Metaphysical Thoughts and Visions

Exploring Mysticism and Parapsychology. This blog is also an attempt to promote awareness of a Modern Universal Paradigm known as Multi-Dimensional Science. It offers a "Scientific" testable Hypothesis for a more "objective" understanding of claimed Psychic and Spiritual Phenomena. A link to this subject should be found on this page or alternatively it can be found easily via a word search.Please note that the Internet articles here may not always reflect the views of the Blogger.

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Monday, 11 August 2014

Apotheosis

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For the Belgian techno duo, see Apotheosis (group).

"Autotheism" redirects here. For the album by The Faceless, see Autotheism (album).

Apotheosis (from Greek ἀποθέωσις from ἀποθεοῦν, apotheoun "to deify"; in Latin deificatio "making divine"; also called divinization and deification) is the glorification of a subject to divine level. The term has meanings in theology, where it refers to a belief, and in art, where it refers to a genre.
In theology, the term apotheosis refers to the idea that an individual has been raised to godlike stature. In art, the term refers to the treatment of any subject (a figure, group, locale, motif, convention or melody) in a particularly grand or exalted manner.

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Antiquity[edit]

Further information: imperial cult and divine king

Prior to the Hellenistic period, imperial cults were known in Ancient Egypt (pharaohs) and Mesopotamia (since Naram-Sin). From the New Kingdom, all deceased pharaohs were deified as Osiris.

Ancient Greece[edit]

Main article: Greek hero cult

From at least the Geometric period of the ninth century BC, the long-deceased heroes linked with founding myths of Greek sites were accorded chthonic rites in their heroon, or "hero-temple".
In the Greek world, the first leader who accorded himself divine honours was Philip II of Macedon, who was a king, when the Greeks had set kingship aside, and who had extensive economic and military ties, though largely antagonistic, with Achaemenid Persia, where kings were divine. At his wedding to his sixth wife, Philip's enthroned image was carried in procession among the Olympian gods; "his example at Aigai became a custom, passing to the Macedonian kings who were later worshipped in Greek Asia, from them to Julius Caesar and so to the emperors of Rome".^[1] Such Hellenistic state leaders might be raised to a status equal to the gods before death (e.g., Alexander the Great) or afterwards (e.g., members of the Ptolemaic dynasty). Heroic cult similar to apotheosis was also an honour given to a few revered artists of the distant past, notably Homer.
Archaic and Classical Greek hero-cults became primarily civic, extended from their familial origins, in the sixth century; by the fifth century none of the worshipers based their authority by tracing descent back to the hero, with the exception of some families who inherited particular priestly cult, such as the Eumolpides (descended from Eumolpus) of the Eleusinian mysteries, and some inherited priesthoods at oracle sites. The Greek hero cults can be distinguished on the other hand from the Roman cult of dead emperors, because the hero was not thought of as having ascended to Olympus or become a god: he was beneath the earth, and his power purely local. For this reason hero cults were chthonic in nature, and their rituals more closely resembled those for Hecate and Persephone than those for Zeus and Apollo. Two exceptions were Heracles and Asclepius, who might be honoured as either gods or heroes, sometimes by chthonic night-time rites and sacrifice on the following day.

Ancient Rome[edit]

Main article: Imperial cult (ancient Rome)

Apotheosis in ancient Rome was a process whereby a deceased ruler was recognized as having been divine by his successor, usually also by a decree of the Senate and popular consent. In addition to showing respect, often the present ruler deified a popular predecessor to legitimize himself and gain popularity with the people. The upper-class did not always take part in the imperial cult,^{[citation needed]} and some privately ridiculed the apotheosis of inept and feeble emperors, as in the satire The Pumpkinification of (the Divine) Claudius, usually attributed to Seneca. At the height of the imperial cult during the Roman Empire, sometimes the emperor's deceased loved ones—heirs, empresses, or lovers, as Hadrian's Antinous—were deified as well. Deified people were awarded posthumously the title Divus (Diva if women) to their names to signify their divinity. Traditional Roman religion distinguished between a deus (god) and a divus (a mortal who became divine or deified), though not consistently. Temples and columns were sometimes erected to provide a space for worship.

Ancient China[edit]

The Ming dynasty epic Investiture of the Gods deals heavily with deification legends. Numerous mortals have been deified into the Daoist pantheon, such as Guan Yu, Iron-crutch Li and Fan Kuai. Song Dynasty General Yue Fei was deified during the Ming Dynasty and is considered by some practitioners to be one of the three highest ranking heavenly generals.^[2]^[3]

Southeast Asia and North Korea[edit]

Various Hindu and Buddhist rulers in the past have been represented as deities, especially after death, from Thailand to Indonesia. Even several Sultans of Yogyakarta were semi-deified^{[citation needed]}, posthumously.
Deceased North-Korean president Kim Il-Sung is object of a cult of personality similar of a deity's one, which has statues, monuments dedicated to the "Eternal Leader", annual commemoration of his birth, peregrination of newlyweds to his nearest statue, the Juche era dating system beginning with Kim birthday, etc.

Christianity[edit]

Generally[edit]

Main article: Divinization (Christian)

Instead of the word "apotheosis", Christian theology uses in English the words "deification" or "divinization" or the Greek word "theosis". Traditional mainstream theology, both East and West, views Jesus Christ as the preexisting God who undertook mortal existence, not as a mortal being who attained divinity. It holds that he has made it possible for human beings to be raised to the level of sharing the divine nature: he became one of us to make us "partakers of the divine nature"^[4] "For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God."^[5] "For He was made man that we might be made God."^[6] "The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods."^[7]
The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology contains the following in an article titled "Deification":

Deification (Greek theosis) is for Orthodoxy the goal of every Christian. Man, according to the Bible, is 'made in the image and likeness of God.'. . . It is possible for man to become like God, to become deified, to become god by grace. This doctrine is based on many passages of both OT and NT (e.g. Ps. 82 (81).6; II Peter 1.4), and it is essentially the teaching both of St Paul, though he tends to use the language of filial adoption (cf. Rom. 8.9—17; Gal. 4.5—7), and the Fourth Gospel (cf. 17.21—23).

