includes the traditional elements of
the way of life of a group of people and
creative expressions developing
naturally as part of this culture.
 The Nature of Mythology and Folklore
Review and analyze the given definitions of mythology and
folklore. Briefly answer the following questions.
• How does mythology relate to folklore?

• Knowing such relationship between the two disciplines,

what preparation would you make in dealing with the
course Mythology and Folklore?
 The Nature of Mythology
Mythology is the study of myths.
Collecting Stories
 literary evidence
 archaeological evidence
Examining their Functions
 teller or audience
 society
Comparing Myths
 motifs
 traditions
Assessing Myths
 significance
 truth
 The Nature of Mythology
Definitions of Myth
Webster
 A story that is usually of unknown origin and
at least partially traditional that ostensibly
relates historical events usually of such
description as to serve to explain some
particular event, institution, or natural
phenomenon.
M. Reinhold, Past and Present
 A myth is a story about gods, other
supernatural beings, or heroes of a long past
time.
The Nature of Mythology
H.J. Rose, A Handbook of Greek Mythology
 Myths are certain products of the imagination
of a people which take the form of stories.

J. Peradotto, Classical Mythology

 Myth is a cognitive structure analogous to
language through which primitive people
organize their experiences.
The Nature of Mythology

R.J. Schork, Classical Mythology, The

Classic Journal
 Myth is the symbolic form which is
generated, shaped, and transmitted by the
creative imagination of pre- and extra-logical
people as they respond to and encapsulate the
wealth of experience.
 The Nature of Mythology
Which among the following can be considered as a myth?

Riordan’s Percy Jackson The Legend of Atlantis The Rape of Persephone

Zeus The Twelve Olympians

 The Nature of Mythology
Characteristics of Myth
• Mythos - authoritative speech
– a traditional story
• A story is a narrative with plot
– It has beginning, middle, and end.
– It contains characters having certain mental imprints.
– It describes conflict, resolution and within a setting.

– with collective importance

– Myths are “traditional” tales from Lat. trado, “hand over.”
– Handed over orally and transmit a culture’s sense of itself:
past wisdom, memories, and models
– Oral transmission will create constant changes in the myth.
– Various ways of emphasizing motives and meaning for the
group.
 The Nature of Mythology
Characteristics of Myth
• A myth has no identifiable author.
• A myth that is written down in a literary form
uses a story that preceded it.
• Sometimes the myths are even different in
detail.
• One version is not more true than another.
 The Nature of Mythology
• Types of Myths by Morford and
Lenardon
– Pure Myth or True Myth or Myth
Proper or Divine Myth
• Primitive Science or Religion
– natural phenomena or the origin of
things
– how individuals should behave toward
the gods
Morford and
– Saga or Legend Lenardon’s Classical
• Primitive History Mythology
categorized myth into
– historical fact three types.
– Folk-tale or Fairy-tale
• Primitive Fiction
– for pleasure and amusement
 The Nature of Mythology
• TYPES OF MYTHS
Stars descend before
Sun.
The stars, represented
as boys, leap into the
sea before the approach
of Helius in his horse-
drawn chariot (the
nimbus around his head
is one origin of the
medieval halo around
the heads of saints), on
an Attic wine bowl, c.
435 BC. As the goddess
Nikê personifies an
event, the stars and
Helius personify natural
forces.
(© Trustees of the British
Museum / Art Resource,
New York)
 The Nature of Mythology
• TYPES OF MYTHS

(Left) Persephone and Demeter Reunite (1891) by Frederic Leighton, (Right)

Demeter Mourning Persephone (1906) by Evelyn de Morgan.(© Trustees of the
British Museum / Art Resource, New York)
 The Nature of Mythology
• TYPES OF MYTHS
(Top) The Trojan horse is shown in
a painting by Giovanni Domenico
Tiepolo, an artist of the 1700s.
(Bottom) The walls of Troy. The
earliest settlement at Troy can be
dated to about 3000 BC, but the
citadel walls shown here belong to
the sixth level of occupation (Troy
VI), built around 1400 BC and
destroyed around 1230 BC.
Constructed of neatly cut blocks of
limestone that slope inward, the
citadel wall had at least four
gateways, two of them protected
by towers. Either Troy VI or its
much poorer successor Troy VIIa,
destroyed about 1180 BC, could
have inspired Greek legends of the
Trojan War.
 The Nature of Mythology
• TYPES OF MYTHS
 The Nature of Mythology
• Types of Myths by Eliot
– Primitive myths
• stories about nature as told by
shamans
– Pagan myths
• Greek and Roman’s tales of the
interplay between deities and humans
– Sacred myths
• stories from current eastern and
western religions such as Christianity Alexander Eliot's The
Global Myths defined
and Hinduism
four types of myth.
– Scientific myths
• considered as the most solemn and
revered creeds of science
 The Nature of Mythology
Categorize the following myths as to Eliot’s classification.
 The Nature of Mythology
• Types of Myths by
Leeming
– Cosmic myths
• including narratives of the
creation and end of the world
– Theistic myths
• portray the deities
– Hero myths David Adams Leeming's
• with accounts of individuals The World of Myth
listed four other types.
– Place and object myths
• describe places and objects
 The Nature of Mythology
Categorize the following myths as to Leeming’s classification.
 The Nature of Mythology
• Types of Myths in The New Encyclopedia
Britannica
– Cosmological myths (concerned with the creation of
cosmos).
– Life-crisis myths (deal with the crucial events in
human life; birth, puberty, marriage and death).
– Hunting and agricultural myths (revolve around
animals and hunt).
– Myths about extra ordinary individuals (focus on
extra ordinary individuals such as culture hero,
trickster, god-king, and savior).
 The Nature of Mythology
• Mythology serves many purposes.
– Myths grant continuity and stability to a culture.
– Myths present guidelines for living.
– Myths justify a culture's activities.
– Myths give meaning to life.
– Myths explain the unexplainable.
– Myths offer role models.
 The Nature of Mythology
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
Leeming, David. Mythology: World of Culture. New
York, USA: Newsweek Books, 1977.
Morford, Mark P. and Lenardon, Robert J. Classical
Mythology. New York, USA: Oxford University
Press, 2003
 Supplementary Topic 1:
Theories Related to the Study of Mythology
 The Nature of Mythology
THEORIES RELATED TO THE STUDY OF MYTHOLOGY
ANCIENT THEORIES MODERN THEORIES

Rationalism Naturalism

Etymological Theory Ritualism

Allegorical Theory Diffusionism

Euhemerism Evolutionism

Freudianism

Jungian archetypes

Structuralism

Historical-critical theory
 The Nature of Mythology
Rationalism
– According to this theory, myths represent an early
form of logical thinking: they all, have a logical
base.
 The Nature of Mythology
Etymological Theory
– This theory states that all myths derive from and
can be traced back to certain words in the
language.
 The Nature of Mythology
Allegorical theory
– In the allegorical explanation, all myths contain
hidden meanings which the narrative
deliberately conceals or encodes.
 The Nature of Mythology
Euhemerism
– Euhemerus, a Greek who lived from 325-275 BC,
maintained that all myths arise from historical
events which were merely exaggerated.
 The Nature of Mythology
Naturalism
– In this hypothesis, all myths are thought to arise
from an attempt to explain natural phenomena.
• People who believe in this theory narrow the source
of myths by tracing their origins from the worship of
the sun or the moon.

