Intro to Myth, Drama, and Modern Translation

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts from the lecture on myth, Greek myth, and modern drama analysis.

Syllabus intro quiz

A five-question multiple-choice quiz on the course syllabus due Sunday night to verify familiarity with course requirements.

Myth

A traditional story often involving gods or heroes used to explain beliefs, customs, or natural phenomena; not necessarily a factual account.

Legend

A traditional story about a hero or event that may have some basis in fact, emphasizing cultural memory rather than magical elements.

Fairy tale

A narrative with magical or fantastical elements, typically aimed at entertainment or imparting moral lessons.

Monomyth (The Hero's Journey)

A universal narrative pattern identified by Joseph Campbell in which a hero leaves the ordinary world, faces trials, and returns with new knowledge.

Campbell

Joseph Campbell, mythologist who popularized the monomyth and its use in modern storytelling (eg, Star Wars).

Levi-Strauss

Claude Lévi-Strauss, anthropologist who founded structuralism, arguing myths reveal universal mental structures and binary oppositions.

Structuralism (myth)

Approach examining underlying binary structures in myths and cross-cultural patterns to explain their similarities.

Charter myth

A myth that reinforces social customs and norms, often linked to hero or heroine narratives.

Archetype

A recurring symbolic pattern or character type (eg, hero, mentor) that appears across cultures and structures myths.

Oedipus complex

Freud's psychoanalytic theory that a child experiences subconscious desires for the parent of the opposite sex and rivalry with the same-sex parent, used to interpret myths like Oedipus.

Etiology

A type of myth that explains the origins of rituals, practices, or natural phenomena.

Prometheus myth (etiology)

Myth where Prometheus tricks the gods at sacrifice, explaining why humans keep meat and give bones to gods and thus linking to ritual practice.

Helios and Selene

Personifications of the sun and the moon in Greek myth; Helios pulls the sun across the sky, Selene drives the moon.

Anubis weighing the heart

Egyptian myth in which Anubis weighs the deceased’s heart against a feather to judge morality for the afterlife.

Myth's function (ancient)

Beyond explaining natural phenomena, myths function to entertain and convey social values and norms.

Distance/Transmission of myths

Myths are transmitted across generations; Greek myths were preserved and shaped by later writing, influencing modern interpretation.

Modern film interpretation of myth

Analyzing how contemporary films translate ancient myths into visual storytelling, and whether they preserve deeper meanings or focus on entertainment.

Value myths

Myths that encode social values and ideals, especially hero myths that filmmakers and writers use to convey moral lessons.

Dark Age of Greece

A period when writing and certain cultural memory declined; later poets like Hesiod and Homer shaped myths about earlier times.

Hesiod and Homer

Ancient Greek poets whose works are foundational for Greek myth and its transmission through later literature.

Myth vs legend vs film tale

Distinctions among myth (divine narratives), legend (partially factual stories), and modern film retellings, with overlap in interpretation and purpose.