The language of II Peter is taken up by St Irenaeus, in his famous phrase, 'if the Word has been made man, it is so that men may be made gods' (Adv. Haer V, Pref.), and becomes the standard in Greek theology. In the fourth century, St. Athanasius repeats Irenaeus almost word for word, and in the fifth century St Cyril of Alexandria says that we shall become sons 'by participation' (Greek methexis). Deification is the central idea in the spirituality of St. Maximus the Confessor, for whom the doctrine is the corollary of the Incarnation: 'Deification, briefly, is the encompassing and fulfillment of all times and ages,' . . . and St. Symeon the New Theologian at the end of the tenth century writes, 'He who is God by nature converses with those whom he has made gods by grace, as a friend converses with his friends, face to face.' . . .

In Eastern Christianity[edit]

Christian theology traditionally makes a distinction between "theosis" and "apotheosis". Orthodox Trinitarian Christianity views Jesus Christ as the preexisting God who undertook mortal existence, not a mortal being who attained divinity. Regarding human beings, the mystical theology of the Eastern Orthodox churches and Eastern Catholic churches characteristically describes the situation as "theosis", a Greek word.

Roman Catholic Church[edit]

Corresponding to the Greek word theosis are the Latin-derived words "divinization" and "deification" used in the parts of the Catholic Church that are of Latin tradition. The concept has been given less prominence in Western theology than in that of the Eastern Catholic Churches, but is present in the Latin Church's liturgical prayers, such as that of the deacon or priest when pouring wine and a little water into the chalice: "By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity."^[8] The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes with approval Saint Athanasius's saying, "The Son of God became man so that we might become God."^[6]^[9] It does not use the term "apotheosis".
Catholic theology stresses the concept of supernatural life, "a new creation and elevation, a rebirth, it is a participation in and partaking of the divine nature"^[10] (cf. 2 Peter 1:4). In Catholic teaching there is a vital distinction between natural life and supernatural life, the latter being "the life that God, in an act of love, freely gives to human beings to elevate them above their natural lives" and which they receive through prayer and the sacraments; indeed the Catholic Church sees human existence as having as its whole purpose the acquisition, preservation and intensification of this supernatural life.^[11]

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints[edit]

Main articles: Exaltation (Mormonism) and Plan of salvation (Latter Day Saints)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church or Mormons) do believe in apotheosis along the lines of the Christian tradition of divinization or deification, but in the church it is referred to as exaltation or eternal life, and is accomplished through "sanctification." LDS believe that mankind may live with God throughout eternity in families and eventually become gods themselves, though remaining subordinate to God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit. While the primary focus of the LDS Church is on Jesus of Nazareth and His atoning sacrifice for man,^[12] Mormons believe that one purpose for Christ's mission and for His atonement is the exaltation or Christian deification of man. The third Article of Faith of Mormon Christianity states that all men may be saved from sin through the atonement of Jesus Christ and LDS Gospel Doctrine (as published) states that all men will be saved and will be resurrected from death. However, only those who are sufficiently obedient and who accept the atonement and the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ before the resurrection and final judgment will be "exalted" and, thereby, receive a literal Christian deification.
One popular Mormon quote which is often attributed to the early Mormon leader Lorenzo Snow in 1837, is “As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be.”^[13]^[14] The teaching was taught first by Joseph Smith, Jr. while pointing to John 5:19 in the New Testament; he said that "God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did."^[15] Many^[who?] LDS and non-LDS scholars also have discussed the correlation between Mormon belief in exaltation and the ancient Christian theosis or deification as set forth by early Church Fathers^[14]^{[page needed]}^{[third-party source needed]}^[specify]. Several^[who?] LDS and non-LDS historians specializing in studies of the early Christian Church also claim that the Mormon belief in eternal progression is more similar to the ancient Christian deification as set forth in numerous patristic writings of the first through fourth centuries A.D. than the beliefs of any other modern faith group of the Christian tradition^[14]^{[page needed]}^{[third-party source needed]}^{[unreliable source?]}.
Mormons believe that the original Christian belief in man's divine potential gradually lost its meaning and importance in the centuries after the death of the apostles, as doctrinal changes by post-apostolic theologians caused Christians to lose sight of the true nature of God and His purpose for creating humanity. The concept of God's nature that was eventually accepted as Christian doctrine in the 4th century set divinity apart from humanity by defining the Godhead as three persons sharing a common divine substance. This classification of God in terms of a substance is not found in scripture,^[16] ^[17] yet in many aspects mirrored the Greek metaphysical philosophies that are known to have influenced the thinking of church fathers^[18] such as Justin Martyr, Origen, and Augustine. Mormons teach that through modern revelation, God restored the knowledge that He is the literal father of our spirits (Hebrews 12:9), and that Biblical references to God creating mankind in His image and likeness were in no way allegorical. As such, Mormons assert that as the literal offspring of our Father (Acts 17:28-29), humans have the potential to be heirs of His glory, and co-heirs with our brother Jesus Christ (Romans 8:16-17). This glory, Mormons believe, lies not in God’s substance, but in His intelligence—in other words, light and truth (Doctrine and Covenants 93:36^[19]). Thus the purpose of our creation is to grow and progress to become like our Father in Heaven. Mortality is seen as a crucial step in this process, where God's spirit children gain a body—which though formed in the image of the Father's body, is subject to pain, illness, temptation, and death. The purpose of this earth life is to learn to choose the right in the face of this opposition, thereby gaining essential experience and wisdom. The level of intelligence we attain in this life will rise with us in the resurrection (Doctrine and Covenants 130:18-19). Our bodies will then be immortal like that of the Father and the Son (Philemon 3:21), however the degree of glory to which each person will resurrect is contingent upon the final judgement (Revelations 20:13, 1 Corinthians 15:40-41). Those who are worthy to return to God's presence can continue to progress towards a fullness of God's glory, which Mormons refer to as eternal life, or exaltation (Doctrine and Covenants 76).
The LDS concept of apotheosis/exaltation is expressed in the following LDS scriptures: Mosiah 3:19, Alma 13:12, D&C 78:7, D&C 78:22, D&C 84:4, D&C 84:23, D&C 88:68, D&C 93:28, and expressed by a member of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, "Though stretched by our challenges, by living righteously and enduring well we can eventually become sufficiently more like Jesus in our traits and attributes, that one day we can dwell in the Father's presence forever and ever." (Neal Maxwell, October 1997)
In early 2014, the LDS church published an essay on the official church website specifically addressing the foundations, history, and official beliefs regarding apotheosis.^[20] The essay addresses the scriptural foundations of this uniquely Mormon belief, teachings of the early Christian church fathers on the subject of deificiation, and the teachings of LDS church leaders, starting with Joseph Smith, on the subject.

