Soma2019-Rel-2 Myths PDF

BSTC 1003
INTRODUCTION TO RELIGIOUS STUDIES

LECTURE NOTES 2
MYTHS
G.A. Somaratne
Centre of Buddhist Studies,
The University of Hong Kong
2019
1/17/2019 G.A. Somaratne, BSTC1003, HKU 2
We will discuss
• What is myth?
• How are the myths viewed in religious studies?
• What are the characteristics that help distinguishing

myths (sacred stories) from other tales (profane stories)?
• How do scholars classify myths?
• What is origin myth?
• What is future myth?

Forms of religious expression in a culture

• In a culture, one can find three main forms of
religious expression:
• sacred speech (myths)
• sacred acts/time (rituals)
• sacred space/places/objects (symbols).

Dictionary Meaning
• Myths < Greek muthos, Latin mythus (word, speech):
• (a) tale, something one utters, a statement, a story, the

plot of a play; commonly used for false tales.
• (b) a story about gods and superhuman beings; an

expression of the sacred in words.
• Mythology – body of myths found in a given tradition; the

study of myths. E.g. Hindu Mythology.
Two characteristics of myths

Two characteristics by which myths are
distinguished from other tales:
(1) the sacredness of the story
(2) the story having a close connection with

ritual.
Sacred Stories and Profane Stories

• In a sacred story (myth),
• (a) the words, (b) the characters in the tale, and (c)
the act of telling it itself are regarded as having
some force or power or some meaningful virtue of
their own.
• Some tales are sacred clearly and explicitly.
• These tales deal with supernatural beings, powerful

spirits.
• It is considered dangerous to tell them in any other

than the prescribed way.
Myths - in Religious Studies

• Myth is a form of sacred narrative; a form of sacred
speech; a label for speech about the holy/sacred.
• Myths tell about the importance of holy for human

beings.
• They point to holy and make present holy.
• They express and evoke human feelings, values

and relationships.
Myths
• They are double-intentional (double meanings),
metaphorical, evaluative, and revelatory.
• They are imaginative, figurative, and multivalent

speech in narrative form.
• “The story quality of religious language has a way

of revealing things that is not reducible to clear,
direct speech.” (French Philosopher Paul Ricoer)
Myths are
• more fabulous than realistic
• more imaginative than factual
• more evocative than analytical

Fabulous character of myths

• Myths are liberally populated with fantastic
beings, and impossible events.
• E.g. the creation of Eve from the rib of Adam and

the talking serpent in the Garden of Eden.
• The unrealistic dreamlike character of myths has

led many moderns to dismiss them as
unbelievable and false.
Fabulous and imaginative character of

myths in a Hopi myth
• Tawa, a spirit being associated with the sun-source of
life, placed ants and other insects in a world below
the earth.
• When dissension arose among them, Tawa sent

Spider Grandmother to guide the insect-creatures to
a new world closer to the surface of the earth where
they might live more peaceably.
• As the insects emerged into the new world, their bodies

changed to those of bears, rabbits, wolves, and other
animals. Violence soon erupted, and the animals lost their
sense of purpose.
• Spider Grandmother led the creatures from the second

world to a third that lay just under the earth’s surface.
• In the process, the animals took the form of human beings

and lived in the way that humans do.
• Eventually some of the people lost their way

and abandoned their rituals and devotions.
• This time Tawa sent Spider Grandmother to

those who had been steadfast.
• She led them upward through a small

opening to the surface of the earth. As they
emerged, they were separated into Hopi,
Zuni, Pima, and Navajo.
No logical reasoning
• Myths are typically inconsistent, even
contradictory, narrative expressions of the
meanings of an event rather than a systematic
account or analysis of it.
• They fracture the limits of time and space,

causation, and common sense.
The indifference to the criterion of consistency

• According to the Genesis narrative:
• After Adam and Eve, the first human

beings, were banished from the Garden of
Eden, the primordial couple gave birth to
two sons, Cain and Abel.
• Following Cain’s slaying of his brother

Abel, the biblical narrative reports that
Cain knew his wife, and she gave birth to a
son.
• No attempt is made to account for the

origins of Cain’s wife.
Made-up and given

• Believers sometimes acknowledge that
their sacred stories are made-up as well
as given.
• The Ashanti people (West Africa)

recognize the imaginative, inventive
nature of their tales.
• In traditionally beginning their stories,

they say: “We do not really mean that
what we are going to say is true.”
• Thus they communicate their

understanding that stories are different
from reporting facts.
The metaphorical character of sacred stories

• The Sudanese are aware of the metaphorical
character of myths.
• The story teller: “I’m going to tell a story.”

