Chapter 1 mythology

CHAPTER I: FOLK LITERATURE:

MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE – AN OVERVIEW

Myth- 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 (Webster).

Certain products of the imagination of a people which take the form of stories (H.J. Rose, A Handbook of Greek Mythology).Is a story about gods, other supernatural beings, or heroes of a long past time (M. Reinhold, Past and Present).

Myth is related to metaphor, in which an object or event is compared to an apparently dissimilar object or event in such a way as to make its otherwise inexplicable essence clear.Myth is the direct ancestor of what we think of today as literature.

WHAT IS AN ARTIFACT?

• Artifact is a general term for an item made or given shape by humans, such as a tool or a work of art, especially an object of archaeological interest. Examples include stone tools, pottery vessels, metal objects such as weapons and items of personal adornment such as buttons, jewelry and clothing.

1. Folk literature pertains to the written oral traditions of singing or storytelling resulting preservation of traditions.

• Literature in its very sense centers on human life and daily experiences. Many articles and texts about it found in books, journals, researches and historical records speak of its vital role in the shaping of life and history itself. It dated since time and life first began on earth.

2. It teaches rich literary heritage through stories which provides both a window into other cultures and a mirror that allows viewers to reflect more clearly on aspects of their own culture.

Folklore is the expressive body of culture shared by a particular group of people; if encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. These include oral traditions such as tales, proverbs and jokes. They also include material culture, ranging from traditional building styles to handmade toys common to the group.

3. Folk Literature is a wonderful resource for illuminating the traditional values and lifestyles of a culture-either another culture or one's own.

Folk literature, regardless of its place of origin, seems clearly to have arisen to meet a variety of human needs:

The need to explain the mysteries of the natural world.

The need to articulate our fears and dreams

The need to impose order on the apparent random, even chaotic, nature of life

The need to entertain ourselves and each other

4. Manifestation of man's civilization as a source of information from beyond times and a lens of man's experiences.

Folk literature includes all the myths, legends, epics, fables, and folktales passed down by word of mouth through the generations. These stories have endured because they are entertaining, they embody the culture's belief system, and they contain fundamental human truths by which people have lived for centuries. Knowing the characters and situations of folk literature is part of being culturally literate.

GENRES OF FOLK LITERATURE

1. Fairy tales - are short stories featuring fantastic or magical events and characters.

2. Myth - these are stories that contain action and suspense and seek to explain the origins of life and elements of nature. They are usually about the gods and supernatural beings which existed before or shortly after humans first appeared on the earth.

3. Legends/Epics - these usually refer to individuals, heroes or kings who lived in the period before written records. While they may be based in some ways on fact, they have been embellished over time.

4. Tall Tales - these exaggerated cultural stories revolve around the pioneer spirit and a person who performs superhuman feats. While these can be based on real characters, they often deal with invented or exaggerated incidents and traits.

5. Fables - these short, simple tales, which teach a lesson, have few characters (often animals). There is a moral which can be pulled from the simple story to represent a larger lesson in life.

6. Religious Stories/Parables - these are religious stories that communicate values.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE

Mythology usually refers to something extremely grand in scale and scope, often covering a wide geographical range and thousands of years. Folklore, however, is usually smaller in scale and is often thought of as the mythology of common people, though these stories can be just as well known.

•In contrast, folklore usually arises on a smaller scale and involves more intimate surroundings, events, and characters. Folklore stories usually involve local Surroundings and events, such as an explanation for how a nerby forest was created or the birth of a king who ed in a particular region. The types of adventures eeds performed by these characters are also quently smaller in scale, such as a battle that gives a ocal mountain its name or types of local fantastical creatures.

SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDYING FOLK LITERATURE

✔Folklore studies can also be taken as a way to raise one's awareness of the culture that one is coming from

✔Folklore studies is that it helps us to understand the rich folklore and mystic tradition of our ancestors.

✔Another motive for the study of folklore was nationalism

✔Folklore study utilizes a number of theories and methods.

