Ways of Interpreting Myth: Star Wars and the Greeks

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Ways of Interpreting MythStar Wars and the
Greeks

• Ancient Vs. Modern

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The Web of Myth
Interpreting myth is like Penelope at her loom.
Thread upon thread of interpretation is
interwoven in myth. As one approach to myth goes
out of favor and is unraveled from the fabric,
another takes its place. The result is that, like
Penelope's shroud, the cloth of myth
interpretation is ever-changing and can never be
finished. See Sienkewicz on the Web of Myth See
also Michael Websters Ways of Interpreting Myths
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Ancient Ways of Viewing Myth
Archaic 750-480 B.C. Classical 480-323
B.C. Hellenistic 323-146 B.C.
Myth as Venerable Tradition Questioning of Myths
(Rationality) Myths as Allegory Myths as
Instructive Models Myths as Inaccurate Myths of
Questionable Morality Myths as Dangerous Gods
as Deified Heroes and Kings
Xenophanes Theagenes Anaxagoras Aeschylus Euripid
es Socrates Plato Euhemerus
Timeline http//homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Cont
emporaries.html
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Xenophanes of Colophonc.570 B.C.
Questioned the Anthropomorphism of the Gods 170
But mortals consider that the gods are born, and
that they have clothes and speech and bodies like
their own. 171 The Ethiopians say that their
gods are snub- nosed and black, the Thracians
that theirs have light blue eyes and red
hair. 172 But if cattle and horses or lions had
hands, or were able to draw with their hands and
do the works that men can do, horses would draw
the forms of gods like horses, and cattle like
cattle, and they would make their bodies such as
they each had themselves.
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Xenophanes of Colophonc.570 B.C.
Questioned Polytheism 173 One god, greatest
among gods and men, in no way similar to mortals
either in body or in thought. 174 Always he
remains in the same place, moving not at all nor
is it fitting for him to go to different places
at different times, but without toil he shakes
all things but the thought of his mind. 175 All
of him sees, all thinks, and all hears.
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Anthropomorphism in Star Wars
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Myths as Allegory
Theagenes of Rhegium (525 B.C.) gods as
symbols of human qualities e.g., Athena wisdom
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (c.500-428 B.C.)
The misdeeds of the gods are intended to
illustrate evil and teach virtue.
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Star Wars as Allegory

• An allegory on the Cold War
• Spiritual Allegory
• http//www.hollywoodjesus.com/star20wars20reid.h
  tm
• Coming to Terms with Homosexuality
• http//everything2.com/index.pl?node_id475028

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Myths as Instructive Models (Paradigmatic Model)
Aeschylus (c.525-456 B.C.) used myth to teach
Athenians about the gods and the their role in
the civic life of Athens.
Orestes at trial with Apollo, Athena, and the
Erinyes The Erinyes of Clytaemnestra pursue
Orestes. Beside Athena, who presides the court,
sits Apollo. Engraving from G. Schwab's Die
schönsten Sagen, 1912
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Star Wars as Paradigm
Lucas used Star Wars to teach his audience
about the need for inter-species cooperation and
solidarity. We are all in this together.
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Myths as Inaccurate
Euripides on the birth of Dionysus Confusion
between thigh (meron) and hostage (hemeron), a
reference to the false image of Dionysus which
Zeus gave to Hera as a hostage. Watch out for
this in Euripides Bacchae (295)
Boston Museum of Fine Arts 95.39Attic Red-Figure
Lekythos
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Star Wars as Inaccurate

• There is NO Sound in Space
• http//www.theforce.net/swtc/astro.htmlsound
• And other astrophysical concerns
• http//www.theforce.net/swtc/astro.html

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Ancient Ways of Viewing Myth
Archaic 750-480 B.C. Classical 480-323
B.C. Hellenistic 323-146 B.C.
Myth as Venerable Tradition Questioning of Myths
(Rationality) Myths as Allegory Myths as
Instructive Models Myths as Inaccurate Myths of
Questionable Morality Myths as Dangerous Gods
as Deified Heroes and Kings
Xenophanes Theagenes Anaxagoras Aeschylus Euripid
es Socrates Plato Euhemerus
Timeline http//homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Cont
emporaries.html
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Myths as DangerousPlato Banishes Poetry (Myths)
from his Ideal Republic
In Republic Book X Socrates banishes poets from
the city as unwholesome and dangerous because

• The poets pretend to know all sorts of things,
  but they really know nothing at all. The things
  they deal with cannot be known they are images,
  far removed from what is most real. By presenting
  scenes so far removed from the truth poets,
  pervert souls, turning them away from the most
  real toward the least.
• Worse, the images the poets portray do not
  imitate the good part of the soul. The rational
  part of the soul is quiet, stable, and not easy
  to imitate or understand. Poets imitate the worst
  partsthe inclinations that make characters
  easily excitable and colorful. Poetry naturally
  appeals to the worst parts of souls and arouses,
  nourishes, and strengthens this base elements
  while diverting energy from the rational part
• Poetry corrupts even the best souls. It deceives
  us into sympathizing with those who grieve
  excessively, who lust inappropriately, who laugh
  at base things. It even goads us into feeling
  these base emotions vicariously. We think there
  is no shame in indulging these emotions because
  we are indulging them with respect to a fictional
  character and not with respect to our own lives.