Hindu deity Rahu is known for causing

eclipses. In Hindu mythology, Rahu is known
for swallowing the sun and causing eclipses.
©bigstockphoto.com/wuttichok
 The Nature of Mythology
Ritualism
– According to this theory, all myths are invented to
accompany and explain religious ritual; they
describe the significant events which have resulted
in a particular ceremony.
 The Nature of Mythology
Diffusionism
– The diffusionists maintain that all myths arose
from a few major cultural centers and spread
throughout the world.
 The Nature of Mythology
Evolutionism
– Myth making occurs at
a certain stage in the
evolution of the human
mind.
• Myths, are therefore,
an essential part of all
developing societies
and the similarities
from one culture to the
next can be explained
by the relatively
limited number of
experiences open to
such communities
when myths arise.
 The Nature of Mythology
Freudianism
– When Sigmund Freud, the founder of modern
psychology, interpreted the dreams of his
patients, he found great similarities between
them and the ancient myths.
– Freud believes that certain infantile are
repressed.
• i.e. they are eliminated from the conscious mind but
continues to exist within the individual in some
other form.
• Sometimes these feelings emerge into consciousness
under various disguises, one of which is the myth.
 The Nature of Mythology
Jungian archetypes
– Carl Jung was a prominent psychologist who,
while he accepted Freud’s theory about the origin
of myths, did not believe that it went far in
explaining the striking similarities between the
motifs found in ancient stories and those of his
patients.
• He postulated that each of us possesses a “collective
unconscious” which we inherit genetically.
• It contains very general ideas, themes, or motifs which
are passed along from one generation to another and
are retained as part of our human inheritance.
 The Nature of Mythology
Structuralism
– This theory is a fairly recent development and is closely
allied with the research of linguists.
– According to this theory, all human behavior, the way
we eat, dress, speak, is patterned into codes which have
the characteristics of language.
• To understand the real meaning of myth, therefore, we must
analyze it linguistically.

Historical-critical theory
– This theory maintains that there are a multitude of
factors which influence the origin and development of
myths and that no single explanation will suffice.
• We must examine each story individually to see how it began
and evolved.
 Topic 2:
Myth and other Allied Sciences
 The Nature of Mythology
Myth and Truth
– Myth is a many-faceted personal and cultural
phenomenon created to provide a reality and a
unity to what is transitory and fragmented in the
world.
– Myth provides us with absolutes in the place of
ephemeral values and with a comforting
perception of the world that is necessary to make
the insecurity and terror of existence bearable.
– Myth in a sense is the highest reality; and the
thoughtless dismissal of myth as untruth, fiction,
or a lie is the most barren and misleading
definition of all.
 The Nature of Mythology
Myth and Religion
• Religious ceremonies and cults are based on
mythology.

Mircea Eliade
– He defines myth as a tale satisfying the
yearning of human beings for a fundamental
orientation rooted in a sacred timelessness
– Myth provides in the imagination a spiritual
release from historical time
 The Nature of Mythology
Myth and Etiology
– Myth should be interpreted narrowly as an
explication of the origin of some fact or custom.
This theory is called etiological, from the Greek
word for cause (aitia).
– The mythmaker is a kind of primitive scientist,
using myths to explain facts that cannot otherwise
be explained within the limits of society's
knowledge at the time.
 The Nature of Mythology
Rationalism versus Metaphor, Allegory and
Symbolism
Max Muller
– In Allegorical Nature Myths, he tells that
myths are nature myths, all referring to
meteorological and cosmological phenomena.
 The Nature of Mythology
Myth and Psychology
Sigmund Freud
– His discovery of the significance of dream-
symbols led him and his followers to analyze
the similarity between dreams and myths.
– Myths reflect people's waking efforts to
systematize the incoherent visions and
impulses of their sleep world. The patterns in
the imaginative world of children, savages,
and neurotics are similar, and these patterns
are revealed in the motifs and symbols of
myth.
 The Nature of Mythology
Myth and Psychology
Carl Jung
– Myths contain images or archetypes,
traditional expressions of collective dreams,
developed over thousands of years, of
symbols upon which the society as a whole
has come to depend.
– An archetype is a kind of dramatic
abbreviation of the patterns involved in a
whole story or situation, including the way it
develops and how it ends; it is a behavior
pattern, an inherited scheme of functioning.
 The Nature of Mythology
Myth and Society
Sir J. G. Frazer
– His The Golden Bough remains a pioneering
monument in its attempts to link myth with
ritual. It is full of comparative data on
kingship and ritual, but its value is lessened
by the limitations of his ritualist
interpretations and by his eagerness to
establish dubious analogies between myths of
primitive tribes and classical myths.
 The Nature of Mythology
Myth and Society
Jane Harrison
– Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion
and Themis, are of seminal importance.
Harrison falls in the same tradition as Frazer,
and many of her conclusions about
comparative mythology, religion, and ritual
are subject to the same critical reservations.

Bronislav Malinowski
– In Myth as Social Charters, he discovered
close connection between myths and social
institutions, which led him to explain myths
not in cosmic or mysterious terms, but as
charters of social customs and beliefs.
 The Nature of Mythology
The Structuralist
Claude Lévi-Strauss
– Myths are derived ultimately from the
structure of the mind. And the basic structure
of the mind, as of the myths it creates, is
binary; that is, the mind is constantly dealing
with pairs of contradictions or opposites.
 The Nature of Mythology
The Structuralist
Vladimir Propp
– He divided his basic structure into thirty-one
functions or units of action which have been
defined by others as motifemes, on the
analogy of morphemes and phonemes in
linguistic analysis.
– These functions are constants in traditional
tales: the characters may change, but the
functions do not.
 The Nature of Mythology
The Structuralist
Walter Burkert
– He believes that the structure of traditional
tales cannot be discovered without taking into
account cultural and historical dimensions.
– The structure of a tale is ineradicably
anthropomorphic and fits the needs and
expectations of both the teller and the
audience.
 The Nature of Mythology
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
Morford, Mark P. and Lenardon, Robert J. Classical
Mythology. New York, USA: Oxford University
Press, 2003
 Topic 3:
The Emerging Approaches in Studying
Myths
 The Nature of Mythology
• Trace the developing definitions of myth and mythology
through identifying the contributions of various mythologists
throughout time. Complete the given matrix below to
showcase the various periods and contributions that led to the
development of mythology.

Priorities or
Periods Mythologists Contributions
Concerns
 The Nature of Mythology
1. Describe the shifts in priorities that had happened in
the study of myths.

