November 11th, 2020
I wanted to do a quick review of Part 1 of Classical Myth by Barry Powell. This could be considered more of a textbook and was used as such when I took a class on classical myth in college. It goes over the myths of the Ancient Greeks and Romans with allusions to other cultures’ myths. I read through Part 1 before and this is where I got the inclination to read Before Philosophy and Who Wrote the Bible? as they were listed in the bibliography of chapter 3. Another book that seemed like an interesting read was in the bibliography of this chapter as well as in A History of Religious Ideas: Volume 1 and was called Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament by James Pritchard, but I likely won’t get into that book anytime soon. The reason why I wanted to read Classical Myth was to give myself a background of the stories and themes that are presented in the works of Homer, Hesiod, Herodotus, Thucydides, and the Greek Philosophers. Reading the works of these authors, I feel, would give a unique perspective not only on my read-through of the New Testament, but also an understanding of Greek Philosophy and how it has affected Western Civilization. Both the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian traditions by themselves and the blending of the two have had a tremendous impact on Western Civilization and I’m interested in unraveling the threads of these influences. This is why I’m not jumping straight into the New Testament, but rather absorbing the Hellenistic culture as this culture made its way to near-east and Palestine as a result of the conquest of Alexander the Great and most likely influenced the writers of the new testament.
Starting with the first chapter and the section on What is Myth?: a myth is “a traditional story with collective importance” (page 2) and has a plot, characters, and setting. What makes it traditional is that it has been handed over orally from one storyteller to another and what gives it collective importance is that it holds meaning for the group, not just the individual. Typically these stories describe patterns of behavior that serve as models for members of society, especially in times of crisis. Because they are traditional, myths are anonymous and never have identifiable authors. Literary works based on myths may have authors, but not the myths themselves. The Greeks eventually came to contrast the mythos “story” with logos “account”. Barry Powell has this to say about Logos:
“The teller of a logos takes responsibility for the truth of what is said. A logos is a reasoned explanation of something that emphasizes a continuing causal sequence, as in the proofs of plane geometry…By contrast, the teller of a mythos does not claim personal responsibility for what is said. After all the teller did not invent the story, but only passed it on”
Classical Myth (page 3)
Oral transmission of stories causes them to constantly change and what is written down is only a snapshot of that oral tradition. The book then goes into the types of myths. See this post for a description as well as a review of another book Before Philosophy: The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man by Henri Frankfort which discusses this in detail. To briefly summarize Classical Myth, there are divine myths, legends, and folktales and they mix and interweave and it is often difficult to distinguish which is which in many stories I wanted to mention briefly the term etiology as well which is the study of causation or origination. This seems to pop up in some Christian discussions. Many divine myths concern themselves with explaining the causes that brought certain things into existence. A creation myth would be an example of an etiological tale. This is true for the first chapters of Genesis. Divine myths are analogous to modern science in this sense and legends are analogous to history. Divine myth is set in a previous world order, legends exist in our own order, albeit in a distant past. To quote Barry Powell again:
“Most Ancient Greeks, then, did not doubt that such events as the Trojan War really did occur, and they pointed out the tombs of legendary figures and the actual sites of their exploits. But the Greeks had no way to compare their traditions with historical reality. Today, armed with the insights of archeology and techniques of historical investigation, modern scholars recognize that oral transmitters of traditional tales had little respect for historical truth, or even any concept of it. Greek myth tells us more about the circumstances and concerns of its transmitters than it does about life in the distant past”
Classical Myth (page 7)
I think this is equally true for the Ancient Hebrews, however, this does not mean that these stories do not contain elements of historical truth. They are fictional representations of real experiences. There is a good TED-Ed video that discusses the science behind The Odyssey by Homer. Specifically, it talks about how the sorceress Circe might be considered a chemist because of her knowledge of the properties of certain herbs and drugs that cause men to think they are animals and how the plant that Hermes gives to Odysseus to counteract the effects of Circe’s drugs exists in real life and is used to treat various ailments. But just because this plant exists one cannot then jump to the conclusion that the characters of Circe, Odysseus, and the god Hermes actually existed (I think this is also true of the biblical stories). The story is neither historical truth nor literary fiction, but a complex amalgamation of real experiences and fictional representations. Moving onto folktales I only want to mention the notion of folktale types and folktale motifs. A folktale type would be the “Cinderella-type” which consists of the Folktale motifs of: “the abused younger stepsister”, “the spirit helper”, the “glass slipper as a token”, and “marriage to the prince”. There are many different folktale motifs that can be recombined in an endless variety. I think it would be a lot of fun to take a set of random motifs and arrange them into a new and unique story. I should like to review this Motif-Index of Folk Literature and see if I can come up with anything at a later date.