• The audience: “Right!”
• The story teller: “It is a lie.”
• The audience: “Right!”
• The story teller: “But not everything in it is false.”
(Susan Feldman, African Myths and Tales, New
York: Mentor Books, 1964, p.12)
• The story teller ends the story by telling: “I put the
tale back where I found it.”
“lies” that mediate the truth

• “Art is a lie that enables us to
realize the truth.” (Pablo Picasso).
• The important thing about myths is

not whether they are literally true
but whether the truth is presented
or conveyed through them.
• They are form of metaphorical

speech that, if taken literally, is
likely to be misunderstood.
Beyond historical time

• Myths are primarily concerned with a time that is
before or beyond historical time.
• “In the beginning …”
• The sacred time of myth is either the primordial

time of origins or a future time that terminates or
transcends historical time.
For Mircea Eliade

• The purpose of sacred stories is the re-creation of
all that is vital and real.
• This is done by repeating in word and gesture what

the gods and ancient ones did in the beginning.
• In this sense, myths, especially those ritually

reenacted, are media of deliverance.
The Hopi Myth shows

• [The Hopi are a native American tribe.]
• Life is an unbroken chain, embracing spirit beings, animals,

insects, humans, and the earth. Humans and animals are
relatives. Humans are descendants of animals.
• Thus it tells who the Hopi are and how they should live.
• The hole from which the ancient ones emerged is the

sacred space around which Hopi society is centered.
• The spirit beings and the first Hopi are exemplary figures
who performed and handed down the stories and rites
necessary for authentic existence.
Myths are less deliberately constructed

• Although myths are creative fantasies, they
are less deliberately constructed than other
forms of sacred stories.
• Myths are believed to be given, found, or

dreamed.
• In the context of faith, the given-ness of

sacred myths validates their authority and
veracity.
• In tribal societies, myths are spiritual

disclosures that often occur in dreams and
trances.
Two Forms of Myths

There are several ways of classifying myths.
One classification divides myths into (1)

origin myths and (2) future-time myths.
Both forms point to a time beyond time.
One points to a foundational time of origins

that embodies the ways things were and
ought to be.
The other points to a future time that is not

yet but that will be.
Origin Myths
Origin myths tell the genesis of the
world.
They speak the origin of human

existence.
They account for the beginnings of

other aspects of existence.
Examples for origin myths: The first

eleven chapters in the book of Genesis.
They are stories of the primordial
origins of the cosmos, of plants and
animals, and of human beings.
Why we speak different languages?

• The biblical account of how humans
came to speak different languages is an
example of etiologies (mythical
explanation) of culture.
• In the Genesis narrative (11:1-9),

humans built a tower that reached the
heavens in order to “make a name” (to
become famous) for themselves.
• The Lord was so offended by what they

had done. He disrupted their linguistic
unity so that they could no longer
understand each other.
Cosmogonic myths
• Accounts of the beginning of the
world are called cosmogonies.
• They are the basic form of myth.

They place at the beginning what
is "original" or fundamental in
existence itself.
• Descriptions of the origin of the

world represent the "first" of the
series of forces, beings, and
institutions that form life.
Cosmogonies = "creation myths"

They present a composite, embryonic picture
of all the important and contending forces in
the world.
Often the actual physical origin of the earth is

taken for granted, or at least given less
attention than the origin of essential cultural
institutions.
The different metaphors show the world's

emergence. E.g., God's will, cosmic struggle,
sacrifice, and murder.
They are also clues to analyzing different

worldviews.
Cosmogonies
• Some cosmogonies assume a primordial process of
creation. Others picture the world as created by fiat out
of nothing.
• Some see the world as based on primal conflicts.

Others see the "first time" as a primal order.
• Some picture the world as the body of the god. Others

see it as "fashioned" by an ambiguous trickster figure.
Some accounts are highly patriarchal. Others feature
an original union of male and female principles.
• In some models the world unravels from order to

disorder. On others it progresses from chaos to
harmony.
Myths of the Origin of the Cosmos

• Myths about how the world began are quite
common.
• A Hindu hymn of creation declares:
• In the beginning was darkness and chaos.

