blog statistics say that one of its most visited entries is " What is a myth? " So I think it may also be of interest to guests of the feast of this new post Homer paradoxical title: "Myths logical?" This is the text of a lecture prepared for almost three years, cousa of witches, I have never come to expose.
you enjoy the paradox that the title of this post.
Myths SOFTWARE?
JUSTIFICATION OF MYTH IN GREECE
It must start by explaining the title of this post. Because "myths logic" seems a contradiction in terms or, if preferred, a paradox. A myth, can be logical? In old high school plans are explained to us that philosophy arose in Greece to occur over the logos myth about to S. VI a. C., when the Greeks dared to reflect on their traditional knowledge and to adopt a critical attitude towards it.
Given the central importance was the myth in the traditional culture of Greece is understandable that as part of this new critical attitude, the first thinkers focused their attacks on the myth.
Speaking of "thinkers" in the head I have not only to philosophers. I think, for example, Solon of Athens, politician, legislator and poet (about 638 BC - 558 BC), a fragment reference is required:
πολλὰ ψεύδονται ἀοιδοί, "long lie poets."
Note that in speaking of "poets" Solon is not referring to the poet as we understand it, talk about poets in the archaic Greek sense:
were professional poets in contemporary culture exercised not only a recreational function as storytellers. Also, and above all, exercised an educational function by proposing as traditional wisdom stories of the "tribe."
According to this view, Homer passes in his poems not only a story about the Trojan War but, first, knowledge of various kinds, a whole conception of the world and human relationships.
But from our perspective is somewhat problematic: an educator as Homer, "transmits content valid? I am not referring to whether p. eg. his conception of the rainbow is valid: Homer, "valid contents transmitted in ethics?
Can be really figures like Achilles models in it for me to guide my conduct, to know what should I do? Achilles is a dubious model, as we see already in Iliad I:
- We have been deprived of his honors.
- pleads with his mother, the goddess Thetis their comrades in arms at a bad time in the fight to go to beg his help.
- Mobiles Achilles are its honor and glory, and in front of this fellow's life is irrelevant.
From Homer principle you have learned all ...ἐξ ἀρχῆς καθ Homer memathήkasi manager must all things ...
A los dioses atribuyeron Homero y Hesíodo todogods all things Homer anέthikan i Isίodos tech,
cuanto entre los mortales es vergonzoso y reprensible:
hurtos, adulterios y recíprocos engaños.
Ossa Fri anthrώpoisin oneίdea And blame estίn,
klέptein moicheύein tech and allήlous apateύein.
En número elevadísimo contaron de los dioses ilícitas acciones:efthέnxanto gods as a most athemίstia works,
hurtos, adulterios y recíprocos engaños.
klέptein moicheύein tech and allήlous apateύein.
- En los fragmentos Jenófanes reconoce, según se indicó, que Homero fue el "educador" de Grecia (from the beginning throughout Homer memathήkasi manager must all things).
- Al tiempo, les reprocha a Homero y Hesíodo el contenido de esa educación: education in illegal actions (theft, adultery and mutual deceit. ") Xenophanes
exemplifies the early stages in the process of mythologizing of ancient Greece:
- when the old legend is submitted to the court of reason, becomes absurd in many respects:
- from the point of view of the critical customs, becomes deeply immoral.
Curiously, around the same time (sixth century BC) in which the traditional myth Xenophanes criticizes other authors write not to criticize but to justify it - the case of Theagenes Regio. Theagenes, like many other performers ancient myth, tried to find an inner logic in the myth. Solon and Xenophanes
authors can be known by those who have read or studied ancient Greece - is much more difficult for these people have heard some Theagenes.
The truth is that we do not conserve their work directly, and what we preserve of it is evidence of later writers, writers who in turn are not especially familiar: scholiasts, ancient commentators on Homer's work ...
transmit What we thought of Theagenes scholiasts?: Indicating a scoliosis (scoliosis B) Iliad XX 67. Remember that Iliad XX tells a teomaquia, a struggle between gods, scandalous at first glance:
- why have to fight each other immortals?
- what they differ from men in doing so?
