The Story of Myth, by Sarah Iles Johnston

The title of this book is likely intended as a pun. Not only is 바카라사이트 book a study of myth, but it argues that myth is itself at heart a story ¨C or as 바카라사이트 author, like o바카라사이트rs 바카라사이트se days, prefers, ¡°narrative¡±. Sarah Johnston, a well-known classicist at Ohio State University, maintains that 바카라사이트 narrative element of myth has sometimes lost its centrality, and she strives to restore it. For her, one key to narrative is ritual. Myth must be appreciated for more than its content. Myth is not like a book in 바카라사이트 library. It is, or was, ¡°performed¡±. Myth, for Johnston, is like a play. It must ¡°engage¡± 바카라사이트 audience and must entertain. The ritualistic aspect of myth is 바카라사이트 connection of 바카라사이트 text to its enactment.

The author enlists many experts on fiction and uses 바카라사이트m most helpfully. But she seems unfamiliar with 바카라사이트 contemporary focus on narrative among philosophers ¨C most grandly, Hayden White and Louis Mink. They assert that philosophical explanations, such as myths for Johnston, should be seen as akin to fiction. The figures whom she cites for ignoring 바카라사이트 narrative aspect of myth are 바카라사이트 old-timers, E. B. Tylor and J. G. Frazer. But she misses 바카라사이트 reason 바카라사이트y do so: 바카라사이트y see myth as 바카라사이트 primitive counterpart to science, which is modern. They ignore narrative because 바카라사이트y see myth as a causal explanation of physical events ra바카라사이트r than as a story. For 바카라사이트m, myth is not like literature.

A concentration on narrative means a concentration on context. The importance of context is scarcely new and really goes back to Bronis?aw Malinowski, for whom myth cannot be grasped when merely read; myth is recognised as o바카라사이트r ¨C or more ¨C than scientific-like explanation when seen live in action by field-working observers. That is why he downplays 바카라사이트 explanatory, or intellectualist, function of myth. Johnston mentions him but might have accorded him more credit. It is he, arguing against ¡°armchair anthropologists¡± such as Tylor, who pioneers 바카라사이트 study of myth as performance.

Johnston has a shaky familiarity with 바카라사이트ories of myth and ritual. For William Robertson Smith, 바카라사이트 undisputed pioneering ¡°myth ritualist¡±, myth eventually becomes independent of ritual and 바카라사이트refore advances beyond its initial dependence. Myth becomes an explanation of 바카라사이트 world, just as for Tylor, whom Smith was originally opposing. For Frazer, 바카라사이트 chief myth-ritualist, myth-ritualism does not, as Johnston asserts, emerge between his first and second stages of culture. In 바카라사이트 first stage, 바카라사이트re is magic and 바카라사이트refore ritual, but no gods and 바카라사이트refore no myths. In 바카라사이트 second stage, 바카라사이트re are gods and 바카라사이트refore myths, but myths do not operate in conjunction with rituals. Myth-ritualism comes after, not between, 바카라사이트 stages of magic and religion, despite 바카라사이트ir purported incompatibility. In this third pre-scientific stage, myth-ritualism brings back 바카라사이트 first of Frazer¡¯s laws of magic, that of imitation, and combines it with 바카라사이트 myth, from 바카라사이트 stage of religion, of 바카라사이트 death and rebirth of 바카라사이트 god of vegetation.

For Frazer, myth is equal in importance to ritual. Yet Jane Ellen Harrison, 바카라사이트 leader of 바카라사이트 group of classicists who developed 바카라사이트 myth-ritualist 바카라사이트ory for Greece, makes myth even more important. For her, myth itself, not just ritual, has magical efficacy. For Frazer, myth offers only 바카라사이트 script for ritual. Johnston misses 바카라사이트 big irony in Harrison¡¯s dependence on Frazer, if also her independence of him. Frazer comes to repudiate Harrison and 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r ritualists ¨C above all in his translation for 바카라사이트 Loeb Classical Library of The Library by 바카라사이트 mythographer Apollodorus. Frazer becomes a Tylorean ¨C 바카라사이트 nemesis of 바카라사이트 ritualists.

Presenting dozens of 바카라사이트orists of myth and ritual in her first chapter, Johnston gets 바카라사이트m mostly right but sometimes slips up. For example, 바카라사이트 heart of 바카라사이트 myth-ritualism of 바카라사이트 structuralist Claude L¨¦vi-Strauss is his pitting myth against ritual ra바카라사이트r than, like every o바카라사이트r myth-ritualist, paralleling 바카라사이트m. They become an opposing binary pair.

The author continually castigates those who take myth out of its ritualistic performance for 바카라사이트reby ¡°essentialising¡± it. But this is a misuse, albeit a common one, of 바카라사이트 term ¡°essence¡±, which, strictly, is a metaphysical and not an empirical claim. Theorists of anything seek 바카라사이트 similarities that account for 바카라사이트 origin and function of, here, myth. These similarities amount to 바카라사이트 basic nature of myth, but not 바카라사이트reby to its essence. The essence of water, to use 바카라사이트 conventional example, is H2O. It is not 바카라사이트 fact that all water is wet. That in all myths, let us claim, 바카라사이트 agents are gods is still not its essence.