2. Which concern should be prioritized? Why?

3. Which method would you adapt in analyzing

myths? Why?
 Module 2:
The Nature of Myths
 Topic 1:
TRACING THE ORIGIN OF MYTHS
Mythic story
• Expresses the relationship of man to cosmos.
• is a combination of superstition and religious
truth, of primitive fears and universal
understanding.
• Mythic story must be explored from divergent
perspectives.
– Cultural perspective
– Historical perspective
– Psychological perspective
– Creative perspective
– Modern perspective
Evolution of Myths
• The story of mythology begins sometime in
the distant reaches of prehistory, when man
awaken to his consciousness of existence.
– The nature of mythologies that produced this art
is largely a matter of conjecture.
The Good Old Days. This may appear to be overkill (on the part of the
illustrator), but recent finds indicate caveman life was no picnic. Courtesy Mark
Ryan
Partial Solar Eclipse. Partial Solar Eclipse captured
on Tuesday 4th January 2011
Deities of Mauna Kea. Poliahu is one of the Goddess
of Mauna Kea, of snow, ice, and cold. She is the
eldest daughter of Haumeu and Kane. She is highly
revered for when the snow melts, it brings life-giving
fresh water to the islands.

Girth. A woman’s changing girth of belly during

pregnancy
Evolution of Myths
• The next step in the
development of
mythology occurred
sometime between 7th
and 4th millennium B.C.
– Stationary village life
resulting to urban culture
• Moon earth mother religion Triple Goddess. These three forms
is firmly connected with are: fertility goddess, aka the
Maiden; the Earth Mother, aka the
the art of soil cultivation
Mother; and the old lady, aka the
• Hunting was supplemented Crone. These forms are believed to
be based on the phases of the
by animal husbandry moon, which is why we get concepts
such as the “moon” goddess.
Evolution of Myths
– Cuneiform was invented as a form of writing.
• Sumerians occupied Mesopotamia.
• They invented a form of writing.
– Scholars say history begins at Sumer.

– Semitic people who spoke Akkadian colonized

the northern part of the Tigris-Euphrates.
• Founded the great city-state, Akkad.
• Akkadian developed into Arabic.
• King Sargon I became subject of one of the oldest
transmitted hero myths.
Evolution of Myths
– Amorites invaded Mesopotamia.
• They established the first dynasty in the city of Babylon.
• Amorites also known as Babylonians took over the ancient
cuneiform script and Sumerian religion.

– Assyrians invaded Babylon at about 1700 B.C.

• Established a capital at Nineveh and an important city in
Assur.
• Ancient Sumerian mythology had been altered.
– Myths had been found on tablets in all parts of the region.
– Most complete versions are on copies commissioned in the 7th
century B.C. by King Ashurbanipal at the library at Nineveh.
– Epic of Gilgamesh became one of the primary vehicles for
Mesopotamian Mythology.
– A dominant theme in mythology was fertility.
Evolution of Myths
– Egyptian mythology shared with Mesopotamia a
special emphasis on fertility.
• The dying maize-god Osiris, his sister wife Isis, and his
evil bother Set were the central figures in the fertility cult.

– Greek religion was incorporated with Roman’s

becoming Greco-Roman mythology.
• Sacrificial, ritual element can be seen in almost all Greek
tragedy especially in Oedipus Rex.

– Mythologies of India and Northern Europe were also

considered possessing importance in the
development of World Mythology.
 DIRECTIONS: Trace the development of myths and folklores between
7th and 4th millennium B.C. by completing the details of the given
matrix below.
INFLUENCE TO
MYTHO-GENETIC CONTRIBUTION TO
MYTHOLOGY AND PANTHEON
ZONES CIVILIZATION
FOLKLORE
• MESOPOTAMIA
a. Sumerians Cuneiform
b. Akkadians Hero myths
c. Amorites Dynasty
d. Assyrians Epic of Gilgamesh

• EGYPT Mummification Ra, Anubis

• GREECE The Cult of Gods and goddesses endowed Zeus
with human traits
Dionysus as ritual
• INDIA Rig Veda, Indra
Ramayana
• NORTHERN Prose Eddas Odin, “All
EUROPE Father”
The time of destruction of the world
will be foreshadowed by a loss of
respect for kings and moral
standards, and by an epidemic war,
incest, and murder.
- Prose Edda
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
Leeming, David. Mythology: World of Culture. New
York, USA: Newsweek Books, 1977.
 Topic 2:
MYTH AS THE CORE OF MAN’S SOCIETY
AND HISTORY
 Man, Myth, and History
Overview
• Myths are riddles which, if solved, can lead to
discoveries in other fields – in history, in
anthropology, in archeology.
• In 1890, James Frazer’s The Golden Bough
demonstrated the etiological or causal function
of mythology.
– Connections between;
• Myth and ritual
• Myth and shamanism
• Myth and ancient institution
• Myth and pervading religious belief
• Myth in relation to natural phenomena, place names,
historical incidence and human nature.
 Man, Myth, and History
Myth and ritual are intricately related.

Celebration of Attis’ death and

resurrection
• Pine tree with effigy of Attis was
brought to sanctuary.
• Priests of the cult slashed their
bodies while novices castrated
themselves.
Phrygian’s Myth of Causal
Celebration of fertility
Analysis
Agdistis and Attis • Symbolized by both pomegranate
tree and the violets.

Presence of sacred trees in rituals

• Babylonian Adonis, born of a tree
• Egyptian Osiris, buried in one
• Norse Odin, hanged from one
• Christians, Christmas Tree
 Man, Myth, and History
Relationship between myth and shamanism is
evident.

Explains a tribe’s totem or sacred

animal.
• Bear provides food and protection.
• Transforms the hunter into shaman,
or medicine man of the cult
The Bear-man Myth Causal through apprenticeship.
Analysis
of Cherokee Indian Resurrection theme emerges from
the human psyche.

Depicts the story of a culture hero

who died and came back to life.
 Man, Myth, and History
Myth is used to justify existing institutions.

Overcoming the temptation of the

flesh through discipline,
contemplation and meditation
• Is same with the story of Jesus in
the wilderness or Mohammed in
the cave.
Bodhisattva under
Causal Expresses the spirit of what
the Boo Tree Myth Analysis cloistered orders of various
faiths have always attempted to
of India achieve in spiritual terms.
• Union with the higher reality that
transcends the material world.

Explains monasticism and

mysticism.
 Man, Myth, and History
Myth is used to explain natural phenomena.

Persephone’s fate is a symbol of lost

virginity

Existence of spring and summer

The Rape of • Demeter greets the annual return of
Causal her daughter with a replenishing
Persephone Myth of Analysis of earth.
the Greeks Existence of fall and winter
• Persephone’s annual descent to
Hades marks a repetition of
destruction of agriculture.
 Man, Myth, and History
Myth is also used to explain the names of places.

Bosporus which means

cow’s ford and the
Causal Ionian Sea were both
Greek Myth of Io Analysis crossed by the fleeing Io
and both are named for
her.
 Man, Myth, and History
Myth has been used to explain aspects of human
nature, or simplify entertainment.