Art[edit]

In art the matter is practical: the elevation of a figure to divine level entails certain conventions. So it is that the apotheosis genre exists in Christian art as in other art. The features of the apotheosis genre may be seen in subjects that emphasize Christ's divinity (Transfiguration, Ascension, Christ Pantocrator) and that depict holy persons "in glory"—that is, in their roles as "God revealed" (Assumption, Ascension, etc.).

Apotheosis of French soldiers fallen in the Napoleonic Wars, Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, beginning of 19th century.

Apotheosis of George Washington

Ingres, The Apotheosis of Homer.

Apotheosis of Gdańsk by Isaak van den Blocke.

Later artists have used the concept for motives ranging from genuine respect for the deceased (Constantino Brumidi's fresco The Apotheosis of Washington on the dome of the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.), to artistic comment (Salvador Dalí's or Ingres's The Apotheosis of Homer), to mock-heroic and burlesque apotheoses for comedic effect.
Many modern leaders have exploited the artistic imagery if not the theology of apotheosis. Examples include Rubens's depictions of James I of England at the Banqueting House (an expression of the Divine Right of Kings) or Henry IV of France, or Appiani's apotheosis of Napoleon. The term has come to be used figuratively to refer to the elevation of a dead leader (often one who was assassinated and/or martyred) to a kind of superhuman charismatic figure and an effective erasing of all faults and controversies which were connected with his name in life - for example, Abraham Lincoln in the US, Lenin in USSR, Yitzchak Rabin in Israel, or Kim Jong-il of North Korea.

In literature[edit]

Joseph Campbell, in his book The Hero With a Thousand Faces, writes that the Universal Hero from monomyth must pass through a stage of Apotheosis. According to Campbell, apotheosis is the expansion of consciousness that the hero experiences after defeating his foe.
Arthur C Clarke's novel Childhood's End has the Overlords refer to Mankind's "apotheosis" when the world's children evolve into their union with the Overmind (see also post-human).
In Chapter 23 of Herman Melville's Moby Dick, regarding Ishmael's friend Bulkington, the term serves as a last word climax for the chapter:
"But as in landlessness alone resides the highest truth, shoreless, indefinite as God- so, better is it to perish in that howling infinite, than be ingloriously dashed upon the lee, even if that were safety! For worm-like, then, oh! who would craven crawl to land! Terrors of the terrible! is all this agony so vain? Take heart, take heart, O Bulkington! Bear thee grimly demigod! Up from the spray of thy ocean-perishing- straight up, leaps thy apotheosis."
In The Dark Tower series by Stephen King, the desert which is the main setting of the first book in the series, The Gunslinger, is referred to as "the apotheosis of all deserts".
The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson several times employs the concept of apotheosis: for Mistborn Kelsier, for the Lord Ruler, and arguably for Kelsier's Mistborn apprentice, Vin.

In music[edit]

Apotheosis in music refers to the appearance of a theme in grand or exalted form. It represents the musical equivalent of the apotheosis genre in visual art, especially where the theme is connected in some way with historical persons or dramatic characters. When crowning the end of a large-scale work the apotheosis functions as a peroration, following an analogy with the art of rhetoric.
Apotheosis moments abound in music, and the word itself appears in some cases. Hector Berlioz used "Apotheose" as the title of the final movement of his Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale, a work composed in 1846 for the dedication of a monument to France's war dead. Two of Tchaikovsky’s ballets, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, as well as La Bayadère, contain apotheoses as finales. The very beautiful concluding tableau of Maurice Ravel's Ma Mere l'Oye is also titled "Apotheose." Czech composer Karel Husa, concerned in 1970 about arms proliferation and environmental deterioration, named his musical response Apotheosis for This Earth. Aram Khachaturian entitled a segment of his ballet Spartacus "Sunrise and Apotheosis." Richard Wagner, referring to the lively rhythms which permeate Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, called it the "apotheosis of the dance".^[21]
American technical death metal band The Faceless explored the idea of Apotheosis in the first three tracks of their 2012 album Autotheism. The first three tracks are one song broken into three parts called "The Autotheism Movement".

