Mythology

mi-thol'o-jy, the whole system of traditions and legends which embody the primitive beliefs of a nation concerning its origin, its founders, its heroes, and its religion. The word mythology comes to us through French and Latin from two Greek words, muthos, a fable, and logos, from legein, to tell. The Greek word for fable, it must be remembered, had the significance of narrative and not that of our word fable. Mere fairy stories or fables designed for amusement or instruction have no place in mythology. Genuine myths represent the beliefs of the people. Zeus, Apollo, Athene, and Heracles were as real to the Greek people as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin are to the American. The Grecian youth was taught that Vulcan was flung from Mount Olympus, and that he fell all day until he alighted on the Isle of Lemnos, quite as the American schoolboy is taught the story of the cherry tree and George Washington's famous hatchet.

The words, myth and legend, are used frequently as synonymous terms, but the collective word mythology includes the traditions of the gods or other supernatural beings, while the legends of a people may embody only such tales as lack sufficient evidence to make them acceptable as history. It is the province of the science of mythology to investigate the origin of these myths and traditions. There are certain myths that need no explanation. That the dawn should be personified as a bright-haired goddess, that the rainbow is the many-hued robe of the fair Iris, that the Sun-god drives his chariot daily through the sky, that the forest is guarded by a "huntress chaste and fair" are beautiful and natural stories.

But quite different are the weird tales of the origin of the earth, of men, animals, and the objects of nature; the accounts of impossible monsters; the stories of the jealousy, injustice, dishonesty, and cruelty of the gods, and of gods and men being changed into beasts or rivers or trees or stars; the repulsive descriptions of Hades; the descent of heroes into this lower world and their return. The need of an explanation of such myths as these was felt at an early period. Six centuries before the Christian Era, Greek philosophers began to express doubt and disbelief in the myths of the gods. They criticized Homer and Hesiod for ascribing to the gods so much that was evil, as stealing, deceit, adultery, and cruelty. Heraclitus (535-475 B. C.) is said to have declared that Homer deserved to be ejected from public assemblies and flogged. Anaxagoras (500-428 B. C.) tried to explain the Homeric stories of the gods as allegories. Politics and religion being somewhat mixed at this time, he was thrown into prison in consequence. His views, none the less, show the tendency of philosophic thought in his day. Protagoras (481-411 B. C.) declared that nothing could be known as to whether the gods existed or not. Plato stated that though many a myth had symbolic meaning, the Homeric poems should be banished from his ideal republic. We find Greek poets also, Aeschylus, Pindar, and Euripides, expressing doubts concerning the gods, noting the inconsistencies in various myths, and making such statements as "it is evil wisdom to speak evil of the gods," and "if the gods commit anything that is evil they are no gods."

Although as civilization advanced the early myths were thus discredited and speculations put forth as to their origin, it is only during the nineteenth century, since the science of comparative philology has led to and aided in the study of comparative mythology, that real progress has been made in explaining the origin of myths. The theories worth considering are as follows:

1. THE ETHICAL THEORY. According to this view the old myths were invented by the wise for the moral betterment of those whom they desired to teach. It is easy to accept this explanation concerning stories which represent the gods as rewarding the good, punishing the wicked, and setting constant examples of virtue; but when we read of the god Cronus swallowing his own children, of Apollo flaying Marsyas alive, of Juno flinging her child out of heaven because he was born with a twisted foot, we begin to realize that the ethical theory is inadequate.

2. HISTORICAL THEORY. Those holding to this theory maintain that all personages mentioned in mythology were once real human beings; that the fabulous elements, the impossible and supernatural, are the additions of a fanciful people, enthusiastic in decorating the tales of their heroes and in inventing and imputing evils to their enemies. As an example of the application of this theory Aeolus may be cited. The story goes that he was once a man, the ruler of some island in the Tyrrhenian Seas. He taught his people the use of sails for their ships, and to foretell the changes of winds and weather from atmospheric conditions. Later, Aeolus was deified as God of the Winds.

