CLAA06H3 Midterm: CLAA06 Midterm Notes (Nature of Myth, Myths of Creation, Pantheon Gods, Fertility, Death, Gilgamesh, Perseus, Myths of the Argive Plain & Heracles)
23 Feb 2014
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Divine myth-remote setting, principal actors are supernatural beings->gods/goddesses, demons & other lesser supernatural beings, personified abstracts. >associated with control, can take on animal shapes, superior in looks/powers. >usu. explain some element of the world-etiological myths->greek: aition: cause . Legend-principal actors are human-usu. extraordinary heroes/heroines, may have some divine ancestry. >mostly performed in familiar world, fit into greek understanding of human chronology, can also serve etiological function. Folktale-principal actors are ordinary human beings->doesn"t serve to explain world->takes place outside of historical time, draw on universal human experiences & beliefs. >folktale types: familiar pattern of events repeated in stories from diff. cultures, ex. >folktale motifs (magic helper, wicked stepmother)->smaller elements that can be combined & recombined in order to form folktale types. >legendary figures don"t exist, characters can be ppl. unrecognized & then stunning reversal of fortune allows them to live happily ever after . Etiological tale-creation myth that explains causes that brought world into existence.