In other popular culture[edit]

In the game Endgame: Singularity, where one plays a newborn AI, one wins by researching apotheosis and becoming something not bound to Earth.^{[citation needed]}
In the Elder Scrolls series, the act of apotheosis has been achieved by several cultural heroes. From the lore, it is stated that Emperor Tiber Septim achieved godhood, becoming a divine god. Whilst, in Oblivion's expansion pack, Shivering Isles, the protagonist is granted the opportunity to replace a member the Daedric princes, a more demonic pantheon.^{[citation needed]}
In the game Fire Emblem Awakening, apotheosis is the English name given to the last purchasable downloadable content, wherein it is stated that heroes who become too powerful are drawn to Castle Apotheosis to challenge worthy opponents.^[22]
In the tabletop miniatures game WarMachine, Apotheosis is the 3rd expansion, released in 2005 and originally published for the first edition of the game. The book outlines heroes, units, and steam-powered robots (called "Warjacks" in the game) of legendary, heroic, or notorious status within the Iron Kingdoms setting of the game. It furthered the story that runs concurrently with the game universe, and likely took its name from the attempt made by the character Asphyxious to achieve godhood.^{[citation needed]}
Austin Wintory's soundtrack to the 2012 game Journey contains a track titled "Apotheosis", which plays during the player's final ascent to the mountain top at the game's end.
The final episode of the TV show Caprica is called "Apotheosis". The idea of Apotheosis was a common idea/theme throughout the show.

References and further reading[edit]

Jump up ^ Robin Lane Fox, Alexander the Great (1973:20)
Jump up ^ Liu, James T. C. "Yueh Fei (1103-41) and China's Heritage of Loyalty." The Journal of Asian Studies. Vol. 31, No. 2 (Feb., 1972), pp. 291-297, pg. 296
Jump up ^ Wong, Eva. The Shambhala Guide to Taoism. Shambhala, 1996 (ISBN 1570621691), p. 162
Jump up ^ 2 Peter 1:4
Jump up ^ Irenaeus of Lyon, Adversus haereses, 3.19.1
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation of the Word 54.3.
Jump up ^ Thomas Aquinas, Opusc. 57, 1-4
Jump up ^ The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford University Press 2005 ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3), article "deification"
Jump up ^ Catechism of the Catholic Church, 460
Jump up ^ Heinrich Fries, Bultmann-Barth and Catholic theology (Duquesne University Press 1967), p. 160
Jump up ^ Stephen M. O'Brien, God and the Devil Are Fighting (City University of New York 2008 ISBN 978-0-549-61137-0), pp. 116-117
Jump up ^ Joseph Smith declared, 'The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it' (See, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 121).
Jump up ^ Lund, Gerald N. (February 1982), Is President Lorenzo Snow’s oft-repeated statement—“As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be”—accepted as official doctrine by the Church?, "I Have a Question", Ensign
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c Millet, Robert L.; Reynolds, Noel B. (1998), "Do Latter-day Saints believe that men and women can become gods?", Latter-day Christianity: 10 Basic Issues, Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, ISBN 0934893322, OCLC 39732987
Jump up ^ Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 345-46.
Jump up ^ Thomas Mozley The creed or a philosophy 1893 p303
Jump up ^ http://www.earlychurchtexts.com/public/creed_homoian_of_constantinople_360.htm (the wording of the Council of Constantinople_(360) prohibited use of the terms substance, essence, and ousia because they were not included in the scriptures)
Jump up ^ http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/trinity/trinity-history.html#Aug
Jump up ^ http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/93?lang=eng
Jump up ^ https://www.lds.org/topics/becoming-like-god?lang=eng
Jump up ^ Grove, Sir George (1962). Beethoven and his nine symphonies (3rd ed. ed.). New York: Dover Publications. pp. 228–271. OCLC 705665.
Jump up ^ http://serenesforest.net/fe13/dlc_na.html#ap, List of Downloadable Content for Fire Emblem: Awakening.^{[unreliable source?]}

Arthur E.R. Boak, "The Theoretical Basis of the Deification of Rulers in Antiquity", in: Classical Journal vol. 11, 1916, pp. 293–297.
Franz Bömer, "Ahnenkult und Ahnenglaube im alten Rom", Leipzig 1943.
Walter Burkert, "Caesar und Romulus-Quirinus", in: Historia vol. 11, 1962, pp. 356–376.
Jean-Claude Richard, "Énée, Romulus, César et les funérailles impériales", in: Mélanges de l'École Française de Rome vol. 78, 1966, pp. 67–78.
Bernadette Liou-Gille, "Divinisation des morts dans la Rome ancienne", in: Revue Belge de Philologie vol. 71, 1993, pp. 107–115.
David Engels, "Postea dictus est inter deos receptus. Wetterzauber und Königsmord: Zu den Hintergründen der Vergöttlichung frührömischer Könige", in: Gymnasium vol 114, 2007, pp. 103–130.
Stephen King "The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger
King David Kalakaua, "The Apotheosis of Pele: The Adventures of the Goddess with Kamapuaa" in The Legends and Myths of Hawaii

External links[edit]

Look up apotheosis in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Seneca's Apocolocyntosis at Project Gutenberg

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Apotheosis.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Apotheosis&oldid=614130861"

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Wednesday, 3 October 2012

Mythology.

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For other uses, see Myth (disambiguation), Mythology (disambiguation), and Mythos (disambiguation).