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Star Wars is Dangerous
ChildCare Action Project Christian Analysis of
American Culture (CAP) http//www.capalert.com/cap
reports/starwarsstudy.htm Each of The Star
Wars movies presented a clear disregard for the
Holy Scriptures. The Star Wars movies presented
separation and independence from God's
Sovereignty and Omnipotence and rightful
Authority. Counterfeiting and mockery of the
Scriptures . Repeated use of the "force" as
equatable to the Will of God and ignoring His
supreme Authority. Gaining power, strength, and
protection from the "force." Manipulating
objects and minds by the power of the "force."
Portrayal that Anakin was a virgin birth.
Portrayal that Anakin was "the one" to bring
community between good and evil. presentation of
ethereal beings in after-death presence to the
corporeal world, and submitting to and seeking
counsel/guidance/rescue from them. unholy powers
to control, manipulate, and kill and mystic
sensing.
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Euhemerism
On Euhemerus of Messene, see http//www.csun.edu/
hcfll004/euhemerus.html.
From Diodorus Siculus Now Euhemerus, who was a
friend of King Cassander of Macedonia (301 to
297 B.C.) and was required by him to perform
certain affairs of state and to make great
journeys abroad, says that he traveled southward
as far as the Indian ocean for setting sail
from Arabia he voyaged through the ocean for a
considerable number of days and was carried to
the shore of some islands in the sea, one of
which bore the name of Panachaea. On this island
he saw the Panachaeans who dwell there, who excel
in piety and honor the gods with the most
magnificent sacrifices and with remarkable votive
offerings of silver and gold.... There is also on
the island, situated on an exceedingly high hill,
a sanctuary of Zeus, which was established by him
during the time when he was king of all the
inhabited world and was still in the company of
men. And in the temple there is a stele of gold
on which is inscribed in summary, in the writing
employed by the Panchaeans, the deeds of Ouranos
and Kronos and Zeus.
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Euhemerism in Star Wars Gods as Deified Heroes
and Kings
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Ancient Ways of Viewing Myth
Archaic 750-480 B.C. Classical 480-323
B.C. Hellenistic 323-146 B.C.
Myth as Venerable Tradition Questioning of Myths
(Rationality) Myths as Allegory Myths as
Instructive Models Myths as Inaccurate Myths of
Questionable Morality Myths as Dangerous Gods
as Deified Heroes and Kings
Xenophanes Theagenes Anaxagoras Aeschylus Euripid
es Socrates Plato Euhemerus
Timeline http//homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Cont
emporaries.html
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Modern Interpretations of Myth

• Two modern meanings of mythology
• a system or set of myths
• the methodological analysis of myths

A monolithic theory of myth vs. the
multifunctionalism of myth The autonomy of
myth See Some Theories of Myth
Externalist Theories Myths as Products of the
Environment Internalist Theories Myths as
Products of the Mind
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Externalist TheoriesMyths as Products of the
Environment
Myths as Aetiology Comparative Mythology Nature
Myths Myths as Rituals Charter Myths
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Myths as Aetiology
myth as explanation of the origin of things myth
as primitive science myth as primitive
science Aetiology in Greek Myth Europa
(eponymous hero) Creation myths Arachne
Athena and Arachne in Ovids Metamorphoses
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Aetiology in Star Wars?
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F. Max MüllerNature Myths
Founder of the social scientific study of
religion
Comparative approach Study of Vedic peoples of
ancient India applied to myths of other cultures
(Greece and Rome)
For Müller, the culture of the Vedic peoples
represented a form of nature worship, an idea
clearly influenced by Romanticism
Max Müller 1823-1900)
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Zeus as the Sky

• Dyaus pitr Sanskrit
• Dyaus he who shines
• pitr father
• Zeus pater Greek
• Jupiter Latin
• Tiu Vater Teutonic (German)