Gods and goddesses personified

human types, tendencies, and
activities.
• Ares, the god of war, and
Aphrodite, the goddess of love,
become involved in a love affair.
• “All is fair in love and war.”
Classical Causal
Analysis Explains common human
Mythology (Greece) occurrence.
• Icarus disobeys the instruction of
his father Daedalus which leads the
former into a great danger.
• Phaeton’s insubordination also
leads to same fate with that of
Icarus.
 Man, Myth, and History
Myth is a reflection of various historical events.

Trojan War reflects the clashes

between thee people of Greece
and Asia Minor for the control of
Dardanelles.

Noah’s Flood corresponds to the

great flood that occurred in the
Historical and semi valley of the Tigris-Euphrates –
Causal
a deluge described similarly to
Analysis
historical myths those of the Old Testament Book
of Genesis.

Historical Myths
• Atlantis and Tara, Theseus and the
Minotaur, King Arthur and his
knights of the Roundtable, Moses
and his promised Land.
 Man, Myth, and History
Myth can intrude upon documented history.

Quetzalcoatl himself had said he

would return during a year
whose symbol was “One Reed”
Toltec-Aztec god- Causal (Ce Acatl). It was of course only
Analysis coincide that Herman Cortes
man Quetzalcoatl who was fair-skinned and came
from the sea, should arrive in a
One Reed year.
 Man, Myth, and History
 DIRECTIONS: Design an IPO paradigm to illustrate relationship
among man, myth, and history as gleaned from Filipino myths

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

 Man, Myth, and History
• Four Functions of Myths
• Comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell
compartmentalized the basic functions of
mythology into four classifications:
– the Metaphysical
– the Cosmological
– the Sociological, and
– the Pedagogical
 Man, Myth, and History
• The Mystical/Metaphysical Prospect
– This is the religious/spiritual function: a myth is
meant to make people experience the powerful
feeling of the divine in their lives.
– As Campbell puts it, a living mythology will
waken and maintain in the individual an
experience of awe, humility, and respect, in
recognition of that ultimate mystery, transcending
names and forms, from which, as we read in the
Upanishads, words turn back.
 Man, Myth, and History
• The Cosmological Prospect
– is to render a cosmology, an image of the
universe.
– This might include how things like time, space,
and biology work and are organized
• for example, how the world and its creatures came to
be (and how long that took, or how they changed over
time), where heaven and hell and the Garden of Eden
are, and what the universe is made of.
 Man, Myth, and History
• The Social Prospect
– this function of myth-telling deals with the
validation and maintenance of an established
order.
– it can be seen as wisdom-rich models for social
behavior.
– Parables embedded with morals attempt to teach
us how we should behave, what is model
behavior, and what is unacceptable.
 Man, Myth, and History
• The Psychological Sphere
– this is the aspect of mythology where stories
symbolize important points in an individual's life,
with the purpose of the centering and
harmonization of the individual.
– Freud, with his Oedipal and Electra complexes,
was one who explicitly connected myths with life
paths.
– most stories speaks to us as individuals exactly to
the extent that we see ourselves in them.
 Man, Myth, and History
 DIRECTIONS: Complete the table below by examining various local
and regional myths and identifying their functions.

TITLE ORIGIN SYNOPSIS FUNCTION

 Man, Myth, and History
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
Campbell, Joseph. The Mythic Dimension: Selected
Essays (1959–1987). Novato, California: New World
Library, 2007.
Leeming, David. Mythology: World of Culture. New
York, USA: Newsweek Books, 1977.
 Topic 3:
INTERPRETING MYTHS
The Psychological Perspective
Grimm’s Water of Life.
A king is dying. His three
sons learn from an old
man that the only way to
save their father is to
bring him the water of life.
The dying king reluctantly
gives one son after the
other permission to seek
the water.
 The Psychological Perspective
Overview
• Much disagreement exists as to how and why
similar mythic motifs are found in widely
separated parts of the world.
– The virgin birth
– The descent into the underworld
– The great flood
• Scholars favored two theories to explain this
situation.
– Theory of diffusion – emphasizes the rational or
scientific aspects of mythology.
– Theory of parallel development – associated with
the Swiss psychiatrist C. G. Jung.
 The Psychological Perspective
Theory of Diffusion
• Man’s first myths were
invented in several culturally
ripe mythogenetic zones and
were then spread to the various
parts of the world.
• Myths, like artifacts and
alphabets, spread by migration,
trade, and conquest.
• Myths are superstitions passed
along from one group to other.
 The Psychological Perspective
Theory of Diffusion
 The Psychological Perspective
Theory of Parallel Development
• Myths can be spontaneous psychic expression of
human aims, apprehensions, and values.
• Done by studying dreams over a period of time to
look for patterns, for recurring images, ideas, or
symbols that shed some light in the personality of the
dreamer.
– Much of the dream materials can be traced to recent
events.
• people, places, and incidents experienced in daily life
naturally comprise the most common elements of dreams.
– Analyst confront patterns unique to the patient in
question, patterns that can be traced to heredity and
environment, personal unconscious – Freudian level.
 The Psychological Perspective
Theory of Parallel Development
• The analyst with an anthropological bent will
proceed next to a cultural or societal layer.
– Reflects the traditions and concerns of the dreamers'
class or group.
• Analyst will look further to find motifs or symbols
that seem to have no particular source in the
dreamer’s conscious experience but recur with
frequency in his dreams.
– These symbols or the impulses expressed by them,
are inherited from the human past and reserved in the
deepest reaches of the mind – collective unconscious
or racial memory.
 The Psychological Perspective
Theory of Parallel Development
• The first level attempts to discern concerns
peculiar to the time the myths was told in its
present form.
• Mythologist finds patterns that express the
culture of the society as a whole.
• He discovers archetypes that transcend the
particular culture.
• Mythologist compare myths to expose the inner
nature of the human race.
 The Psychological Perspective
Theory of Parallel Development
 The Psychological Perspective
From J.R.R. Tolkien, On Fairy Stories
“The incarnate mind, the tongue, and the tale are in
our world coeval.”

• Independent invention
– made by a story maker
• Diffusion
– borrowing in space
• Inheritance
– borrowing in time
The Psychological Perspective
 The Psychological Perspective

Case Study:
Dream Interpretation
Dream account of an American youth to the author of
a syndicated newspaper feature
 The Psychological Perspective
Freud and Jung theorized four-fold hierarchy model
in interpreting dreams.
1. The conscious mind – governed by ego, the rational self-
aware aspect of the mind.
2. The preconscious contains materials accessible to the
conscious mind upon demand, such as facts, memories,
ideas and motives.
3. The personal unconscious stores half-forgotten
memories, represses traumas and emotions, and
unacknowledged motives and urges.
4. The collective unconscious is a genetically inherited
level of the mind containing what Jung called the Vast
historical storehouse of the human race,
• a mental reservoir of ideas, symbols, themes and archetypes
that form the raw material of many of the world’s myths,
legends and religious systems.
 The Psychological Perspective
Three main classes of dreaming by Freud and Jung.
1. Level 1 is the most superficial class, drawing primarily
upon material in the precious mind.
• Dreams from this level tend to revolve around the events of the day,
and opinion is divided as to whether or not they are particularly
meaningful.
2. Level 2 deals with the material from the personal
unconscious, using predominantly symbolic language,
much of it specific to the dreamer.
3. Level 3 contains what Jung called grand dreams. These
deal with material from the collective unconscious,
operating only in symbols and archetypes.
4. Cosmic Dreams are characterized by extremely
important and extra ordinary dreams that is truly awe-
inspiring and occurs rarely, once in a lifetime.
• They are ones in which the qualities of the universe itself are the
major themes.
• they are an attempt by the unconscious to make sense of the
vastness of the universe and our place within it.
 The Psychological Perspective

I dreamed that I was reshingling our roof.