3. PHYSICAL OR ALLEGORICAL THEORY. According to this theory the inventors of myths designed to teach the facts of nature as well as moral and historical truth; that the gods were really the winds, sun, stars, moon, fire, earth, and water; that in the story of Io, for instance, Io is the moon, the hundred-eyed Argus is the starry sky who keeps sleepless watch over her. The wanderings of Io, then, are the revolutions of the moon. At this point the explanation ceases to explain; for in the old story Hermes slays Argus and it is only then that Io begins her wanderings. According to this theory, Hercules is the all-conquering sun, and Hermes, of the winged sandals, is the wind.

4. THE SCRIPTURAL THEORY. The supporters of this view aim to find a counterpart in Biblical story for the myths of nations other than the Hebrew, maintaining the Biblical stories to be the true accounts and the myths of other nations to be distorted forms. For instance, the myth of the golden apples in the garden of the Hesperides is the story of the garden of Eden. The dragon who guards the apples is the serpent who tempted Eve. The story of the Deluge finds its counterpart in the Greek legend of Zeus destroying mankind by flood, where Deucalion takes the part of Noah. Hercules in Greek mythology is the Samson of the Bible story. Arion is Jonah. The attempt of the giants to storm heaven finds its counterpart in the story of Nimrod's tower, "whose top may reach into heaven."

5. THE PHILOLOGICAL THEORY is of interest to us chiefly as it has presented a new method for the study of mythology. The discovery that various languages are related led to the comparative method of the study of etymology. It led also to the comparative method of studying mythology; for it was soon learned that the mythologies of kindred races are related to a greater or less degree. Philology teaches us that the following names from five different languages are from one original source:

Here we find Zeus, the most sacred name in Greek mythology, identical with Dyu (root of Dyaus) with Jove or Ju, with Zio and with Tiw (Anglo-Saxon), or Tyr, a Norse god. It is interesting to note that the word deuce of English slang is from the same root. While the original meaning of Zeus in the Greek language is lost wholly, in Sanskrit Dyu meant sky; we may infer therefore that each of these five words meant sky. So other names found to be related may be traced in some one language to their original meaning. By this method of study, many facts have been learned which throw light on the origin of myths, although they cannot clear up all difficulties. By this method, Max Muller arrived at his "philological theory" that "the silly, savage, and senseless" element in mythology is a result of a "disease of language"; that is, that words finally lost their original significance. The fact that Zeus meant sky, for instance, by a gradual personification of the word, was at last forgotten utterly. It will be seen that there is a point of resemblance between this theory and the physical or allegorical theory. According to both, myths have their origin in the personification of some natural object or phenomenon. But the physical theory suggests that in each case the myth was invented with a conscious purpose, while the philological theory accounts for it as an error or weakness in language whereby the original phenomenon is lost sight of in the personification. Doubtless there is truth in the philological theory; but it is incredible that all myths should be accounted for in this way.

6. THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY. Still another class of scholars making use of the philological method of study, but uniting with it a study of primitive man, not only as he existed in the early stages of civilized races, but as he exists today among barbarous and savage tribes, has developed a theory called sometimes "the historical" but more exactly the anthropological theory; that is, a theory based upon the nature of man. Andrew Lang is the most prominent advocate of these views. Simply stated, this theory is that these strange and irrational myths have their origin in the "condition of thought" through which all races have passed or are passing. Curiosity and credulity are the characteristics of the savage. He observes the objects and phenomena of nature. He asks why these things are as they are. A story, however "silly" or "senseless," satisfies him. If none is given he may invent one himself. Naturally enough these stories are in accordance with savage notions of personality, of life, of death, and of nature. It has been proven clearly that savages regard animals as physically akin to themselves, endowing them with the power of thought, and, in some cases, of speech. The institution called totemism found among many savage nations is the belief that the various families or stocks are descended directly from different animals. As an outgrowth of this, perhaps, certain men are supposed to have the power of becoming animals at will. Moreover, savages regard inanimate objects, especially those conected with the phenomena of nature, as possessing personality. To them sun, moon, stars, water, wind, fire, the sea, the earth have the attributes of human beings, and of savage human beings; for these primitive people know no other kind. As to death, most savage races regard man as naturally immortal, and some myth tells how a sin or an error like Pandora's curiosity brought "death into the world and all our woe." The savage compares death to sleep. He knows that, while his body is quiet in sleep, he may in dreams be far away. When he sees his dead friend for a brief moment in a dream he believes, naturally enough, that his friend has returned but cannot stay. Whatever is clearly allegorical in ancient myths must, according to this theory, have been added by later peoples who had reached higher and purer ideas but could not yet give over the religion of their ancestors.