Schol BIliad XX 67:teaching about the gods generally violent and even borders on the immoral. Well, he [Porfirio "?] Indicates that the myths of the gods are outrageous. Faced with such a trial, some were looking after the appearance of your verbal figure a solution to the difficulty, in the belief that all is said allegorically nature elements, so it would be, for example, when we talk of the encounters hostile gods. Indicate that they also fight against the wet dry and warm with cold, light and heavy against him. Water also has the power to extinguish the fire, and fire to dry the water. And that underlie the various elements, which makes up the universe world, opposition, and in part it also underlies the process of destruction. But the group remains in eternity. So the poet [Homer] allows the battles take place [between the gods], and appoints the fire Apollo and Helios, and Hephaestus, and water and Scamander Poseidon, Artemis the moon, Hera air, etc. Similarly gives him, on the other hand, names of gods with the powers and spiritual properties, and instead says Athena intelligence, instead of unreason Ares, Aphrodite instead of passion, instead of cunning Hermes, etc. This mode of explanation [of the Homeric poem] is very old: Theagenes started from Reggio, who was the first to write well about Homer (trans. C. García Gual).
therefore the myth must be understood not literally but that al-egoría , that "speaking differently" must be translated, should become our common mode of speaking.
In making this conversion is seen that the myth (eg., In Iliad XX 54-74) is not absurd or immoral but really conveys truths
- of physical (the conflict between Apollo and Poseidon: represents the opposition between fire and water);
- of moral (Athena in the face with Ares, the fight against injustice intelligence).
However, those who tried to justify the Greek myth in antiquity not only resorted to allegory.
Those who tried to find the logic of myth did also assuming that the myth, apparently illogical
- behind either a misunderstanding of reality
- or a faulty transmission of historical truth.
If we treat the myth of these deficiencies through rational analysis, the myth shows its relevance to common logic.
In the exegesis of this kind of historical interpretations-call rationalists. Already been used by Herodotus (S. V) but its major representative was Euhemerus of Mesene, in terms of which we speak of euhemerism.
A Euhemerus it must be dated between SS. IV-III a. C. Curiously not presented his ideas in a treatise but a novel or text paranovelesco the Registration sacred.
This work has been lost but we have evidence and summaries in later authors (Diodorus of Sicily, 41-46 V, VI 1).
- Euhemerus narrated a tour of the Indian Ocean during this trip discover an island Panquea. Euhemerus describes this island and its political system: the existence of three tribes, the role of priests ...
- The island is also a golden wake, in the wake is the "sacred inscription" which gives title to the work and relates the facts admirable and exemplary of the early kings of Panquea. The remarkable part is that these early kings are Uranus, Cronus and Zeus! For his strength, intelligence and political skill these kings were raised to the rank of gods after his death, and as such are revered by the Greeks.
Euhemerus, a friend of King Cassander and received from him the task of dealing with some issues of the kingdom and make long journeys, that went south to the ocean, making a sail from Arabia Feliz, sailed the ocean for many days and arrived off the coast of some islands in the sea, among which was a named Panquea. On this island saw its inhabitants, panqueos, distinguished for his piety and for honoring the gods with the most magnificent sacrifices and offerings of gold and silver (...). Also found in this island at the foot of a high mountain, a sanctuary of Zeus Trifilio ["of the three tribes"], which was founded by the god at the time was king of all the inhabited earth, when he still lived among men. In this temple there is a trail of gold, which, in panqueos characters are written in summary fashion the facts of Uranus, Cronus and Zeus.
Euhemerus then says that Uranus was first king, who was a moderate and magnanimous man, versed in the movement of the stars, and was the first to honor the gods of the heavens with sacrifices, for which he received the name of Uranus [ouranos = "heaven".] With his wife Hestia had two sons, Titan and Cronus, and two daughters, Rhea and Demeter. Cronus reigned after Uranus, and marrying Rhea he begat Zeus, Hera and Poseidon. Zeus was the successor to the throne and married Hera, with Demeter and Themis, of which had children (...). Went to Babylon, where he was welcomed by Belo, and then went to the island of Panquea, located in the ocean, and there built an altar to Uranus, his grandfather (...). He visited many villages, all of which paid him honor and proclaimed him God (trans. JJ Torres Esbarranch).Euhemerus
's work could be read in two quite different ways:
- as a reflection politics,
- or as a text on mythology.