Suddenly I heard my father's voice on the ground
below, calling to me. I turned suddenly to hear him
better, and, as I did so, the hammer slipped out of my
hands, and slid down the sloping roof, and
disappeared over the edge. I heard a heavy thud, as
of a body falling.
Terribly frightened, I climbed down the ladder to
the ground. There was my father lying dead on the
ground, with blood all over his head. I was
brokenhearted, and began calling my mother, in the
midst of my sobs. She came out of the house, and put
her arms around me.
 The Psychological Perspective

“Never mind, son, it was all an accident,” she

said. “I know you will take care of me, even if he is
gone.”
As she was kissing me, I woke up.
I am the eldest child in our family and am
twenty-three years old. I have been separated from
my wife for a year; somehow, we could not get along
together. I love both my parents dearly, and have
never had any trouble with my father, except that he
insisted that I go back and live with my wife, and I
couldn't be happy with her. And I never will.
 The Psychological Perspective
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fontana, David. The Secret Language of Dreams: A Visual
Key to Dreams and Their Meaning. San Francisco, USA:
Chronicle Books.1994.
Leeming, David. Mythology: World of Culture. New York,
USA: Newsweek Books, 1977.
O'Connell, Mark. The Ultimate Illustrated Guide to Dreams,
Signs & Symbols. China: JG Press, 2008.
Van de Castle, Robert L. Our Dreaming Mind. Denton,
Texas, United States of America: Random House
Publishing Group, 1995.
 Topic 4:
THE STRUCTURE OF MYTHS
 The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Overview
• There are several types of culture hero.
– One who represents the shared values of an
entire nation – national heroes.
• Aeneas symbolized the Romans’ deviation from
what they considered corrupt Greek traditions.
– One who represents religion.
• Jesus of Nazareth and Gautama Buddha
– One who combines religious and national
impulses.
• Joan of Arc and Mao Tse-tung
 The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Overview
• The true culture hero is a medium for
language of myth.
– The wonderful song of the soul’s high adventure,
Joseph Campbell.
• A hero repeatedly tests himself in a series of
adventure that also serve to establish his
identity.
• These adventures may be national, religious,
cultural, or ideological, but at their deepest
level, they are also psychological.
 The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Types of Heroes
 The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Types of Heroes
• Hero. In mythology a mighty warrior who is often
the son of a god or king and goes on an epic quest
• Hero. (2) Main character of a story who often
displays admirable qualities
• Anti-hero. Main character of a story who is flawed
in some way and often does not display admirable
qualities
• Tragic hero. Main character of a tragedy whose
tragic flaw leads to his or her destruction
• Byronic hero. Rebellious main character who has a
troubled past and indulges in self-destructive
behaviors that threaten to doom him or her.
 The Hero with a Thousand Faces
• The Structure of a Monomyth by Joseph
Campbell
– Joseph Campbell defined a classic
sequence of actions that are found in
many stories.
– It is also known as the Monomyth, a
term Campbell coined from James
Joyce's Finnigan's Wake.
 The Hero with a Thousand Faces
THE STRUCTURE OF A MONOMYTH
 The Hero with a Thousand Faces
• I. Separation / Departure
– The first section of the story is about the
separation of the hero from the normal world.
Separation has symbolic echo of infant transition
away from the mother and so has a scary feel to
it.
• I.1 The Call to Adventure
• I.2 Refusal of the Call or Acceptance of the Call
• I.3 Supernatural Aid
• I.4 Crossing of the First Threshold
• I.5 Entering the Belly of the Whale
The Hero with a Thousand Faces
 The Hero with a Thousand Faces
• II. Initiation
– In the main part of the story the hero is initiated
into true heroic stature by various trials and rites.
Through daring and battle, the true character
emerges.
• II.1 Road of Trials
• II.2 The Meeting with the Goddess
• II.3 Woman as Temptress
• II.4 Atonement with the Father
• II.5 Apotheosis
• II.6 The Ultimate Boon
 The Hero with a Thousand Faces
• III. Return
– After initiation the hero can cleansed and return
in triumph to deserved recognition, although this
in itself may not be without its trials and
tribulations.
• III.1 Refusal of the Return
• III.2 Magic Flight
• III.3 Rescue From Without
• III.4 Crossing of the Return Threshold
• III.5 Master of the Two Worlds
• III.6 Freedom to Live
 The Hero with a Thousand Faces
• Another eight-step formulation was given by
David Adams Leeming in his book,
Mythology: The Voyage of the Hero:
1. Miraculous conception and birth
2. Initiation of the hero-child
3. Withdrawal from family or community for
meditation and preparation
4. Trial and Quest
5. Death
6. Descent into the underworld
7. Resurrection and rebirth
8. Ascension, apotheosis, and atonement
The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Miraculous
conception and birth
The modern "great mother,"
appropriately oversized, points as
madonnas of the past do to the child
miraculously visible in a mandalic
womb. By so doing she reminds us that
the child hero—the Self within—can
provide meaningful focus to the
otherwise disparate activities of a
distorted world.

[Marc Chagall, Maternity (1913), Stedelijk Museum,

Amsterdam, on loan from Netherlands Institute for Cultural
Heritage. © 1998 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New
York/ADAGP, Paris.]
The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Initiation of the
hero-child
The sense of wonder and of initiation
into mysterious realities of form
pervades this painting. The serpentlike
arrow at the base speaks intrusively of
the dangers implicit in the paradise of
early awakening.
[Paul Klee, A Young Lady's Adventure (1922), The Tate
Gallery, London/Art Resource, NY. Reproduced with
permission.]
The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Withdrawal from
family or
community for
meditation and
preparation
In this modern "Angelus" the
contemplative in isolation, like the hero
of old in his stage of withdrawal to cave
or mountain, is faced with a vision of the
essence of her own inner reality.
[Salvador Dali, Portrait of Gala (L'Angelus de Gala). 1935.
Oil on wood, 12 3/4 x 10 1/2 in. (32.4 x 26.7 cm). The
Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Abby Aldrich
Rockefeller. Photograph © 1998 The Museum of Modern
Art, New York.
 The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Trial and Quest