The anthropological theory, it will be seen, accounts for the beginning of myths. The five other theories may one and all be of value in accounting for their growth and development, and for the fact that we find the same story with slight variations among different tribes of the same nation. The science of mythology has, as yet, investigated the traditions of a few nations only. Among those which have been studied, the most interesting are mythologies of the Egyptians, Hindus, Persians, Grecians, Romans, Scandinavians, and American Indians.

EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY is of a complex character and, for the most part, obscure. In the writings of the ancient Egyptians, scholars have found the evidence of a belief in one supreme God, creator of heaven and earth. This idea is, however, confused with polytheism of a low and materialistic sort. The Egyptians appear to have held that the heavenly abyss was the abode of the supreme god who there produced sun, moon, stars, and all other gods. At other times the abyss itself seems to have been worshiped. There is evidence also that sun worship was the most primitive form of religion. It must be remembered that a religion or mythology, lasting through some five thousand years and expounded by many different schools of priests, must have undergone many changes and can hardly be viewed as a single system. This we know, that the Egyptians, although they reached a high state of civilization, although their priests were scholars and scientists and their temples among the wonders of the world, worshiped an immense number of gods in the shape of animals--a form of worship found among the lowest and most barbarous races. Osiris was the principal deity. He was called the Good Being, the Lord of Life, the Great God, the King of Eternity, the God of the Nile, the Judge of the Dead, the God of the Sun, and many other names. He was supposed to be in constant warfare with his brother or son, Set or Seth, the god of evil, of darkness, and of the desert. Osiris was worshiped in the form of the bull, Apis. The story, told somewhat incompletely by the Roman Plutarch, is that Osiris, who with his wife, Isis, had descended to earth in human form to teach and aid mankind, was slain treacherously by Set, whom Plutarch calls Typhon, from the Greek Typhon. Thereafter the soul of Osiris passed into a bull. The god is also represented as a mummified human figure. Ra, another important deity, was the chief sun-god. He seems to have been regarded as the sun in mid heaven, other names being used for the sun at its rising and at its setting. There is a myth that Ra once destroyed mankind under circumstances reminding one of the deluge. Each Egyptian town appears to have had its cycle of gods, usually nine in number. The cycle was explained as the self-development of Ra. The most important cycles were those of Memphis and Thebes. The unification of these various cycles is responsible, doubtless, for much of the obscurity and confusion that renders Egyptian mythology so difficult. Each city regarded some animal as sacred. The crocodile, the ape, the jackal, the lion, the cat, almost every beast and reptile, found worshipers in some locality. No man might eat of the flesh of the animal held sacred in his district, but might partake freely of such animals as his neighbors worshiped. The Egyptian temple was dedicated to three gods in one. The first represents the male principle, the second, the female principle, and the third, the offspring of the other two.

The Egyptians embalmed their dead, placing in each tomb a scroll or papyrus containing directions for the soul on its journey. This papyrus was called the "Book of the Dead" or "Ritual." "The Book of the Dead" constitutes the oldest literature in the world. The soul followed this ritual until it reached the hall of Two Truths, where it was judged by Osiris and forty-two assistants. If it was judged righteous it entered the boat of the sun and was guided to the home of the blest. The belief also obtained that after three thousand years the soul might enter its old body and begin life anew. The wicked died a second death or passed into endless misery.