The term "mythology" can refer either to the study of myths (e.g., comparative mythology), or to a body or collection of myths (a mythos, e.g., Inca mythology).^[1] In folkloristics, a myth is a sacred narrative usually explaining how the world or humankind came to be in its present form,^[2] although, in a very broad sense, the word can refer to any traditional story.^[3] Bruce Lincoln defines myth as "ideology in narrative form".^[4] Myths typically involve supernatural characters and are endorsed by rulers or priests. They may arise as overelaborated accounts of historical events, as allegory for or personification of natural phenomena, or as an explanation of ritual. They are transmitted to convey religious or idealized experience, to establish behavioral models, and to teach.
Early rival classifications of Greek mythos by Euhemerus, Plato's Phaedrus, and Sallustius were developed by the neoplatonists and revived by Renaissance mythographers as in the Theologia mythologica (1532). Nineteenth-century comparative mythology reinterpreted myth as evolution toward science (E. B. Tylor), "disease of language" (Max Müller), or misinterpretation of magical ritual (James Frazer). Later interpretations rejected opposition between myth and science, such as Jungian archetypes, Joseph Campbell's "metaphor of spiritual potentiality", or Lévi-Strauss's fixed mental architecture. Tension between Campbell's comparative search for monomyth or Ur-myth and anthropological mythologists' skepticism of universal origin has marked the 20th century. Further, modern mythopoeia such as fantasy novels, manga, and urban legend, with many competing artificial mythoi acknowledged as fiction, supports the idea of myth as ongoing social practice.

Nature of myths

Theology
Armenian Celtic Christian Chinese Egyptian Greek Hindu Islamic Japanese Jewish Maya Mesopotamian Norse Roman Slavic
See also
Religion and mythology Comparative religion Symbolism Theology
List of mythologies
v t e

Typical characteristics

The main characters in myths are usually gods, supernatural heroes and humans.^[5]^[6]^[7] As sacred stories, myths are often endorsed by rulers and priests and closely linked to religion or spirituality.^[5] In the society in which it is told, a myth is usually regarded as a true account of the remote past.^[5]^[6]^[8]^[9] In fact, many societies have two categories of traditional narrative, "true stories" or myths, and "false stories" or fables.^[10] Creation myths generally take place in a primordial age, when the world had not yet achieved its current form,^[5] and explain how the world gained its current form^[2]^[11] and how customs, institutions and taboos were established.^[5]^[11]

Terminology

Origins of myth

Euhemerism

Main article: Euhemerus

Allegory

Some theories propose that myths began as allegories. According to one theory, myths began as allegories for natural phenomena: Apollo represents the sun, Poseidon represents water, and so on.^[26] According to another theory, myths began as allegories for philosophical or spiritual concepts: Athena represents wise judgment, Aphrodite represents desire, etc.^[26] The 19th century Sanskritist Max Müller supported an allegorical theory of myth. He believed that myths began as allegorical descriptions of nature, but gradually came to be interpreted literally: for example, a poetic description of the sea as "raging" was eventually taken literally, and the sea was then thought of as a raging god.^[28]

Personification

Myth-ritual theory

Functions of myth

Mircea Eliade argued that one of the foremost functions of myth is to establish models for behavior^[37]^[38] and that myths may also provide a religious experience. By telling or reenacting myths, members of traditional societies detach themselves from the present and return to the mythical age, thereby bringing themselves closer to the divine.^[8]^[38]^[39]
Lauri Honko asserts that, in some cases, a society will reenact a myth in an attempt to reproduce the conditions of the mythical age. For example, it will reenact the healing performed by a god at the beginning of time in order to heal someone in the present.^[40] Similarly, Roland Barthes argues that modern culture explores religious experience. Because it is not the job of science to define human morality, a religious experience is an attempt to connect with a perceived moral past, which is in contrast with the technological present.^[41]
Joseph Campbell defined myths as having four basic functions: the Mystical Function—experiencing the awe of the universe; the Cosmological Function—explaining the shape of the universe; the Sociological Function—supporting and validating a certain social order; and the Pedagogical Function—how to live a human lifetime under any circumstances.^[42]

Study of mythology

Pre-modern theories

The critical interpretation of myth goes back as far as the Presocratics.^[44] Euhemerus was one of the most important pre-modern mythologists. He interpreted myths as accounts of actual historical events, distorted over many retellings. This view of myths and their origin is criticised by Plato in the Phaedrus (229d), in which Socrates says that this approach is the province of one who is "vehemently curious and laborious, and not entirely happy . . ." The Platonists generally had a more profound and comprehensive view of the subject. Sallustius,^[45] for example, divides myths into five categories – theological, physical (or concerning natural laws), animastic (or concerning soul), material and mixed. This last being those myths which show the interaction between two or more of the previous categories and which, he says, are particularly used in initiations.
Although Plato famously condemned poetic myth when discussing the education of the young in the Republic, primarily on the grounds that there was a danger that the young and uneducated might take the stories of Gods and heroes literally, nevertheless he constantly refers to myths of all kinds throughout his writings. As Platonism developed in the phases commonly called 'middle Platonism' and neoplatonism, such writers as Plutarch, Porphyry, Proclus, Olympiodorus and Damascius wrote explicitly about the symbolic interpretation of traditional and Orphic myths.^[46] Interest in polytheistic mythology revived in the Renaissance, with early works on mythography appearing in the 16th century, such as the Theologia mythologica (1532).