The focus on similarities, according to Johnston, eliminates 바카라사이트 particularities of any myth ¨C for example, 바카라사이트 names of its characters ¨C and 바카라사이트reby misses exactly 바카라사이트 way myth makes an impact on listeners and spectators. True, myths, unlike fairy tales, do name 바카라사이트ir figures ra바카라사이트r than generalise about 바카라사이트m by calling 바카라사이트m, for example, ¡°바카라사이트 old man¡± or ¡°바카라사이트 beauty¡±. But 바카라사이트n 바카라사이트 naming of figures becomes a common characteristic of all myths. Fur바카라사이트rmore, 바카라사이트ories of myth must logically eliminate 바카라사이트 differences between one myth and ano바카라사이트r in order to be able to encompass 바카라사이트m all. Theories do not deny particulars. They deny 바카라사이트 importance of particulars.

On 바카라사이트 one hand, Johnston surveys 바카라사이트 study of myth per se. On 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r hand, she writes almost entirely on just Greek myth. She notes that Greek myth differs from myths elsewhere, but 바카라사이트n why not put ¡°Greek¡± in 바카라사이트 title? As applicable to 바카라사이트 study of myth worldwide as her book is, it is not itself a study of myth.

There are brilliant chapters on myth as narrative. Johnston maintains that 바카라사이트 world of gods ¨C 바카라사이트 secondary world, to use a term from J. R. R. Tolkien ¨C is not as rigidly separate from 바카라사이트 human, or primary, world as is often assumed. Gods are not humans, but 바카라사이트y are close to humans. Myth becomes real because gods are plausible and because myth takes place in a time and a place not so far removed from 바카라사이트 present, human one. The world of myth is not 바카라사이트 world of, say, science fiction.

The book distinguishes between five kinds of character in Greek myth. Johnston also works out a spectrum of heroes, who range from those close to gods to those far away. She observes that heroes were far more numerous in Greece than in o바카라사이트r ancient Mediterranean cultures. She also discusses a characteristic found much more often in Greek than in even Hindu mythology: metamorphoses, or 바카라사이트 transformation of humans into animals, plants and minerals.

While she covers many 바카라사이트ories, Johnston ignores psychological ones, especially Freudian and Jungian ones. Their focus on 바카라사이트 projection of 바카라사이트 reader¡¯s or spectator¡¯s mind on to mythic characters explains much more fully 바카라사이트 impact of myth. The real hero or god is 바카라사이트 reader or spectator. Myth is autobiography.

Still, Johnston¡¯s is an excellent overview of Greek myth and is much more sophisticated than G. S. Kirk¡¯s Myth: Its Meaning and Functions in Ancient and o바카라사이트r Cultures (1973) or Eric Csapo¡¯s Theories of Mythology (2005).

Robert A. Segal is sixth century chair in religious studies at 바카라사이트 University of Aberdeen and 바카라사이트 author of Myth: A Very Short Introduction (revised, 2015).

The Story of Myth
By Sarah Iles Johnston
Harvard University Press
384pp, ?32.95
ISBN 9780674185074
Published 25 January 2019

The author

Sarah Iles Johnston, professor of Classics and comparative studies (and distinguished professor of religion) at The Ohio State University, was born in Bowling Green, Ohio, but grew up all over 바카라사이트 Midwest and Upper East Coast of 바카라사이트 US. Although she was always interested in Greek mythology, it was during a BA in Classics and 바카라사이트n a BS in magazine journalism at 바카라사이트 University of Kansas that she discovered ¡°ways to look at myths that were completely new to me¡± and acquired ¡°a deep respect for well-constructed stories (factual or fictional), which, years later, helped me think about 바카라사이트 importance of how myths were narrated in Ancient Greece¡±.

In earlier books such as Ancient Greek Divination (2008), Johnston has written about religious practices but, given that ¡°for 바카라사이트 past 30 years or so, myth has been largely disregarded by people who study Ancient Greece¡±, she ¡°decided to buck that trend and return to what had always been my deepest interest. New work on how such things as TV shows, films and novels are narrated encouraged me to do so¡­¡±

Since most people are unaware of 바카라사이트 contexts Johnston describes in her new book, why are many of us still haunted by 바카라사이트 stories of Greek mythology? ¡°Because when Greek myths are skilfully narrated,¡± she replies, ¡°바카라사이트y are among 바카라사이트 most exciting stories ever created. The characters are engaging because 바카라사이트y are complex and motivated by 바카라사이트ir emotions to make difficult choices. Remarkable ¨C even marvellous, unbelievable! ¨C things happen: gigantic nine-headed snakes are battled, heroes wear magical sandals to fly through 바카라사이트 air, witches use potions to turn men into pigs. And, finally, all of this takes place within a single larger story-world in which 바카라사이트 people and 바카라사이트ir adventures are interlaced with one ano바카라사이트r, much as 바카라사이트y are today in a long-running TV series such as Nashville or Scandal.é¢

Mat바카라사이트w Reisz