Everything was void and formless. Even the gods
had not yet come into being.
• Mysteriously out of chaos came desire, "the primal

seed and germ of spirit." With it, order and form
came.
A myth of the Yoruba of Nigeria

• The world was initially marshy and watery. The sky
was the home of the gods.The principal or supreme
deity, Ol-orun, directed Great God, Orisha Nla, to
make firm ground.
• Nla was given a snail shell that contained loose earth,
a pigeon, and a five-toed hen to facilitate his task.
• He threw the dirt down upon the marshy surface,
whereupon the hen scratched the dirt until dry land
was formed.
• The creation of earth was accomplished in four days,
and the fifth day was given over as a day of worship
to its creator, Orisha Nla. (Geoffrey Parrinder, Religion
in Africa, p. 30)
Myths of the Origin of Human Beings

• This is another common mythic theme.
A creation myth in the book of Genesis
(2:4-25):
• God formed Adam from the dust of the

earth, breathed life into his sculpture,
and placed him in the Garden of Eden.
• Seeing that it is not good for Adam to

be alone, God created the different
forms of animal life.
• Finding that no living thing was fit to be

Adam's companion, God formed
woman from Adam's side.
Alienation Myths
• These myths are stories about the human
separation from the divine and the
alienation of human beings from each
other and from nature.
• Separation of the divine is often
associated with a loss of paradise.
• The loss of paradise is one of the themes
in the Adam and Eve myth.
• The consequence of the primeval
couple's disobedience is their expulsion
from the Garden of Eden into a world in
which they and their progeny must suffer
and die.
Ashanti myth
• Onyankopon originally lived on earth. He withdrew to sky
because of a woman’s offensive behavior.
• While mashing yams, an old woman repeatedly struck the
god with her pestle. Annoyed, Onyankopon removed himself
to the sky, where the people no longer had direct access to
him.
• Dismayed, the old woman advised her children to build a
tower so that the sky-god might be reached. Mortar by
mortar the tower rose until only one more was needed to
reach the top.
• When no additional mortar could be found, the old woman
instructed them to take the bottom mortar and place it at the
top. The tower promptly collapsed, killing many people and
leaving the sky to Onyankopon. (African Myths and Tales, pp. 41-42)
Eschatological or Future-time Myths

• These myths are concerned with human destiny,
with future rather than past time.
• Most religions are concerned with origins.
• In primal and archaic national traditions, myths

and rites are not only the instruments for
remembering a timeless and paradigmatic
(model, exemplary) primordial time,
• they are also the instruments through which that

primordial time is made present.
In Eliade's imagery
• Rites are performances through
which the Eternal returns.
• Origin myths speak of the way

things were and ought to be and,
through initiation, are.
• Thus in some contexts, authentic

human existence involves
retelling and reliving what the
gods and ancestors did in the
beginning.
Eschatological myths
• These myths look to the future
for the restoration of unity and
the abolition of all forms of
alienation.
• They are grounded in an

expectation of what is to come,
in what ought and will be.
• They reflect the hope that the

eternal will appear in the
future.
two types of eschatological myths

(1) millenarian
(2) Cyclical
• Millenarian myths proclaim that the faithful are

about to be miraculously saved and a new age
established.
• They are a way of speaking and thinking

associated with linear perceptions of time and the
division of history into past, present, and future.
Jews, Christians, and Muslims believe

• Historical time is unique, with a single beginning and
end. God creates time and brings it to its conclusion.
• Hope of a new age has often been expressed in stories

of messianic figures who are coming to establish an age
of peace and righteousness.
• When such figures come, time will be fulfilled by

transformed life either here on earth or in a new heaven
and a new earth.
• The order, justice, and peace of the Kingdom of God

comes at the end; it is paradise regained, primeval
harmony restored.
Myths of Cyclical Time

• Time moves either in a circle or in a sequence in
which ages are periodically ended and new ones
begun.
• Hindus conceive of the universe as a cosmic

dance evolving and devolving through successive
ages of incredibly long durations. Each age is
said to be 4,320 million years in duration.
• Souls transmigrate from life to life according to

the law of Karma, a moral law of deeds and their
effects.
Myths of cyclical time

• There is no deliverance in time. Salvation comes
from transcending the transitory, interminable
sequence of events by repose in the eternal.
• Help is available in every age from sages and

avatars.
• Just as the future holds countless ages, it also holds

future sages and avatars.
• The Theravada Buddhists believe that the Buddha

that appears next is Buddha Maitreya.
The difference between Biblical and Hindu

religious worlds
• The difference between these two worlds is
clearly reflected in their cosmogonies.
• In the Judeo-Christian account, every aspect of

