Week 14 Lab: Crash Course

 Mythology Crash Course Videos 

"What is Myth"

• Mythology
• Combination of 
• Literature 
• History 
• Anthropology 
• Sociology 
• Psychology
• Religion
• The line between the two is often blurry 
• Science
• Open to many interpretations 
• Myth: a story characterized by significance and staying power 
• Many exist in multiple versions 
• Most don't have nameable authors
• Origin stories  

Mythology from CGP Grey (source: Wikimedia).

"Theories of Myth"

• Mythology: the systematic study of myths 
• Ancient Greece 
• Plato
• Equated myths with lying 
• Euhemeros
• Used myths to explain things he didn't understand 
• Other 
• Christians 
• Myth = falsehood 
• Greek + Roman myths influenced by demons 
• Herder
• Myth embody the ideology of the Folk 
• Aryan hypothesis 
• Their myths were considered the basis for all European, Indian, and South-Asian myths 
• Frazer 
• Myths = primitive science 
• Anthropologists 
• Myths = human knowledge 
• Psychologists 
• Myths = projections of the unconscious 
• Freud + Jung 
• Cambell
• Myth = vehicle through which the individual finds their place in the world 
• Monomyth 
• Binary 

"The Heros Journey and the Monomyth"

• Heros 
• Ubiquitous throughout mythology 
• Cambell
• Heros journey away from safety and return home 
• Heros tell us something about ourselves 
• Motifs 
• Mother-figure 
• Father-son relationship 
• Monomyth: classic hero-centric myth 
• Parts 
• Separation 
• Trials and victories of initiation 
• Return