The first possibility (the political thought) must be Euhemerus that moved to write his work
- Consider, first, that the work is part of the Greek tradition of utopian narratives (p . ie., the story of Atlantis in the Critias Plato, cf., in modern times, the Moro Utopia), and these utopias tend to have a political purpose.
- On the other hand, can not lose sight of the historical context of the author: Euhemerus was in the service (between 311-298 BC) of a of the Diadochi (successors Hellenistic monarchs of Alexander the Great), Cassander of Macedonia. Taking this into account, it is easy to understand the intent of the work: if the kings of antiquity were deified and became figures of the Greek pantheon, why not also have to be deified as Cassander Hellenistic monarchs?
However, the policy may not be reading the one that interests us.
Leaving aside the political reading fall into an anachronism, but we are not alone, and acted the same way in ancient times, when (with exceptions) seems to have read the work of Euhemerus as a reflection on mythology, a reflection that led to deny the existence of traditional gods as transcendent beings and laid the foundations of atheism. Therefore
- A devout pagan Plutarch Euhemerus accused of "atheism have spread throughout the world" (Moralia 360 a).
- The Fathers of the Church, however, welcomed him with open arms as a great ally, as it undermined the significance of the ancient religion, so often cited, and especially Lactantius does, through which comes Euhemerus the authors of the Middle Ages.
is worth noting that the point of view euhemerism popular and successful that we are all a bit euhemerists:
know the historical truth that slowly deforms and so many myths and legends → We are sympathetic to the fact that the legends may have arisen from the distortion of historical facts.
The proof of this seems to have occurred in the S. XIX: Schliemann, the Iliad in hand, discovered the ruins of Troy.
The type of interpretation that can be accessed Euhemerus makes reading the summaries of Diodorus. But I will surely be more entertaining to illustrate the model of rationalist reading historical interpretations versions of the myth of a writer S. IV a. C., Paléfato, author of a collection of Amazing Stories .
The type of interpretation that can be accessed Euhemerus makes reading the summaries of Diodorus. But I will surely be more entertaining to illustrate the model of rationalist reading historical interpretations versions of the myth of a writer S. IV a. C., Paléfato, author of a collection of Amazing Stories . Paléfato myth makes rational justifications but do not properly historical understanding how Euhemerus: no talk of a "big bad history remembered."
To illustrate what I say: this is the legend of the carnivorous mares of Diomedes (Thracian; work Heracles) as Paléfato:
7. The mares of Diomedes
About the mares of Diomedes say men who ate meat, something laughable, because this animal enjoys more with grass or barley with human flesh. The truth is this.
old men lived by their own work and so got the food and goods, through the work of the earth. But one came up raising horses and she loved them so much that lost their property, they sold everything and spent on raising them. So his friends called these horses, "cannibals." Succeeded
which, spread the myth (trad. José B. Torres) .
Note:
- Paléfato
- that shows first version non-traditional legend holds, is illogical;
- explains that after the traditional version of a linguistic misunderstanding:
A Diomedes horses were called "cannibal" because their livelihoods consumed that expression → be reinterpreted as meaning that the horses ate human flesh.
A second example might be to Atalanta and Milanión, metamorphosed after entering a cave was a sanctuary:
13. Atalanta and Milanión
Milanión About Atalanta and said that he became in her lion and lioness.
What actually happened was this.
Milanión Atalanta were hunting. Milanión convinced the girl to sleep with him and entered a cave to sleep together. But the cave was the lair of a lion and a lioness, who heard voices, came out and attacked Atalanta and her partner to death. When, after a while, left the lion and lioness, the Milanión hunting companions saw them, thought they had become those animals. Thus, performing in the city they spread the canard that Atalanta and her companion had become lions (trad. José B. Torres).
Milanión Atalanta and entered a cave and the cave came after a lion and a lioness → is interpreted Milanión Atalanta and became a lion and a lioness. Import
- legends indicate that Paléfato removed but never reinterprets myths literally, myths featuring gods.
- As ever makes subjects of his "amazing stories" health cures: preserve the gods and is not obliged to acknowledge that infringe on the right.