Chapter 2 discussed a couple of other things I wanted to mention specifically the influence of Indo-Europeans (page 22-23), the emergence of the Greek Polis and democracy (page 26-28), and the Classical Period (page 28-32). The first two points are more so pins in topics that I would be interested in exploring and expanding on at a later date. I wanted to quote from the book on the Classical Period though and have a conversation about that (the Classical Period is the time from 480-323 BCE and is considered the golden age of Ancient Greece):
“The Classical Period saw the development of Greek philosophy and history as powerful intellectual rivals to traditional myth. Such physicians as Hippocrates and philosophers like Protagoras and later Plato and Aristotle challenged mythic accounts of the origin and nature of the universe, and the historian Thucydides rejected the conviction, heretofore universal, that gods determine the outcome of human events. The stories of gods and heroes were the common birthright of all Greeks and were celebrated in painting, sculpture, song, and drama, but they were given new meanings in the intellectual ferment of this extraordinary age.”
Classical Myth (Page 32)
I think that I will be exploring this as I read through the works of Homer, Hesiod, Herodotus, and Thucydides, as well as the Greek philosophers and it will be interesting to see what I discover. Similarly, Acts 17 discusses Paul’s preaching in Athens and said that he had a debate with some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. It’ll be interesting to see how all of this interacts, especially since I’ve heard a lot of really good things about the philosophy of Stoicism. Another thing that was mentioned a little later in the chapter was the cultural context of Ancient Greece and the roles of men, women, and slaves. I found it interesting what he said with regards to slavery in that without them ancient civilizations could not have existed: “they made possible the leisure essential to Athenian democracy, allowing the citizens to argue in the law courts, debate public policy in the assembly, fight their enemies on land and sea, and practice the arts of rhetoric, philosophy, history, and science” (page 43-44). It would be interesting to do a study of the history of slavery and see how it has evolved over time, how Athenian democracy is different from modern democracy, and how democracy and slavery may evolve in the future with the development of more advanced robots (There’s an interesting video that talks a bit about this in terms of automation and discusses universal basic income as a necessary component of a fully automated economy). The next couple of sections of the chapter talk about religion, beliefs, and customs of the Ancient Greeks. I want to quote a large portion from the beginning of the section on religion which contrasts Greek religion from Abrahamic religions:
Christians, Jews, and Muslims believe that there is one God who made the world. He stands outside it, yet dwells in the human heart. He works for good in the world. His plan for humans is revealed through sacred writings, which specialists (priests, rabbis, and mullahs) interpret to the masses within buildings set aside for this purpose (churches, synagogues, and mosques). God demands of his followers love, faith, and adherence to a strict code of moral behavior, including sexual behavior. These religions once had, and to some extent still have, important social and political missions.
The Greeks, by contrast, had many gods, who did not make the world but dwelled within it. Zeus was their leader, but Void (Chaos), Earth (Gaea), Night (Nyx), and other gods existed before him and his brothers and sisters. They continued to exist even after Zeus, by force, achieved ascendency. No Greek god was all-powerful; rather, each controlled a sphere of interest, which sometimes overlapped with that of other gods. The Greek gods had personalities like those of humans and struggled with one another for position and power. They did not love humans (although some had favorites) and did not ask to be loved by them. They did not impose codes of behavior. They expected respect and honor but could act contrary to human needs and desires. They did not reveal their will in writing. Their priests, having no writings to interpret, were required only to perform appropriate rituals [always a form of sacrifice]. Because there were male and female gods, there were male and female priests to perform such rituals.”
