ANTH 101 Lecture : Lecture2 - Sources.docx
Document Summary
No longer possible to deconstruct myths in their original oral formats. Myths were able to pass onto us because they were written at some point. Pseudo-apollodoros bibliotheke (composed ad 100-800): he lived in the 2nd c. bc and the work was clearly written much later and attributed to him; only known surviving compilation of myths. When reconstructing written myth we are faced with diverse genres. Some hints of oral traditions exists only in the tiniest of fragments (e. g. homer - odyssey) The records of myths that have come down to us are confusing, contradictory, incomplete. Myths were not the ideas of individuals (they were not copied or stolen) Authors rarely recorded myths for their own sake, but for a greater purpose. Seneca - phaidra is based on euripides; seneca also has a biased agenda (stoicism) and may have been for the emperor nero; this could be done, however, because myths are not sacred texts.