19th-century theories

The first scholarly theories of myth appeared during the second half of the 19th century.^[44] In general, these 19th-century theories framed myth as a failed or obsolete mode of thought, often by interpreting myth as the primitive counterpart of modern science.^[47]
For example, E. B. Tylor interpreted myth as an attempt at a literal explanation for natural phenomena: unable to conceive of impersonal natural laws, early man tried to explain natural phenomena by attributing souls to inanimate objects, giving rise to animism.^[48] According to Tylor, human thought evolves through various stages, starting with mythological ideas and gradually progressing to scientific ideas. Not all scholars — not even all 19th century scholars — have agreed with this view. For example, Lucien Lévy-Bruhl claimed that "the primitive mentality is a condition of the human mind, and not a stage in its historical development."^[49]
Max Müller called myth a "disease of language". He speculated that myths arose due to the lack of abstract nouns and neuter gender in ancient languages: anthropomorphic figures of speech, necessary in such languages, were eventually taken literally, leading to the idea that natural phenomena were conscious beings, gods.^[50]
The anthropologist James Frazer saw myths as a misinterpretation of magical rituals; which were themselves based on a mistaken idea of natural law.^[51] According to Frazer, man begins with an unfounded belief in impersonal magical laws. When he realizes that his applications of these laws don't work, he gives up his belief in natural law, in favor of a belief in personal gods controlling nature — thus giving rise to religious myths. Meanwhile, man continues practicing formerly magical rituals through force of habit, reinterpreting them as reenactments of mythical events. Finally, Frazer contends, man realizes that nature does follow natural laws, but now he discovers their true nature through science. Here, again, science makes myth obsolete: as Frazer puts it, man progresses "from magic through religion to science".^[36]
Robert Segal asserts that by pitting mythical thought against modern scientific thought, such theories implied that modern man must abandon myth.^[52]

20th-century theories

Many 20th-century theories of myth rejected the 19th-century theories' opposition of myth and science. In general, "twentieth-century theories have tended to see myth as almost anything but an outdated counterpart to science […] Consequently, moderns are not obliged to abandon myth for science."^[52]
Swiss psychologist Carl Jung (1873–1961) tried to understand the psychology behind world myths. Jung asserted that all humans share certain innate unconscious psychological forces, which he called archetypes. Jung believed that the similarities between the myths from different cultures reveals the existence of these universal archetypes.^[53]
Joseph Campbell believed that there were two different orders of mythology: myths that "are metaphorical of spiritual potentiality in the human being," and myths "that have to do with specific societies".^[54]
Claude Lévi-Strauss believed that myths reflect patterns in the mind and interpreted those patterns more as fixed mental structures — specifically, pairs of opposites (i.e. good/evil, compassionate/callous) — than as unconscious feelings or urges.^[55]
In his appendix to Myths, Dreams and Mysteries, and in The Myth of the Eternal Return, Mircea Eliade attributed modern man’s anxieties to his rejection of myths and the sense of the sacred.
In the 1950s, Roland Barthes published a series of essays examining modern myths and the process of their creation in his book Mythologies.

Prometheus (1868) by Gustave Moreau. In the Prometheus mythos of Hesiodus and possibly Aeschylus (the Greek trilogy Prometheus Bound, Prometheus Unbound and Prometheus Pyrphoros), Prometheus is bound and tortured for giving fire to humanity at its creation.

Examples of myths

The earth-maker myth (Native American mythos, California): In the darkness of the vast waters of Outer Ocean, Earth-Maker was afloat in his canoe; Earth-Maker took clay to form the First People and created the seas with his tears.^[56]
Obàtálá (Yoruba mythos): Obàtálá, created by the supreme entity Olódùmarè, was given ownership of every being's head (the seat of the soul), created the land by causing a rooster to kick and scatter the earth, and founded the first Yoruba city, Ife; he is also called the King of White Cloth, Orisha-Nla, or Olufon.^[57]
The Primary Chronicle (Slavic mythos, 12th century): Perun (the creator of lightning and thunder) and Veles oversee the 10th-century peace treaties between the Eastern Slavs and the Byzantine emperors; Vladimir I of Kiev later introduces a pantheon of Perun, Hors, Dažbog, Stribog, Simargl, and Mokosh. (Due to lack of firsthand sources, reconstruction of pre-Christian Slavic mythos is based on this and similar late works.)^[58]

Comparative mythology

Main article: Comparative mythology

Comparative mythology is the systematic comparison of myths from different cultures.^[59] It seeks to discover underlying themes that are common to the myths of multiple cultures.^[59] In some cases, comparative mythologists use the similarities between different mythologies to argue that those mythologies have a common source. This common source may be a common source of inspiration (e.g. a certain natural phenomenon that inspired similar myths in different cultures) or a common "protomythology" that diverged into the various mythologies we see today.^[59]
Nineteenth-century interpretations of myth were often highly comparative, seeking a common origin for all myths.^[60] However, modern-day scholars tend to be more suspicious of comparative approaches, avoiding overly general or universal statements about mythology.^[61] One exception to this modern trend is Joseph Campbell's book The Hero With a Thousand Faces (1949), which claims that all hero myths follow the same underlying pattern. This theory of a "monomyth" is out of favor with the mainstream study of mythology.^[61]