- At this point there is also an important difference Euhemerus, who is interested in precisely what is to speak of the gods.
I would now move from the rationalistic interpretation of the myth of allegorical interpretation. And I will illustrate the kind of justification do allegorists myth by reading some text from an author who is, as Paléfato, little known ANEO Cornuto.
De Cornuto there has been no translation into Castilian until 2009, it , and the situation is similar in other languages.
Why so few translations, if it is usual that there is an excess of translations of classical authors above claim?
obviously Cornuto is not a best-seller: the text is not easy to translate and, possibly, one must have good reason to get into reading.
But I think an author is not totally devoid of interest, I note four points:
- is an important representative of the phenomenon of bilingualism for the old and Roman authors with works in Greek, is an example
- valid currents interpretation of ancient myth (allegory);
- also applies as an illustration of the Stoic attitude to the myth
- Finally, the text is a rather unique example of textbooks used in antiquity. Because
Cornuto not write a mythological compendium of the way he did p. eg. Pseudo-Apollodorus (Library mythological) : what he seeks is to train a young disciple.
But what is significant is that Cornuto not properly instruct the young interested in mythological lore: what he wants is to convey ... Knowledge of physics!
¿¿¿¿¿?????
- We assume that the young person who is directed the work has been completed the previous stage of education at the time (grammar and rhetoric) and initiates studies philosophy.
- course, we find it paradoxical that a disciple who tries to acquire a philosophical background, pursue the path of the logos, you will be instructed in the myth.
However, the paradox has an internal logic: Cornuto, like other Stoics (Panaetius and Posidonius)
- understand that the study of philosophy has to begin not by logic or ethics but by physical
- and traditional myth reflects the physical truths through an allegorical language that has to be reinterpreted and translated, as indeed do consistently in work, the Review mythological traditions of the Greeks.
We can see an example of this:
2. As we are governed by a soul, so the cosmos has a soul that holds it together. It is called Zeus (Zeus) to it and live (tution) so primordial and continuous, and for living beings (Zosia) is due to be (Zen). Thus Zeus is also said that rules over the universe, as also in our case we could say that the soul and nature reign over us. We called Zeus (Day) because due to (diameter) of it come into being and preserves all things. Among some also called Deus (Deus), perhaps because wet (deúein) land or because it gives the party living in vital moisture ( trad. José B. Torres ).
Note:
- analogy is part of a characteristically stoic, which is between the microcosm of man, with a soul, and the macrocosm, which is said is Zeus soul.
- This soul is attributed a number of features: In our piece, his character from beginning of life, root cause of the principle of vital moisture.
- These characteristics are extracted from the etymology:
Zeus (nominative) ~ tution, Zosia, zen (life) Day(accusative) ~ dia (cause)Deus (nominative: lat. deus?) ~ deúein (moisture)
Through more or less fanciful etymologies Cornuto tries to decipher the allegorical meaning that hides the mythical figure of Zeus, will operate the same way throughout the work.
The lack of translations is doubtless Cornuto inseparable from his constant recourse to the explanations of the myth based on imaginative etymologies: this fact makes the Review reluctant to work in a translation.
- I tried to show how the Greeks tried to justify the myth and accommodate logical modes of expression. Hence
- resort, as said, the allegorical, historical and rationalists.
- Who developed these interpretations launched an intellectual adventure that has left a deep mark on Western culture, especially in the Middle Ages.
But perhaps the Greek myth needs no justification: it may be justified by itself if we accept that obeys its own logic, different, but that is not arbitrary because it also has its own laws.
This is something that we have only begun to understand in the S. XX after the disaster of World War I, when they came confidence crisis European man's full power of reason and the unstoppable progress.
Today we see the matter differently, as I tell this little anecdote:
- Until very recently (2001) Dictionary of the RAE defined the myth
Fable, fiction allegorical especially in religious matters.
- Such a definition (rather moth-eaten) reproduced directly included when the word "myth" entered the dictionary in 1884.
- Edition 22 (2001) proposes a definition more in line with our current understanding narrative studded these respects, different from our habitual ways of thinking, but never capricious:
extraordinary narrative beyond historical time and starring characters of divine or heroic character. Frequently the origin of the world or great events of mankind.