Theories Related to the Study of Mythology

Ancient Theories

1. Rationalism - According to this theory, myths represent an early form of logical thinking: they all, have a logical base. For example, the myth of Pegasus, the flying. horse can best be explained by imagining the reaction of the first Greek to see a horse. Compared to other animals they know; the horse must have seemed to fly as it gallops fast and leap over high obstacles.

2. Etymological Theory -This theory states that all myths derive from and can be traced back to certain words in the language. Sources of most mythological characters have their origins from the languages of the world. Hades, for example, originally meant "unseen" but came eventually to be the name for the god of the dead.

3. Allegorical theory- In the allegorical explanation, all myths contain hidden meanings which the narrative deliberately conceals or encodes. Example: story of King Midas and his golden touch Allegorists offered this simple reason why stories were used in the first place rather than a simple statement of the ideas they represented: they interested people who might not listen to emotionless concepts but who could be attracted by imaginative narratives.

4. Euhemerism- Euhemerus, a Greek who lived from 325ff275 BC, maintained that all myths arise from historical events which were merely exaggerated

Modern Theories

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. Diffusionism- The diffusionists maintain that all myths arose from a few major cultural centers and spread throughout the world.

4. 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.

5. 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 thesefeelings emerge into consciousness under various disguises, one of which is the myth.

6. 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.

7. Structuralism- This theory is a fairly recent development and is closely allied with the research of linguists. According to this theory, all human behaviour, 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.

8. 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.

Some Interesting Characters from Mythology Dragons.

Stories of fireffbreathing dragons vary throughout different cultures. In Chinese mythology, dragons are of many different types. Most of them are known to be both generous and wise. Some represent good luck. The spiritual Azure Dragon which controls the weather is the most powerful Chinese dragon.

Unicorn.

The unicorn is a mystical animal that is found in the mythologies of many different cultures throughout the world. Representing beauty, goodness, and strength, this legendary creature appears in art, folklore, and literature. During the Middle Ages, the unicorn was a symbol of love and purity. Troll.

According to Scandinavian folklore, trolls are hostile creatures who lived inside dark caves in the mountains. They are keepers of buried treasures such as silver and gold, and are known for their pointed ears, long noses, an large teeth. They can live for 500 years and are impossible to kill for they have the ability to regenerate or regrow a lost or severed body part in a matter of days.

Jinni.

A jinni is a spirit from Arab and Muslim folklore that inhabits the earth and can assume human or animal form. Jinns have many supernatural powers, such as the ability to cast spells on people and grant them wishes. There are five tribes of jinn. These are, according to their power, the Marid, the Efrit, the Shaitan, the Jinn, and the Jann.

Hydra. The nineffheaded serpent Hydra is one of the most hideous and ghastly monsters of Greek mythology. Slayed by Heracles, Hydra was almost indestructible because two crude heads would spring up to replace each head that a slayer would sever. Hydra was a child of the terrible monster Typhon, who has 100 heads and 200 evil eyes that oozed venom.

Chimera.

The chimera is a huge fireffbreathing monster that has the head of a lion, th body of a dragon, and the hind legs of a goat. According to Greek mythology the Chimera ravaged the Greek city of Lycia until it was slayed by the prince of Corinth, Bellerophon with the help of Pegasus.

Centaur.

The centaurs are a group of monsters that lived in the mountains near the city of Arcadia in Greece. From the waist up, their bodies are human, and their lower bodies and legs are in the form of a horse. The centaurs lived without regard to order and do not honor the gods or respect humans. One good centaur however is Chiron, the son

of Cronus, who is an immortal known for his kindness and wisdom.

Fenrir. Fenrir is a large ferocious wolf with fierce yellow eyes and tremendous jaw. When it was just a pup, the Norse god captured it and locked it in a cage because they feared the wolf might one day be responsible for the destruction of the world.

Oni.