See Embalming; Osiris; Apis; Seth; Book Of The Dead

HINDU MYTHOLOGY is to be found in certain portions of the Veda, a collective name for the sacred writings of India. The Veda consists of four Vedas and Brahmanas, with compendiums of rules, commentaries, etc. It is not to be supposed that so voluminous a body of writings was produced at any one time; but the date of no part of the work has been ascertained with accuracy. Scholars place the oldest, the Rig Veda, usually about 4000 B. C., and state that the most recent writings can not be dated later than the second century B. C. The Vedas themselves consist mainly of hymns from which much may be inferred as to the prevalent ideas of worship, but which, of course, do not contain myths properly speaking. The Brahmanas are especially for the direction of ritual and sacrifice. They are full of mythical stories of the adventures of the gods who possess all the vices known to human beings, as well as magical powers, including the ability to transform themselves into animals or inanimate objects. The Upanishads, a species of commentary attached to the Brahmanas, propound theories concerning the creation and the nature of the human soul.

One Hindu view of the creation, found also among many other primitive peoples, is that at one time water held all life in solution. From this in some way is produced a great egg from which the universe emerges. Or the Lord of Creation emerges from the egg and makes the world himself. Another view presented in a Vedic hymn is that the world is a covering for divinity. In the Laws of Manu, a sort of book of laws recast from certain parts of the Veda as a manual for a particular class or school, a "self-existent Lord" is mentioned who "with a thought created the waters and deposited in them a seed." This seed develops into a golden egg from which "he himself is born as Brahma, the progenitor of all the worlds. In the earliest accounts thirty-three gods are mentioned. Later the number increased to over three thousand. They may be classified as deities of light, of air, and of earth. "The Shining One," the sky god Dyaus, holds a prominent place in Hindu mythology. Like other deities of India who personify natural phenomena, the sky god seems to retain both in name and attributes the original significance of his title. Indra is the thunderer; Agni, the god of lightning and fire; Vayu is the wind; Ushas, the dawn. One of the myths told of Indra has reference to his fondness for soma, an intoxicating drink. He once found some soma juice which had been prepared for another. Indra partook of it until he fell ill. Then he saw that what was left had become his enemy Vrittra, the serpent. Indra immediately cut Vrittra in two and of one-half made the moon. The gods are represented as subject to death, although one and another finds some way to avert the calamity and to become immortal. The belief that, after countless existences as animals and men, the soul is at last absorbed by the supreme being, is a belief of such antiquity among the Hindus that its origin can not be discovered. With Buddha, five centuries before Christ, came the idea of Nirvana, which means practically extinction. Hindu beliefs concerning Brahma, the caste system, and the transmigration of souls belong rather under the head of religion than of mythology, since they still hold sway in India. See Veda; Brahmins; Transmigration Of Souls; Buddha

PERSIAN MYTHOLOGY. The ancient Persians believed in one supreme being, and their worship seems to have been notably free from superstition. In the course of time this pure religion became corrupted. Many gods were recognized, temples built, images set up, and worship was conducted with various weird ceremonies. About 1500 B. C. Zoroaster arose. He came to be regarded as a reformer and founder of the later religion, which is more or less confused with the earlier traditions. The teachings of Zoroaster are set forth in the Zend-Avesta,--the word Zend, meaning "comment," and Avesta, meaning "text." The Zend-Avesta consists largely of hymns. These hymns seem to teach belief in a supreme being who created two other powers, Ormuzd or Oromasdes, the "Great Life-Giver," who remained faithful, and Ahriman, who rebelled and became the "Dealer of Death." Ahriman seems to have been regarded at times as self-existent, and Ormuzd himself as the supreme being. Ormuzd "gave the earth, he gave the heavens, he gave mankind, he gave life to mankind." All good comes from Ormuzd; all evil from Ahriman. Among minor gods Mithras, the sun god, is most important. Homa or Soma is the moon god.

