Unit One Flashcards
(27 cards)
What is “pure” or “divine” myth?
Stories about the creation of the world, the gods, and their relationship with humans.
What is a “legend” or “saga”?
Stories that have their origin in a true (or believed to be true) story — the “kernel of truth” of the myth
What is a “folklore” myth?
Stories involving magic, monsters and quests.
What is the basic idea of Truth as myth?
Human knowledge can change over time but myths never change.
What is the Personification Theory?
The theory that the personalities and powers of the gods are reflected in some sort of natural phenomena.
What does etiological mean?
Serving to explain something by giving a cause or reason to it.
What is polytheistic pantheism?
The belief that there are many gods everywhere in the world and in day-to-day life.
What is Euhemerism?
The belief that powerful humans underwent apotheosis after death.
What is apotheosis?
The elevation to divine status.
Who was Max Muller?
Developed the myth as allegory theory.
What is the Myth as Allegory?
Gods represent observable phenomena but are not directly that phenomena.
True or False: Ritualists believe that myth and ritual are inseparable and that they always exist together in some configuration.
True
What is the basic idea behind Ritualism?
Myth and ritual are inextricably linked in some way.
What is the advantage of Ritualism?
It is a clear interpretation in many ways.
What is the disadvantage of Ritualism?
It cannot be applied to all myths.
Who was James Frazer?
He developed the theory of human belief progression.
What is the theory of human belief progression?
Magic, religion, science. Man believes in magic until it stops working. then he believes in religion until it stops, and finally he reaches science and understands the laws of nature.
Who was Walter Burkert?
He believed that myths and rituals originally existed separately until gradually hey coordinated with one another to establish and reinforce social order.
What did Sigmund Freud believe in regard to myth?
Myths are conscious manifestations of the human subconscious mind.
Carl Jung developed Freud’s idea into this important theory about human thought:
The Collective Unconscious
What is the collective unconscious?
The belief that all humans share the same unconscious beliefs in universal symbols such as “The Wise Old Man” and “The Great Mother”.
What is an animus/anima?
The ideal partner. Animus is the perfect male partner, anima is the perfect female partner.
What theory did Claude Levi-Strauss develop?
Structuralism
What is Structuralism?
The belief that the world can be understood through binary opposition.
