AHS1511 SUMMARY NOTES UNIT
1 Upto 5
Year 2022
,Ancient Mythology in Context
Study Unit 1 - Dates and Timelines
• BC = Before Christ
• AD = Anno Domini (After Christ)
• BCE = Before common era
• CE = Common era
• Approximately - the term circa is used abbreviated as ca. or c.
STUDY UNIT 2 - INTRODUCTION
Learning Outcomes:
➢ Know the main motivations for studying Greek mythology as a Humanities subject
➢ Be able to define the terms ‘myth’ and ‘mythology’ as well as related terms
➢ Understand the typical stages in the life of a myth
➢ Have an elementary grasp of some approaches to myth interpretation
2.1 Why we study Greek Mythology
• Greek mythology is about stories
• More than just amusement or entertainment
• Fundamental to us as human beings
• Our universe consists of stories
• We understand things best in terms of stories
• Stories expanding our understanding
• Weave dense cognitive patterns in our brains
o The richer the pattern, the better we are able to understand life around us
o Easier to adopt to our world
o Easier for new, creative ideas to enter our minds
o Stories enable us to recognise poor, one-sided and one-dimensional thinking, to
criticise such thinking, propose ways to fill in blank spots in seemingly rational
arguments
o Offer solutions to problems we encounter in our personal lives and professional
working environment
• Greek mythology established itself all over the world as a core discipline in humanities
programme
• But why Greek mythology?
o Rich in content and variety
o Contains thousands of characters and places
o Themes and issues dealt with are equally varied, ranging for explanations of how the
world came into existence to stories linked to the name of almost every town,
stream and grove in Greece
o Deals with issues still fundamental to human existence – love, desire, war, sorrow,
birth and death, power and glory, beauty, pride, jealousy and strife
o From early times Greek mythology was bound to great art
o Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey – the earliest record we have of Greek Literature
o Greek mythology just as much about how the stories are related than what the
stories are about
, o Greek vase paintings and sculpture have mythological themes
o Greek architecture link to myths
o Greek poetry incomprehensible without a good grasp of it mythological references
o Greek tragedy explored and exploited for dramatic purposes are aspects of Greek
myths
o The Romans adopted the Greek mythology and made creative use of it within their
own culture
o Western civilisation through the ages repeatedly return to the mythology of the
Greeks for inspiration and fresh ideas
• Knowledge of this mythology is crucial for understanding much of the history of art, same
applies to the literatures, not only Europe, but also America and Africa
• Even common English is full of expressions referencing Greek mythology, like titanic, siren,
nemesis, furious, chaotic, erotic
• Greek mythology is well-documented and a “closed” field of study – linked to the remains of
a culture that encompasses almost all aspects of life – nothing can be added to the primary
body of source material, but possibilities of investigation remain endless
• Possible to link Greek myths to particular aspect of that era and culture
• Studying Greek mythology allow us to develop a sense of historical depth and skills to
observe cultural otherness without it being threatening to ourselves or our own self-
understanding
• Opportunity to sharpen our scientific tools
• Established field of study, plenty of research material available
• Theoretical component that is of great value – various definitions available of the different
myths
2.2 Definitions of Terms
• Mythology – the study of a body of myths or refer to the body of myths itself – Greek,
Japanese, Roman, etc
• Body of Greek mythology does not consist of unconnected stories having nothing to do with
each other
• Interrelated system in which various parts, stories and figures relate in various ways to the
other parts of the total system
• Myth – mythos – something said, tale, story, narrative – socially powerful traditional story
often involving supernatural and divine elements
• Myths convey very basic truths for and about the societies they come from, even basic
truths about the human condition in general
• Myth has a complicated relationship with history - do not know if any of the Greek myths
have a historical core i.e. whether there ever was a Herakles who had performed a number
of task or an Oedipus who killed his father and married his mother
• Not possible to draw a sharp distinction between myth and history – but the one is clearly
not the other
• Other terms related to myth – often confusing because of this unclear relationship between
fact and fantasy:
o Saga – group of stories of families and clans with some basis in history
o Legend – story with only partial basis in history – used for the lives of saints
o Folk-tale – traditional tales of ordinary people told for entertainment and moral
education, depending on the story, often with little regard to historical truth
, o Myth – story with an obscure, uncertain or no basis in history, often with
involvement of the gold
o Fable – a short tale with no basis in history, usually with animals as characters,
intended to make a moral or intellectual point
2.3 Stages in the Development of Myths
• Important to consider the uses of myths over a period of time
• Some scholars have tried to establish a typical pattern in the development of myths
o Typical life-cycle of myths
o Life-cycle refers to the way myths were regarded by the Greeks over a long period of
time
• According to this pattern
o Stage 1 – myth associated with ritual - Myths start out with close relationship to
religious ritual, with typical activities associated with divine worship, story either
explains the ritual or the ritual enacts the story
o Stage 2 – myth becomes history - are retold as something that really happened
o Stage 3 – myth becomes folklore - told less for its religious significance, more for
entertainment and education
o Stage 4 – myth becomes art - myth utilized by authors and artists for the purpose of
art and literature
• Not all myths fit into this typical life-cycle – so diverse
• Greek myths were closely associated with cult – cult activities included sacrifice, initiations,
fertility, birth and death, establishment of social orderings
• Aetiological myths – explain origins of a practice of place names
2.4 Myth Interpretation
• The art of interpretation
o Interpretation is not exact science
o Interpretations can be wrong, but never fully correct, final or complete
o Some interpretations are more valid, plausible, suitable, appropriate, convincing or
legitimate than others
o Certainly, are incorrect interpretations, the rest can be organised on an axis
between better and worse
o Interpretation has a subjective element, cannot be said to be random
o Hermeneutics
▪ some fields of study at university level have developed the art to
incorporate theories of interpretation
▪ has scientific elements incorporated into the art of interpretation
▪ to eliminate random interpretation and reduce the subjective element
▪ always strive for the higher end of the “better” side of the axis
▪ which can claim the widest approval
▪ only possible by means of close study of the text or object to be interpreted,
take into account as many aspects of the context you can find
o Scholars have developed theories by means of which stories may be interpreted
• Myth interpretation in ancient times
o Buxton p. 40 -41