Classical Myth (page 45)
Sacrifice is mentioned as the primary way to appease the gods: “In order to gain the god’s goodwill, destroy what you value most” (page 45). A History of Religious Ideas: Volume 1 by Mircea Eliade had an interesting discussion about the development of sacrifice. With regard to the priests and religious activity: “There was no official priestly organization with social or political missions … religious activity could help in this life, but had no effect on one’s lot in the next world … notions of guilt or sin, which arise from disobeying God’s rules or universal application, were unknown. There were no such rules.” (page 45). Some of the beliefs that the Greeks held were belief in magic, belief in ghosts and spirits and a belief that words had creative and effective power such as curses and blessings, and speaking things into existence (hence the biblical commandment: “You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain”. This is also likely where the idea of The Word and God-breathed came from). The human world was not distinguished from the natural and supernatural: animals had human qualities, humans may be born of natural objects, gods, or spirits. The lines are not firmly drawn. Another belief was that there were no chance events, every event is connected with another event. To quote from Classical Myth again:
“[Modern humans] think of the world as a complex machine, governed by the laws of physical nature, through which we wander, dodging misfortune and doing the best we can. God may have made the world, but appears not to intervene directly in it (although in Christian doctrine God sent his only son). However, the theory of natural law is a Greek invention of the fifth century BC. It did not exist when Greek myth was formed and probably was never accepted by most Greeks.”
Classical Myth (page 47)
Elaborating on this point, an interesting note about the Greek gods and how Greek culture evolved was that although the gods were capricious and terrifying Athenian comedians and Greek intellectuals made fun of and criticized them for their immoral behavior. A small minority even questioned their existence and sought natural explanations for the phenomena of the world whose thoughts led to the proposition that gods do not shape the fortunes of man and that humans make their own world which is a fundamental principle of Western civilization. This reminds me of a thought I’ve been having recently in that some people may put too much into the hands of God when they could actually work towards improving themselves and their situations. On the flip side of that, some people think that they are in complete control of themselves and their actions. This especially seems to be the case with a lot of self-help gurus (check out this video that talks about the negative sides of the self-improvement industry). The truth is there are a lot of things that we have control over and a lot of things we don’t have control over. I like the serenity prayer when thinking about this notion: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. I’m sure I will explore and discuss this later as I study how the Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman traditions came together and influenced one another.
The third chapter talks about the development of classical myth and touches on the influences of Mesopotamian, Sumerian, Semitic, Hittite, and Egyptian people groups. There is a lot of interesting discussion to be had around the various influences of these different cultures, but I will not get into the specifics here (I have discussed it in some of my other posts). I will say that the way I like to think about the various elements is that each individual motif, story, element of a god are like strings that come together in various tapestries that are intricate and detailed. It’s interesting to see where individual threads come from (such as the Greek Zeus deriving from the Sumerian Enlil). The chapter then talks about the epic poets Homer and Hesiod, the tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and the Roman poets Vergil and Ovid and their contributions to the development of what we consider classical myth. There is one last quote from this chapter that I would like to leave here with regard to this development and it’s impact on Western civilization:
“We must remember that there never was an agreed-upon version of any Greek myth, because there was no text (like the Bible) with sacred authority and no organization (like the christian church) to establish an official version. As the Muses in Hesiod explain, the Muses are capable of disseminating lies as easily as the truth. The gods were not necessarily a source of truth. This Greek cultural prejudgement led eventually to the Greek invention of ethics, a way to tell right from wrong without divine authority, and secular law, where rules and behavior, and punishment for infringements, depend on human intervention and not divine revelation. Ethics and secular law together are the heart of humanism, a value central to western civilization. The poets gave form to Greek myths, but no one poet, not even Homer, could claim to promulgate an official version.”
Classical Myth (page 68)
I find all of this study fascinating as it is interesting not only to see where ideas and stories come from but also how they interact with one another, blending and shaping the way ancient as well as modern people think.