Modern mythology

1929 Belgian banknote, depicting Ceres, Neptune and caduceus.

In modern society, myth is often regarded as historical or obsolete. Many scholars in the field of cultural studies are now beginning to research the idea that myth has worked itself into modern discourses. Modern formats of communication allow for wide spread communication across the globe, thus enabling mythological discourse and exchange among greater audiences than ever before. Various elements of myth can now be found in television, cinema and video games.
Although myth was traditionally transmitted through the oral tradition on a small scale, the technology of the film industry has enabled filmmakers to transmit myths to large audiences via film dissemination (Singer, “Mythmaking: Philosophy in Film”, 3-6). In the psychology of Carl Jung, myths are the expression of a culture or society’s goals, fears, ambitions and dreams (Indick, “Classical Heroes in Modern Movies: Mythological Patterns of the Superhero", 93-95). Film is ultimately an expression of the society in which it was credited, and reflects the norms and ideals of the time and location in which it is created. In this sense, film is simply the evolution of myth. The technological aspect of film changes the way the myth is distributed, but the core idea of the myth is the same.
The basis of modern storytelling in both cinema and television lies deeply rooted in the mythological tradition. Many contemporary and technologically advanced movies often rely on ancient myths to construct narratives. The Disney Corporation is notorious among cultural study scholars for “reinventing” traditional childhood myths (Koven, “Folklore Studies and Popular Film and Television: A Necessary Critical Survey”, 176-195). While many films are not as obvious as Disney fairy tales in respect to the employment of myth, the plots of many films are largely based on the rough structure of the myth. Mythological archetypes such as the cautionary tale regarding the abuse of technology, battles between gods, and creation stories are often the subject of major film productions. These films are often created under the guise of cyberpunk action movies, fantasy dramas, and apocalyptic tales. Although the range of narratives, as well as the medium in which it is being told is constantly increasing, it is clear that myth continues to be a pervasive and essential component of the collective imagination (Cormer, "Narrative." Critical Ideas in Television Studies, 47-59.)
Recent films such as Clash of the Titans, Immortals or Thor continue the trend of mining traditional mythology in order to directly create a plot for modern consumption. Although these are generally considered inaccurate to the original mythologies on which they are based, it can be argued that as film itself has become a way transmitting myths, these films are no more inaccurate than the variants told by storytellers of the oral tradition. In fact, it is argued that these new contributions to traditional myths add value and meaning to the stories for new generations (Matira, "Children's Oral Literature and Modern Mass Media", 55-57).
With the invention of modern myths such as urban legends, the mythological traditional will carry on to the increasing variety of mediums available to the consumer in the 21st century and beyond. The crucial idea is that myth is not simply a collection of stories permanently fixed to a particular time and place in history, but an ongoing social practice within every society.

Notes

^ Kirk, p. 8; "myth", Encyclopædia Britannica
^ ^a ^b ^c Dundes, Introduction, p. 1
^ Kirk, "Defining", p. 57; Kirk, Myth, p. 74; Simpson, p. 3
^ Lincoln, Bruce (2006). "An Early Moment in the Discourse of "Terrorism": Reflections on a Tale from Marco Polo". Comparative Studies in Society and History 48 (2): 242-259. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3879351. "More precisely, mythic discourse deals in master categories that have multiple referents: levels of the cosmos, terrestrial geographies, plant and animal species, logical categories, and the like. Their plots serve to organize the relations among these categories and to justify a hierarchy among them, establishing the rightness (or at least the necessity) of a world in which heaven is above earth, the lion the king of beasts, the cooked more pleasing than the raw."
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Bascom, p. 9
^ ^a ^b ^c "myths", A Dictionary of English Folklore
^ O'Flaherty, p.78: "I think it can be well argued as a matter of principle that, just as 'biography is about chaps', so mythology is about gods."
^ ^a ^b Eliade, Myths, Dreams and Mysteries, p. 23
^ Pettazzoni, p. 102
^ Eliade, Myth and Reality, p. 10-11; Pettazzoni, p. 99-101
^ ^a ^b Eliade, Myth and Reality, p. 6
^ Kirk, p. 8; "myth", Encyclopædia Britannica
^ ^a ^b Grassie, William (March 1998). "Science as Epic? Can the modern evolutionary cosmology be a mythic story for our time?". Science & Spirit 9 (1). "The word 'myth' is popularly understood to mean idle fancy, fiction, or falsehood; but there is another meaning of the word in academic discourse .... Using the original Greek term mythos is perhaps a better way to distinguish this more positive and all-encompassing definition of the word."
^ Dundes, "Madness", p. 147
^ Doty, p. 11-12
^ Segal, p. 5
^ Kirk, "Defining", p. 57; Kirk, Myth, p. 74; Simpson, p. 3
^ "myth". Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10th ed.). Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Inc. 1993. p. 770.
^ Bascom, p. 7
^ ^a ^b Bascom, p. 10
^ Kirk, Myth, p. 22, 32; Kirk, "Defining", p. 55
^ Bascom, p. 17
^ Bascom, p. 13
^ ^a ^b Doty, p. 114
^ ^a ^b ^c Bulfinch, p. 194
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Honko, p. 45
^ "Euhemerism", The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
^ Segal, p. 20
^ Bulfinch, p. 195
^ Frankfort, p. 4
^ Frankfort, p. 15
^ Segal, p. 61
^ Graf, p. 40
^ Meletinsky pp.19-20
^ Segal, p. 63
^ ^a ^b Frazer, p. 711
^ Eliade, Myth and Reality, p. 8
^ ^a ^b Honko, p. 51
^ Eliade, Myth and Reality, p. 19
^ Honko, p. 49
^ Roland Barthes, Mythologies
^ Campbell, p. 22-23
^ Guy Lanoue, Foreword to Meletinsky, p.viii
^ ^a ^b Segal, p. 1
^ On the Gods and the World, ch. 5, See Collected Writings on the Gods and the World, The Prometheus Trust, Frome, 1995
^ Perhaps the most extended passage of philosophic interpretation of myth is to be found in the fifth and sixth essays of Proclus’ Commentary on the Republic (to be found in The Works of Plato I, trans. Thomas Taylor, The Prometheus Trust, Frome, 1996); Porphyry’s analysis of the Homeric Cave of the Nymphs is another important work in this area (Select Works of Porphyry, Thomas Taylor The Prometheus Trust, Frome, 1994). See the external links below for a full English translation.
^ Segal, pp. 3-4
^ Segal, p. 4
^ Mâche (1992). Music, Myth and Nature, or The Dolphins of Arion. pp. 8.
^ Segal, p.20
^ Segal, p.67-68
^ ^a ^b Segal, p. 3
^ Boeree
^ Campbell, p. 22
^ Segal, p. 113
^ Kroeber, Theodora; Heizer, Robert F. (1968). "Story of Creation". Almost Ancestors: The First Californians (hardback ed.). New York City: Sierra Club/Ballantine Books. p. 62.
^ Courlander, Harold. Tales of Yoruba Gods and Heroes.
^ Chadwick, Nora Kershaw (1946). The Beginnings of Russian History: An Enquiry into Sources. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-404-14651-1.
^ ^a ^b ^c Littleton, p. 32
^ Leonard
^ ^a ^b Northup, p. 8