the world is created by a majestic decision of
God.
• All existence is shown to be grounded in

absolute, divine will and authority.
In the mythologies of monistic Hinduism

• The original, supreme being literally becomes the world. It
is not that the world is created by God, but that the world is
actually an extension of God.
• It is a difference that underlies all other differences between

the two religious traditions: Christianity and Hinduism.
• One view is that the world is dualistic; it is seen in dual

terms: there are two realities, the creator and creation.
• The other view of the world is monistic, or in unitary terms:

there is ultimately just one reality, the divine being variously
named Brahman, Shiva, Vishnu, and so on.
Myths of the origin of humanity also reveal

different values
• Each anthropogeny (study of the origin of humans)
represents the state of human existence in its own
characteristic way and gives a different version of
the primal human fault.
• For example, the cause of mortality has been

variously attributed to the first act of carelessness,
laziness, lust, selfishness, stupidity, or aggression.
• For Christianity the original sin is disobedience,

depicted as the cause of Adam and Eve's fall.
Psychological Interpretations
• Freud and Jung: Myths are a projection of the
unconscious.’
• “The primitive mentality does not invent myths, it

express them.
• Myths are the original revelation of the

preconscious psyche, involuntary statements
about unconscious psychic happenings.” (Jung)
Anthropological interpretations
• E.E. Evans-Pritchard: Myths are true to life rather
than true to fact; they provide a group with a way of
comprehending the world as well as a guide for
living.
• Bronislaw Malinowski: “The function of myth is to

strengthen tradition and endow it with a greater
value and prestige by tracing it back to a higher,
better, more supernatural reality of initial events.”
Claude Levi-Strauss: Bipolar structures

• “The purpose of myth is to provide a logical model capable of
overcoming a contradiction.”
• In his The Raw and the Cooked, Levi-Strauss notes: A pervasive
pattern evident in the study of myths is the existence of bipolar
structures in tension with each other.
• These may be such polarities as male-female, left-right, sky-earth,

nature (raw)-culture (cooked), and so on, which through myth find a
resolution to the tension of opposites.
• For example, the myths of the Hindu god Shiva show how his
persona fuses the seemingly irreconcilable opposites of eroticism and
sexual asceticism.

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BSTC 1003

INTRODUCTION TO RELIGIOUS STUDIES

• How are the myths viewed in religious studies?

• What are the characteristics that help distinguishing

• How do scholars classify myths?

• What is origin myth?

• What is future myth?

Forms of religious expression in a culture

• sacred speech (myths)

• sacred acts/time (rituals)

• sacred space/places/objects (symbols).

• (a) tale, something one utters, a statement, a story, the

• (b) a story about gods and superhuman beings; an

• Mythology – body of myths found in a given tradition; the

Two characteristics of myths

(1) the sacredness of the story

(2) the story having a close connection with

Sacred Stories and Profane Stories

• Some tales are sacred clearly and explicitly.

• These tales deal with supernatural beings, powerful

• It is considered dangerous to tell them in any other

Myths - in Religious Studies

• Myths tell about the importance of holy for human

• They point to holy and make present holy.

• They express and evoke human feelings, values

• They are imaginative, figurative, and multivalent

• “The story quality of religious language has a way

• more imaginative than factual

• more evocative than analytical

Fabulous character of myths

• E.g. the creation of Eve from the rib of Adam and

• The unrealistic dreamlike character of myths has

Fabulous and imaginative character of

• When dissension arose among them, Tawa sent

• As the insects emerged into the new world, their bodies

• Spider Grandmother led the creatures from the second

• In the process, the animals took the form of human beings

• Eventually some of the people lost their way

• This time Tawa sent Spider Grandmother to

• She led them upward through a small

• They fracture the limits of time and space,

The indifference to the criterion of consistency

• After Adam and Eve, the first human

• Following Cain’s slaying of his brother

• No attempt is made to account for the

Made-up and given

• The Ashanti people (West Africa)

• In traditionally beginning their stories,

• Thus they communicate their

The metaphorical character of sacred stories

• The story teller: “I’m going to tell a story.”

“lies” that mediate the truth

• The important thing about myths is

• They are form of metaphorical

Beyond historical time

• “In the beginning …”

• The sacred time of myth is either the primordial

For Mircea Eliade

• This is done by repeating in word and gesture what

• In this sense, myths, especially those ritually

The Hopi Myth shows

• Life is an unbroken chain, embracing spirit beings, animals,

• The hole from which the ancient ones emerged is the