Perhaps the best known of modern paintings, Picasso's Guernica conveys as
forcefully as the stories of the labors of Hercules or the trials of the Buddha the heroic
agon and adventure that is the search for wholeness in a world threatened by chaos.
[Pablo Picasso, Guernica (1937), oil on canvas, 11 ft., 5 1/2 in. x 25 ft., 5 3/4 in. Reproduced with permission of Museo Nacional
Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid. © 1998 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.]
The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Death
Crucifix: The cross and the X
here are symbolic, as they always have
been, of the hero's crossing from one
sphere of existence to another—of his
confronting that which takes life but in
so doing defines it.
[Thomas Chimes, Crucifix (1961), oil on canvas, 36 x 36in
(91.5 x 91.5 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Larry Aldrich Foundation Fund. Photograph © 1998 The
Museum of Modern Art, New York. Reproduced with
permission.]
 The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Descent into the underworld

The Anxious Journey: A symbol of the energies of our society, the
locomotive wanders among classical forms, perhaps searching like the hero of old for
destiny and meaning among shades of the past.
[Giorgio de Chirico, The Anxious Journey (1913), Oil on canvas, 29 1/4 x 42 in. (74.3 x 106.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art,
New York. Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest. Photograph © 1998 The Museum of Modern Art, New York.]
 The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Resurrection and rebirth

Spiraling out of the crescent moon—usually a female symbol—is a seed of
life. The painting is a joyful—even playful—celebration of the eternal cycle.
[Joan Miro, Landscape; The Hare (1927), oil on canvas, 51 x 76 A in. Collection, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New
York. Photo: David Heald.]
The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Ascension,
apotheosis, and
atonement
Mandalas, general symmetry, a
sense of strangely meaningful
connections, and upward movement
create a sense of apotheosis and
wholeness that is the heroic life or
human adventure.
[Max Ernst, Men Shall Know Nothing of This (1923), The
Tate Gallery, London/Art Resource, N.Y. Reproduced with
permission.]
 He who follows the hero gains a true
self through the loss of the illusion of
personal and local self.

The beginning path to psychic

wholeness, then, is the recognition that
the hero’s voyage is potentially of
Everyman.

- David Adams Leeming

 The Hero with a Thousand Faces
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
Campbell, Joseph with Moyers, Bill. The Power of
Myth. Ed. Betty Sue Flowers. United States of
America: Bantam Doubleday Publishing Group Inc.,
1988.
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
Novato, California: New World Library, 2008.
Johnson, Paul. Heroes: From Alexander the Great and
Julius Caesar to Churchill and De Gaulle.
Hammersmith, London: HarperCollins Publishers,
2007.
Leeming, David. Mythology: World of Culture. New
York, USA: Newsweek Books, 1977.
 Topic 5:
THE MYTHMAKER
 The Mythmakers
The Mythmaking Process
• Source of idea
– Who put the Word into words?
– Psyche

• Articulator
– gives voice to the human soul through language
– wild-eyed poet, singer of tales
 The Mythmakers
The Mythmaking Process in Samuel Taylor
Coleridge’s Kubla Khan

Samuel Taylor SLEEP

CONCEPTUALIZATION
Coleridge impression that he was
composing some three
hundred lines of poetry
Mental State
 an experience AWAKE
 reading passage PRODUCTION Kubla Khan
wrote lines of poetry
in an old book
ARRIVAL OF A
Physical State VISITOR
INTERRUPTION
 dose of opium
his vision was lost
 The Mythmakers
The Mythmaking Process of Shaman

SHAMAN
Mental State Most Potent
 an experience CONCEPTUALIZATION
 solitude A guardian spirit Medicine
appeared and gave him WORD
the power to see vision
Physical State through a
PRODUCTION trance-induced
 fasting Uttered trance-induced
 hunger song song
 die a little
 The Mythmakers
Shamanism in Tlingit Indian folktale
• Shamanic elements
– Two sets of paraphernalia
– Voyage to the underworld
– Ritual actions
– Retrieval of a lost person
– Instruction by guardian spirits
– Miraculous return from apparent death
 The Mythmakers
“All true poetry is based on a mythic
language that is made up of a few
formulae .”
(Robert Graves, The White Goddess)

“The emergence of basic myth has not

always been dependent on culture
heroes, religion, epic poems, or what we
usually think of as myths.”
(David Adams Leeming, Mythology: A world of Culture)
 The Mythmakers
Motifs in Bother Grimm's Water of Life
– three sons - first is evil
– second son thinks of personal gain
– instructions as allusions to famous folk-fairy
tales
– vulnerability of human
– undergoing a period of ritual withdrawal
 The Mythmakers
“I go to encounter for the millionth time
the reality of experience and to forge in
the smithy of my soul the uncreated
conscience of my race.”

(Stephen Dedalus in James Joyce’s A Portrait

of the Artist as a Young Man)
 The Mythmakers
Shamanism
• It is an ancient method of spiritual communication that
is used for spiritual and physical healing as well as for
personal growth.
• Shamanic practices exist in many tribal cultures
world-wide and are experiencing a renaissance in
urban cultures.
• In shamanism, one enters an altered mental state—
typically by using drums or rattles to create a sound
field that changes consciousness.
• The altered state, called a shamanic journey, is used to
gain help and wisdom.
• In the journey the shaman encounters helping spirits
which provide help and guidance when properly
approached.
 The Mythmakers
Fundamental Elements of Shamanism
• While shamanic practices vary widely, they also
contain a unifying set of basic assumptions:
– Everything that exists is alive.
– Everything can be communicated with if approached
properly.
– There are other realities available to us in which we
can journey.
– The residents called spirits of these other realities are
sympathetic, for the most part, to humanity and want
to be helpful, if asked.
– Every human being has helping spirits, even if they
are not aware of it.
 The Mythmakers
Fundamental Elements of Shamanism
• While shamanic practices vary widely, they also
contain a unifying set of basic assumptions:
– True power involves a proper relationship to these
other realities.
– Illness includes an element of power-loss or soul-loss.
– Illness can also occur because of power-intrusion in
which vagrant spirits come to reside uninvited in the
body.
– Shamanism deals with the spiritual aspects of health.
– The realms that can be journeyed to have their own
topography including a Lower, Middle, and Upper
world.
 The Mythmakers
Some Shamanic Concepts Defined
– Core Shamanism: the fundamental defining elements of
shamanistic belief and practice as they occur almost
universally across cultures.
– Ecstasy: The experience of being outside one's self,
often joyously.
– Lower World: One of the shamanic realities. To enter it
involves an experience of going down, often through a
tunnel. It has many levels. In it reside Power Animals
and other healing and instructive forces. It is not a
negative place like Hell.
– Middle World: Ordinary reality experienced
shamanically and therefore perceived in the spiritual
sense.
 The Mythmakers
Some Shamanic Concepts Defined
– Upper World: To enter the upper world one journeys
up from the Middle World. It can be a positive place
but is not synonymous with Heaven.
– Non Ordinary Reality: the reality that the shaman
journeys into. It does not follow the rules of
Aristotelian logic.
– Ordinary reality: Reality as we experience it in our
usual state of awareness. It adheres to the rules of
logic.
– Power: Fullness of life and immunity against
negative spiritual influences. It is gained by right
relationship with the other realms.
 The Mythmakers
Some Shamanic Concepts Defined
– Power Animal: A guardian spirit or familiar
manifesting itself as an animal who has compassion
for a person and agrees to act as a guide, advisor, and
healer.
– Shaman: A person who contacts other realities for
healing and wisdom in the service of his or her
community.
– Shamanic Drum: The sound of the shamanic drum
is the “horse” on which the shaman rides to the other
realms. It is typically a one-headed hand drum,
beaten in a monotonous rhythm with a soft mallet.
The drum contains much power and symbolism.
 The Mythmakers
Some Shamanic Concepts Defined
– Shamanic Rattle: Rattles are used for
communicating with spirits and for healing work.
– Shamanic State of Consciousness: An altered state
of consciousness, not well understood
neurologically, which provides the ecstatic
experience of journeying to other realities which
have a consistency and coherence of their own. It
is attained most commonly through the use of a
Sonic Driver or in some cultures through the use
of mind-altering herbs.
 The Mythmakers
Some Shamanic Concepts Defined
– Shamanism: The belief system and practices of
those who use an altered state of consciousness in
contacting other realities. It is a method of
gaining knowledge and is not in itself a religion,
though the two tend to merge in tribal cultures.
– Sonic Driver: Use of repetitive sound to alter
consciousness, most typically with drums and
rattles, but also through other repetitious sounds.
– World Tree: The axis mundi, the interconnection
between the worlds, used by some as a route in
journeying to gain access to the other worlds.
 The Mythmakers
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
Campbell, Joseph with Moyers, Bill. The Power of
Myth. Ed. Betty Sue Flowers. United States of
America: Bantam Doubleday Publishing Group
Inc., 1988.
Leeming, David. Mythology: World of Culture.
New York, USA: Newsweek Books, 1977.
Shamanic Art Studio. Shamanism. Retrieved
November 7, 2011 available at
http://www.shamanicartsstudio.com/Shamanism.h
tm
 Module 8:
Methodologies in Understanding Myths and Folktales
 Methodologies in Understanding
Myths and Folktales