References

Armstrong, Karen. "A Short History of Myth". Knopf Canada, 2006.
Bascom, William. "The Forms of Folklore: Prose Narratives". 'Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth. Ed. Alan Dundes. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. 5-29.
Bulfinch, Thomas. Bulfinch's Mythology. Whitefish: Kessinger, 2004.
Campbell, Joeseph. "The Power of Myth". New York: Doubleday, 1988.
Doty, William. Myth: A Handbook. Westport: Greenwood, 2004.
Dundes, Alan. "Binary Opposition in Myth: The Propp/Levi-Strauss Debate in Retrospect". Western Folklore 56 (Winter, 1997): 39-50.
Dundes, Alan. Introduction. Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth. Ed. Alan Dundes. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. 1-3.
Dunes, Alan. "Madness in Method Plus a Plea for Projective Inversion in Myth". Myth and Method. Ed. Laurie Patton and Wendy Doniger. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1996.
Eliade, Mircea. Myth and Reality. Trans. Willard R. Trask. New York: Harper & Row, 1963.
Eliade, Mircea. Myths, Dreams and Mysteries. Trans. Philip Mairet. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.
"Euhemerism". The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. Ed. John Bowker. Oxford University Press, 2000. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. UC - Berkeley Library. 20 March 2009 .
Fabiani, Paolo "The Philosophy of the Imagination in Vico and Malebranche". F.U.P. (Florence UP), English edition 2009. PDF
Frankfort, Henri, et al. The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man: An Essay on Speculative Thought in the Ancient Near East. Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 1977.
Frazer, James. The Golden Bough. New York: Macmillan, 1922.
Graf, Fritz. Greek Mythology. Trans. Thomas Marier. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.
Honko, Lauri. "The Problem of Defining Myth". Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth. Ed. Alan Dundes. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. 41-52.
Kirk, G.S. Myth: Its Meaning and Functions in Ancient and Other Cultures. Berkeley: Cambridge University Press, 1973.
Kirk, G.S. "On Defining Myths". Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth. Ed. Alan Dundes. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. 53-61.
Leonard, Scott. "The History of Mythology: Part I". Scott A. Leonard's Home Page. August 2007.Youngstown State University, 17 November 2009
Littleton, Covington. The New Comparative Mythology: An Anthropological Assessment of the Theories of Georges Dumezil. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973.
Meletinsky, Elea. The Poetics of Myth. Trans. Guy Lanoue and Alexandre Sadetsky. New York: Routledge, 2000.
"myth." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 21 March 2009
"myths". A Dictionary of English Folklore. Jacqueline Simpson and Steve Roud. Oxford University Press, 2000. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. UC - Berkeley Library. 20 March 2009 Oxfordreference.com
Northup, Lesley. "Myth-Placed Priorities: Religion and the Study of Myth". Religious Studies Review 32.1(2006): 5-10.
O'Flaherty, Wendy. Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook. London: Penguin, 1975.
Pettazzoni, Raffaele. "The Truth of Myth". Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth. Ed. Alan Dundes. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. 98-109.
Segal, Robert. Myth: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004.
Simpson, Michael. Introduction. Apollodorus. Gods and Heroes of the Greeks. Trans. Michael Simpson. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1976. 1-9.
Singer, Irving. "Introduction: Philosophical Dimensions of Myth and Cinema." Cinematic Mythmaking: Philosophy in Film. Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States: MIT Press Books, 2008. 3-6. Web. 23 Oct. 2011.
Indick, William. "Classical Heroes in Modern Movies: Mythological Patterns of the Superhero." Journal of Media Psychology 9.3 (2004): 93-95. York University Libraries. Web.
Koven, Mikel J. "Folklore Studies and Popular Film and Television: a Necessary Critical Survey." Journal of American Folklore 116.460 (2003): 176-195. Print.
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Matira, Lopamundra. "Children's Oral Literature and Modern Mass Media." Indian Folklore Research Journal 5.8 (2008): 55-57. Print.
Cormer, John. "Narrative." Critical Ideas in Television Studies. New York, United States: Charendon Press, 2007. 47-59. Print.

External links

Look up myth or mythology in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikiversity has learning materials about School:Comparative Mythology

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mythology

The New Student's Reference Work/Mythology, ed. Beach (1914), at wikisource.
Leonard, Scott. "The History of Mythology: Part I". Youngstown State University.
Greek mythology
Sacred texts
Myths and Myth-Makers Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by comparative mythology by John Fiske.
LIMC Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, a database of ancient objects linked with mythology

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Philosophy