Martin - Classical Mythology: The Basics

CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY

THE BASICS

This is an engaging introduction which explores the latest thinking about Classical mythology, the history of interpreting myths and the role of myths in cultural tradition, from painting to opera, philosophy, politics, drama, and religion in the modern day. It answers such questions as, what are ancient myths and who invented them; where do gods come from; what makes a hero; how is Classical myth used in the modern world; and what approaches are there to the study of myth?

Featuring further reading and case studies from antiquity to the modern day, this is an essential introduction to the myths which have been a fundamental part of Western culture throughout history.

Richard Martin is Professor in Classics at Stanford University and has twenty-five years experience in teaching an introduction to Classical mythology to undergraduate students. He is widely published on Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, Aristophanes, Theognis, and other ancient authors and genres in which mythic narration figures prominently.

THE BASICS

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ANCIENT EGYPT
DONALD P. RYAN

ANCIENT NEAR EAST
DANIEL C. SNELL

ARCHAEOLOGY (THIRD EDITION)
CLIVE GAMBLE

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SIMON BRONNER

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CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY

THE BASICS

Richard Martin

First published 2016
by Routledge
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2016 Richard Martin

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Martin, Richard P.
Classical mythology / Richard Martin. First edition.
pages cm. (The basics)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Mythology, Greek. 2. Mythology, Classical. 3. Myth. 4. Mythology. I. Title.
BL783.M375 2016
292.13dc23
2015034348

ISBN: 978-0-415-71502-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-71503-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-72718-9 (ebk)

Typeset in Bembo
by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK

Frontispiece: Sites important in the world of Greek myth

Source: Map of mainland Greece, International Mapping, from The Iliad of Homer, trans. Richmond Lattimore, University of Chicago Press 2011. Reproduced with permission.

Classical mythology rapidly draws you into the study of nearly all Western literature, philosophy, art, music, and intellectual history. It does not require advanced knowledge of any one of these, however, to start reading and understanding the tales. This small book attempts to guide the reader to the core elements of ancient Greek and Roman narratives about gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines, while also offering outlines about how the myths shaped culture, and were shaped in turn by more than two thousand years of cultural reception, through artistic responses as well as scholarly analysis.

While the book does not aim to retell or summarize the myths themselves, suggestions are made for sourcebooks that provide such material. The five chapters here build up the context for where and how myths might have begun; how they were transmitted; what meanings have been found in tales of the worlds origin, or figures like Oedipus, Heracles, Antigone, Odysseus, and Medea; and what methods, ancient and modern, have yielded fruit in explaining myths whether from the standpoint of psychology or politics. As with any interpretive writing about the Classics, the best an author can hope for is that the reader will turn with wider interest and curiosity to the primary texts that survive from the distant, ancient world.

I have confined Further Reading suggestions to works in English. In transliterating Greek, I have stuck with conventional spellings for familiar names (thus Oedipus, not Oidipous), but when names are less likely to be well known, I have retained the more authentic forms (mainly -k- instead of -c-; -ai- instead of -ae-; final -os instead of -us).

Richard Martin, San Francisco,
August 2015

What were ancient myths to the people who invented them? This chapter shows how the Greek word that gives us the English myth evolved from a term meaning speech or utterance into something closer to the modern idea, even in the course of the Classical period in Greece (fifth and fourth centuries BC ). Myth is put into its broader context of belief and tradition. This in turn will bring us to the growing gap, already seen in the Classical period, between tales like those in Homer and Hesiod and more theoretical ethical thinking. The dissonance led to three major responses by the end of the Classical age: outright rejection; rationalization; and allegorization. Each will be examined in turn. Finally, well look at the range of disparate ancient sources from which continuous stories might be woven or sometimes simply cannot be tied together.

MYTH AS SPEECH

Try this experiment. First, search the internet for the phrase myth of. What comes up? You might find a few references to characters from ancient Greek stories, like the Myth of Sisyphus (although in one recent search that summoned up an essay by the twentieth-century French writer Albert Camus, giving a philosophical spin to the ancient story of the mortal who was condemned to keep rolling a rock up a hill in Hades for eternity). But most occurrences of the phrase will not be about old Greek tales at all. Among sixty million or so results, you will find books, blogs, or articles titled The Myth of Multitasking; The Myth of Innovation; The Myth of American Exceptionalism; The Myth of Welfare and Drug Use; The Myth of Repressed Memory; The Myth of Psychotherapy; and The Myth of the Rational Voter. Theres even The Myth of Dry Pet Food Cleaning Dog Teeth. Clearly, the only connection among all these is the habit of calling a myth something that, despite being a widespread and enduring belief or institution, should be considered (at least in somebodys opinion) fake, false, or faulty. Myth in this meaning borders on common misconception or, in extreme cases, big lie.

Now do a search for mythic. Youll find the adjective attached to heroes, role-playing, adventures and journeys, battles and treasures, creatures, beasts, feats, realms and isles, archetypes (and, yes, an occasional pizza shop). In other words, all the items we associate with exciting, exotic, absorbing sagas, whether Tolkiens