Overview
• The myth critic is concerned to seek out those mysterious
elements that inform certain literary works and that elicit
dramatic and universal human reactions.
• He examines how certain works of literature project an
image of reality to which readers give perennial responses.
• A critic may study in depth the archetypes or archetypal
patterns that the writer has drawn from the structure of his
masterpiece which influences the reader.
• Mythology tends to be speculative and philosophical; its
affinities are with religion, anthropology, and cultural
history.
 Methodologies in Understanding
Myths and Folktales

Overview
• Myths are the symbolic projections of a people's hopes,
values, fears, and aspirations.
• To analyze a myth is to analyze it from the viewpoint of
some theory.
• Theories need myths as much as myths need theories. If
theories illuminate myths, myths confirm theories.
• A theory is to show how well it works when its tenets are
assumed – this on the grounds that the theory must be
either false or limited if it turns out not to work.
 Methodologies in Understanding
Myths and Folktales

Methodologies in Understanding Myths

and Folktales
1. Man and His Symbols by Carl
Gustav Jung
2. The Structural Study of Myth by
Claude Levi-Strauss
3. Morphology of The Folk Tale by
Vladímir Propp
 Methodologies in Understanding
Myths and Folktales
Man and His Symbols by Carl Gustav
Jung
– According to Jung, heroism involves, in addition,
relations with the unconscious.
– Jungians at once analyze all kinds of myths, not just
hero myths, and interpret other kinds heroically.
» Creation myths, for example, symbolize the
creation of consciousness out of the unconscious.
– For Jung, the unconscious is inherited rather than
created and includes far more than repressed
instincts.
– The goal of the uniquely Jungian second half of life
is likewise consciousness, but now consciousness of
the Jungian unconscious rather than of the external
world.
 Methodologies in Understanding
Myths and Folktales

The Structural Study of Myth by

Claude Levi-Strauss
– Claude Lévi-Strauss’ contribution to the study of
myth is the invention of a structuralist approach
to myth.
– Humans as argued by Lévi-Strauss, think in the
form of classifications, specifically pairs of
oppositions, and project them onto the world.
 Methodologies in Understanding
Myths and Folktales
The Structural Study of Myth by Claude
Levi-Strauss
– For Lévi-Strauss, the distinctiveness of myth among these
phenomena is threefold.
» First, to be able to organize even myths into sets of
oppositions would be to prove irrefutably that order is
inherent in all cultural phenomena and that the mind must
therefore underlie it.
» Second, myth, together with totemism, is the only
exclusively primitive phenomenon among the ones that
Lévi-Strauss considers. To prove that it is orderly would
prove that its creator is orderly, hence logical and
intellectual, as well.
» Third and most important, myth alone not only expresses
oppositions, which are equivalent to contradictions, but
also resolves them for the purpose of myth is to provide a
logical model capable of overcoming a contradiction.
 Methodologies in Understanding
Myths and Folktales

Morphology of The Folk Tale by

Vladímir Propp
– Notably, the Russian folklorist Vladimir Propp
wrote on the common plot which described most
myths as literature,
– Propp deciphers in Russian fairy tales is his
structure.
– Propp’s structure remains on the narrative level
and is therefore no different from the kind of
‘structure’ found by Otto Rank, Joseph Campbell,
and Lord Raglan.
 Methodologies in Understanding
Myths and Folktales
Activity:
 Spearhead a seminar/workshop on the
methodologies in understanding myths.
• The class will conceptualize a theme for the
seminar/workshop and design a programme for event.
• The class will be divided into three groups. Each group
will deal with each of the following topics;
a. Man and His Symbols by Carl Gustav Jung
b. The Structural Study of Myth by Claude Levi-Strauss
c. Morphology of The Folk Tale by Vladímir Propp.
 Methodologies in Understanding
Myths and Folktales
Activity:
• Each group shall prepare a presentation on assigned topic.
a. The Presentation shall include the following.
 An introduction which will serve as an overview of the chosen
method dealing with the proponent, history, and the general
concepts.
 Methodology which will expound on the processes and
procedures in understanding myths using the chosen method.
 Praxis which will demonstrate how theories of the chosen
method are put into application.
 Pedagogical Implications which will give emphasis on the
application of the theories being discussed in teaching English
and Literature.
• Each group shall also provide copy of their lecture to the
audience as well as the supplementary readings used in the
session.
• Evaluation of the performance of each group will be based on
the rubrics prepared by the instructor in the subject.
 Mythological and Archetypal Approaches

• BIBLIOGRAPHY
Guerin, Wilfred L. Labor, Earle. Morgan, Lee. and
Reesman, Ieanne C. A Handboook of Critical
Approaches to Literature. 5th ed. Oxford, New
York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
 Module 3:
Myths of Creation
 Creation Myths

