CMLT316 Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: Golden Fleece, Palaephatus, Euhemerism
3 Jun 2018
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The Age of Heroes - Ovid and the later Metamorphosis of Myth
The Three Ages of Narratives
MYTH LEGEND HISTORY
Transitional stages
Changing Opinions Toward Myth
● Intellectual change:
○ Growing notions by the 7th century BCE (Greece) that the world could be
understood through the observation of natural phenomena
■ I.e. gods were not needed to explain why things were the way they were
● Turmoil of the city states (late 5th-3rd century BCE):
○ War and political unrest diminished emphasis on state religions
○ Move to more private religious worship
Ovid - Metamorphoses
Pythagoras
● Represents a turning-point in belief systems
● On the boundary between legend and history
● Aligns these ‘old’ myths with ‘reality’ through new lens of scientific knowledge - changes
can be understood but humans, they don’t have to be explained by the gods
Pythagoras: Immorality of Eating Flesh
● Ways of “old” criticized
● Like the characters in his stories, Ovid suggests that we as humans change (culturally)
Changing Opinions Toward Myth
● Aetiology of myth: Euhemerism (300 BCE)
○ Gods were once humans, who later underwent apotheosis (saw golden columns
on an island describing this
○ Greek gods early heroic men
○ Provided fodder for early christians to use against pagans
● Palaephatus’ Incredible Tales (?400 BCE)
○ Myths as they are told are ‘self-contradictory’ they just don’t make sense from a
common sense point of view
○ Myths started from puns on names, misunderstood metaphors, ‘first inventors’
○ Drako (dragon) was a person’s name (eg Jason and the golden fleece) so
Taurus (bull) could be another person’s name
○ Scylla and Pegasus were the names of ships; Hydra was a fortress
○ The ‘hollow’ Trojan horse was a ravine where the Greeks hid
○ Actaeon
■ Spent too much on dogs
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
The age of heroes - ovid and the later metamorphosis of myth. Growing notions by the 7th century bce (greece) that the world could be understood through the observation of natural phenomena. I. e. gods were not needed to explain why things were the way they were. Turmoil of the city states (late 5th-3rd century bce): War and political unrest diminished emphasis on state religions. On the boundary between legend and history. Aligns these old" myths with reality" through new lens of scientific knowledge - changes can be understood but humans, they don"t have to be explained by the gods. Like the characters in his stories, ovid suggests that we as humans change (culturally) Gods were once humans, who later underwent apotheosis (saw golden columns on an island describing this. Provided fodder for early christians to use against pagans. Myths as they are told are self-contradictory" they just don"t make sense from a common sense point of view.