Indo-European
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The Comparative Method and Nature Myths in Star
Wars?
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The Force
The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an
energy field created by all living things. It
surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the
galaxy together.
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Myths as Ritual
Sir James Frazer The Golden Bough
(1890-1915) myths as byproducts of ritual
enactments stories to
explain religious ceremonies The Golden Bough
On-Line http//www.bartleby.com/196/
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Myths as Ritual in Star Wars?
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Charter Myths
belief-systems set up to authorize and validate
current social customs and institutions.
Bronsilaw Malinowski (1884-1942)
Selected Bibliography http//www.vanderbilt.edu/A
nS/Anthro/Anth206/malinowski.htm
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Charter Myths in Star Wars?
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Internalist Theories Myths as Products of the
Mind
Individual Mind Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Collective Mind Carl Jung (1875-1961)
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Ernst Cassirer (1874-1975)
German philosopher and historian of ideas, often
typed as one of the leading exponents of
neo-Kantian thought in the 20th century. The
great symbol systems from science to mythology
are not modeled on reality but model it. Myth
as mind's spontaneous creation of an emotionally
satisfying cosmos. More on Cassirer
http//www.kirjasto.sci.fi/cassir.htm
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Mircea Eliade (1907-1986)
Eliade's analysis of religion assumes the
existence of "the sacred" as the object of
worship of religious humanity. Myths reflect a
creative era, a sacred time, a vanished epoch of
unique holiness. More on Eliade
http//www.angelfire.com/electronic/bodhidharma/mi
rcea.html
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Victor Turner (1920-1983)
Anthropologist at Stanford developed a unique
ritual approach stressing the processual nature
of ritual among the Ndembu and of ritual activity
in complex societies. myths serve a combined
psychological and social purpose in the present
and promote a liminal or threshold
experience Myths ease people through life's
difficult transitions Rituals as symbolic
actions. PROCESSUAL SYMBOLIC ANALYSIS Ritual
analyses are dominated by myth, speech, and
thought analysis. More on Turner
http//www.cla.sc.edu/socy/faculty/deflem/zturn.ht
m
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Structuralism
Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-) Jean-Paul
Vernant Pierre Vidal-Naquet
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Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-)

• myth reflect the mind's binary organization
• humans tend to see world as reflection of their
  own physical and cerebral structure ( two hands,
  eyes, legs, etc.)
• Left/right, raw,/cooked, pleasure/pain
• Myth deals with the perception and reconciliation
  of these opposites
• mediation of contradictions

For more on Levi-Strauss see http//www.mnsu.edu/e
museum/information/biography/klmno/levi-strauss_cl
aude.html
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Jean-Paul Vernant

• Professor at the College de France in Paris and
  one of the foremost classicists of our time.
• He is the author of numerous scholarly books on
  Greek thought, myths, tragedy, politics, society,
  and religion, including Myth and Society in
  Ancient Greece (1990).
• unveils a complex and previously unexplored
  intersection of the religious, social, and
  political structures of ancient Greece.
• Focuses on the alien quality of ceremonial
  hunting, blood sacrifice, slavery, ritualized
  warfare and religious esctasy in ancient Greece.

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Pierre Vidal-Naquet
Pierre Vidal-Nacquet is director of the Centre
Louis Gernet de Recherches Comparées sur les
Sociétés Anciennes at the École des Hautes Études
en Sciences Sociales in Paris.
With Jean-Paul Vernant, Vidal-Naquet has written
Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece (1972,
published in English in 1990).
They emphasize the contradictions and confusions
of reality that characterize Greek tragic
drama. In the introduction to Myth and Tragedy
in Ancient Greece, Vernant and Vidal-Naquet argue
for the unique virtues of historical psychology
as a means of comprehending tragedy and allude to
their use of structural analysis to reduce tragic
plots to their components.
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Narratology
Vlaimir Propp (1895-1970) Propp argued that all
fairy tales were constructed of certain plot
elements, which he called functions, and that
these elements consistently occurred in a uniform
sequence. Based on a study of one hundred folk
tales, Propp devised a list of thirty-one generic
functions, proposing that they encompassed all of
the plot components from which fairy tales were
constructed.
More on Propp http//library.marist.edu/diglib/en
glish/theorists/propp.htm
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Narratology in Star Wars?
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Feminist Approaches to Myth
Marija Gimbutas (1921-1994) Marija Gimbutas was
an archaeologist with a scholarly background in
folklore and linguistics, making her uniquely
qualified to synthesize information from science
and myth into a controversial theory of a
Goddess-based culture in prehistoric Europe.
Joseph Campbell said that, if her work had been
available to him, he would have held very
different views about the archetypes of the
female Divine in world mythology. Primacy of
Matriarchy
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Feminist Approach to Star Wars?