The oni are giant horned demons. They are said to have come to Japan from China with the arrival of Buddhism, and Buddhist priest perform annual rites to expel them. The oni can be a variety of colors and have three fingers, three toes and sometimes three eyes. Cruel and lecherous, they can sweep down from the sky to steal the

souls of dying people.

Nagas.

According to Southffeast Asian mythology, nagas are supernatural beings wh take the form of serpents. The king of the serpent deities Mucilinda sheltere the Buddha with the outspread hoods of his seven heads during a downpour that lasted for seven days. When the sun returns, the serpent is transformed into a young prince who paid homage to Buddha.

Guei or Kuei.

In Chinese mythology, guei are spirits formed from the yin, or negative essence, of people's souls. These spirits of emanations are always feared because they are said to take their revenge on those people who illfftreated them when they were alive. They can be identified because they wear clothes which have no hems and their bodies cast non shadows.

Kappa. In Japanese mythology, the kappa is a race of monkeyfflike demons. They lived in ponds and rivers and lure human beings, as well as other creatures down into the depths of the water where they then feed on them. As well as being particularly fond of blood, the also like cucumbers. They have monkeyfflike faces, webbed hands and feet and yellowffgreen skin. The wear shells like tortoises.

CREATION MYTHS

Assyro-Babylonian

Inert chaos was embodied in Apsu, the sweet water in which floated the earth and which fed its springs, and his consort, the salt sea waters, known as Mother Tiamat. From their union came monstrous serpents, then the male and female principles (the worlds of heaven and earth) and the great deities - the mighty sky god Anu, the god of controlled water Enki, and the resourceful god of wisdom Ea. Led by Anu, these gods wished creation to proceed, but Apsu resented their agitation and considered killing his own offspring. Tiamat resisted this plan, but when Ea killed Apsu by magic she marshalled monstrous forces to confront the Court of Heaven in battle. Ea's son Marduk was appointed as king to preserve creation. In epic combat Tiamak opened her mouth to consume Marduk, but he unleashed an "evil wind" which entered her stomach, distending her, so he could rip her apart. Half of her body became the sky, resting on the mountains that surround the earth, the other half of her body. In completing the creation Marduk assigned the great gods to their abodes, set stars and moon in their places, and

created time. From the blood of Kingu, leader of forces of chaos, Marduk created humankind to serve the gods.

Borneo

At the beginning of time, all creation was enclosed in the mouth of a gigantic snake. Eventually, a gold mountain arose and became home to the supreme god of the upper region, while a jewel mountain arose and became home to the supreme god of the lower region. The two mountains collided together o numerous occasions, each time creating part of the universe. This period ha become known as the first epoch of creation, when the clouds the sky, the mountains, the cliffs, the sun and moon were made. Afterwards, the "Hawk Heaven" and the great fish Ilaffllai Langit were brought into being, followed two fabulous creatures: Didis Mahendera who had eyes made of jewels, and Rowang Riwo, who had golden saliva. Finally, the golden headdress of the god Mahatala appeared. In the second epoch of creation, Jata, the divine maiden, created the land. Soon afterwards, hills and rivers were formed. In the third epoch of creation, the tree of life appeared and united the upper and lower worlds.

Celtic Myth of the Holy Grail

King Arthur's magic ship sailed three times round the island of the dead. It was guarded by 6,000 warriors, who slaughtered all but seven of Arthur's men; nevertheless Arthur won the everffreplenished cauldron from which on the valiant and noble could eat. Another myth relates that in his search for it King Arthur journeyed to the realm of the dead; at its entrance he killed a sorceress by cutting her in half, like two bowls.

Because of their moral failings knights such as Lancelot were denied a vision of the Holy Grail, interpreted as the cup used at the Last Supper. It was finally secured by Galahad. Among Arthur's knights, Lancelot's son Sir Galahad, who had the strength of 10 men, was pure enough to see it. He carried it from Britain to Sarras, a Mediterranean island where he became king, dying after a year in answer to his own prayer that his soul be released to eternal life. Upon his death the Grail rose to heaven, never to be seen again.