I. The Birth of Order

• Creation myths offer a cosmogony,
meaning “the birth of order.”
• From the Greek words
• cosmos means world
• gignesthai means to be born
• Cosmogony can be distinguished
from cosmology, which studies the
universe at large and throughout its
existence, and which technically
does not inquire directly into the
source of its origins.
Creation Myths
 Creation Myths

II. Classifying Cosmogonies

• Usually the most important myth in a culture
because it becomes the exemplary model for all
other myths
• Cosmogonies relate how the entire world came
into being
• Some narratives relate the creation of the world
from nothing (creation ex nihilo)
– a. Hebrew – Book of Genesis
– b. Egyptian, Ptah creates through speech
– c. Australian,
– d. Greek, Hesiod’s Theogony begins with great abyss, void
– e. Mayan, Popul Vu
 Creation Myths

II. Classifying Cosmogonies

• Another type of cosmogonic myth is known as the
earth-diver creation story
• A divinity typically sends a waterfowl or amphibious
creature to dive to the bottom of the primordial waters
and bring up mud from which the world grows
• Other cosmogonic myths describe creation as
emerging from the lower worlds
• Navajo and Hope tell of a progression upwards from
lower worlds resulting in the final progression into the
world of humanity
• A Polynesian myth tell of various layers within a
coconut shell
 Creation Myths

II. Classifying Cosmogonies

• Other cosmogonic myths describe creation
emerging from a world or cosmic egg
• Myths from Africa, China, India, South Pacific, Greece
and Japan speak of creation symbolized as breaking
forth from a fertile cosmic egg
• The Dogon people of West Africa describe this egg as
the “placenta of the world”
 Creation Myths

II. Classifying Cosmogonies

• Yet another type of cosmogonic myth is the world-
parent myth
• The Enuma Elish is the creation story of the
Babylonians; Apsu and Tiamat bear offspring who
later oppose their parents; the result of this
confrontation is the creation of the world (more on this
story later)
– This myth (as well as others like it) are also associated with
creation from dismemberment
• Other world-parent myths come from the Egyptians,
Zuni, and Polynesians
 Creation Myths

II. Classifying Cosmogonies

• Another approach from those listed above: Van
Over’s Six Basic Themes
1. Idea of a primeval abyss
2. Originator(s) awakened or eternally existing in this
abyss
3. Originator(s) brood over the water
4. Theme of the cosmic egg or embryo
5. Creation from sacred sound or spoken word
6. Theme of creation from the death of and body parts
of the primeval god
 Creation Myths

II. Classifying Cosmogonies

• Yet another approach: Maclagan’s 8 themes
1. Inner and outer
2. Something from nothing
3. Conjugation of opposites
4. World order and the order of the worlds
5. Descent and ascent
6. Earth body and sacrifice
7. Death, time, and the elements
 Creation Myths

II. Classifying Cosmogonies

• Lastly, Weigle’s nine-part typology
1. Accretion or conjunction
2. Secretion
3. Sacrifice
4. Division or conjugation
5. Earth-diver
6. Emergence
7. Two creators
8. Deus faber
9. Ex nihilo
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III. Types of Creation Myth

• Accretion or Conjunction Stories
– These stories depict the birth of order as resulting
from the mingling or layering of the primal
elements (e.g., earth, wind, fire, water).
– accretion is a process in which the size of
something gradually increases by steady addition
of smaller parts
• e.g., droplets of water vapor form clouds
• e.g., an increase in land mass through accumulation of
dirt, rock and sand
 Creation Myths

III. Types of Creation Myth

• Secretion Stories
– This pattern involves the cosmos resulting from
divine emissions such as vomit, sweat, urination,
defecation, masturbation, web-spinning and
parthenogenesis (asexual reproduction).
1. Typically the secretions result in human forms but
some stories include secretions resulting in non-
human forms (seas, lands, animals, plants, etc.)
 Creation Myths

III. Types of Creation Myth

• Secretion Stories
2. Example of non-human formations is found in the
story of Ku’urkil, the Chuckchee’s “self-formed”
Father Raven, defecates and urinates, thus creating
the earth and various bodies of water
3. More common are the secretions resulting in the
creation of conscious beings resembling the primeval
creator intellectually and spiritually.
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III. Types of Creation Myth

• Sacrifice Stories
– In some cosmogonies, the creator god sacrifices him or
herself or someone else in order to complete the work of
creation.
• Division or Consummation Stories
– Weigle says that these types of myths are “usually
associated with discriminating primal matter or a
cosmogonic egg with the consummated marriage of earth
and sky.”
– The consummation motif shares with cosmogonic egg
myths the knowledge that tiny germs contain within them
astonishing potential for organized growth.
 Creation Myths

III. Types of Creation Myth

• Earth-Diver Stories
– In Weigle’s fifth type of creation myth, a god or his agent
dives to the bottom of the primordial deep, from which
most cosmogonies begin, and returns with a few grains of
sand or a bit of mud from which the earth and the rest of
the cosmos eventually arise. Some stories already
mentioned include this typology.
• Emergence Stories
– Emergence myths typically depict the first people or first
person as journeying from an original, cramped world or
womb into this world. Many Native American myths take
this form.
 Creation Myths

III. Types of Creation Myth

• Two Creators
– This type of cosmogony, very common among African
and Native American traditions, depicts two gods creating
the world through cooperation or competition.
– Frequently, one god is more active or more human than
the other.
• Deus Faber
– This term means the Maker God, the quintessential
architect, artisan, or craftsperson.
– Deus faber stories celebrate the astonishing intricacy and
cleverness of creation.
 Creation Myths

III. Types of Creation Myth

• Ex Nihilo = “out of nothing”
– A Latin term, literally means “from nothingness”
or “from spirit”
– Used to describe cosmogonies in which the
creator brings the world into being through
speech, breath, dream, thought, or laughter
(Weigle)
 Creation Myths

IV. Reading Creation Myths

• Keep in mind, the categories through which we have
discussed creation myths need not be strictly distinct
and unrelated. Many myths exhibit multiple
characteristics.
• Mythologist, once they understand a variety of
types, often ask more probing questions:
– Why do certain cultures depict the creation through one
chosen type rather than another?
– What is the culture ultimately trying to say about itself?
– Do any categories emphasize some values over other
values?
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IV. Reading Creation Myths

– Do their environments influence the moods or tones of
their stories?
– What kind of relationship is depicted between creators
and humans and does this speak to a culture’s
contemporary understanding of divine beings?
– What symbols are used and what remains significant
about these symbols in more contemporary descendents?
 Creation Myths
Hebrew Book of Genesis
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Babylonian Enuma elish
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Egyptian Book of Overthrowing Apopis
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Hesiod's Theogony
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Hindu’s Rig Veda
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Japanese Kojiki, “Record of Ancient Things”
 Creation Myths
Norse Voluspa from the Poetic Edda
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Finnish Kalevala
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Quiche Maya’s Popol Vuh
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• BIBLIOGRAPHY
Leonard, Scott A. and McClure, Michael. Myth and
Knowing: An Introduction to World Mythology.
United States of America: McGraw-Hill, 2003.