The hymns of the Zend-Avesta show traces also of a form of worship in which the powers of nature, wind, fire, light, are worshiped as powers, not as personifications. Mankind was created in innocency, but was tempted to sin by one of the Devas, lesser evil spirits. Thereafter each human being must choose whether he will serve Ormuzd or Ahriman. At death the good were taken to "the House of the Angel's Hymns;" the wicked to the "Abode of Demons." The "Bridge of the Gatherer," which only the righteous can cross, is between these two abodes. The Persians believed in a general resurrection, after which Death is to be slain and Life in righteousness will continue eternally. See Zend-Avesta; Zoroaster; Mithras

GREEK MYTHOLOGY. In Greek mythology, mingled with stories and legends of poetic beauty, we find much that is savage and debasing. The worship of rude stones, or of hideous images representing the gods with repulsive deformities; the revolting rites and wild orgies of the religious festivals; the offering of human sacrifices, seem incomprehensible when we consider the high civilization of this nation and its marvelous achievements in art and literature. That, when these myths arose, the nation was still in that phase of "savage thought" which Mr. Lang describes, seems the only explanation which even approaches the difficulty.

The Greek ideas of the creation of the universe are vague and obscure. One story states that Erebus and Nox produced an egg from which Eros, the god of love, emerged. Eros created Uranus (Heaven) and Gaea (Earth). Being god of love, Eros persuaded them to marry. Their children were the Titans, one of whom, Prometheus, created man in the image of the gods, fashioning him from earth mixed with water. Two of the Titans, Ophion and his wife Eurynome, were the first rulers of the gods. Cronos dethroned Ophion and reigned with his wife Rhea during the Golden Age. Cronos was warned that one of his sons would succeed him. To avert this, he swallowed his children as soon as they were born. When Zeus, the youngest, was born, Rhea substituted a stone for the child which Cronos swallowed unquestioning. When Zeus was grown, he persuaded his father to partake of a certain draught which caused him to disgorge his children. Then, with his brothers, Poseidon and Hades, Zeus overthrew Cronos and reigned in Olympus. Poseidon received the ocean as his share in the division of the spoils and Hades (Latin, Pluto) the lower world.

The Greeks believed the earth to be a flat disk with Mount Olympus in the center. The higher or greater gods, of whom there were twelve, moved usually in the upper air above the clouds. They were accustomed to assemble in council on Olympus and are often mentioned as the Olympian gods. The inferior gods dwelt far below. A demigod was the offspring of a god and a mortal. At death the immortal part was received among the gods. The sea (the Mediterranean) was supposed to divide the earth from east to west, while the River Ocean flowed entirely around it. On the northern part of the earth, beyond the mountains, dwelt the happy Hyperboreans. To the south were the Ethiopians, who also dwelt in bliss. To the west lay the Elysian Plain, to which favored mortals were transported without suffering the pain of death. See Hyperboreans; Elysium; Hades

ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. Roman mythology, like the Roman people, was a composite affair, its various traditions having been for the most part introduced by the various tribes who successively entered Italy and had a part in forming the nation. The Roman pantheon includes many gods which seem to have been borrowed from the Greeks. In other instances, the Greek name and attributes were identified with some Roman god, and the Greek stories concerning the god adopted as well. In still other cases the apparent similarity between Greek and Roman gods is a result of both conceptions having been derived from a common source. In the various forms of worship the Romans retained a much more noticeable independence of Greek influence. The Roman idea of worship was in the nature of a bargain. The Roman worshiped the gods who favored him, and while they favored him. If their favor appeared to be withdrawn he ceased to worship. A list of the names of the most important divinities of Greece, with the name of the Roman counterparts, follows. The fact that the Roman names are the more familiar to us is an evidence of the fact that the English language has been influenced more largely by Latin than by Greek. The twelve Olympian gods are mentioned first.

SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGY. According to the mythology of the Scandinavians found chiefly in the Icelandic Eddas, there was before the creation only a "world of mist" in a great deep. In this deep flowed a fountain from which issued twelve rivers. These rivers, flowing far from their sources, finally froze into ice and filled the deep. From the world of light which was southward from the world of mist, came a warm wind and melted the ice. As the vapor arose, it formed into clouds from which sprang Ymir, the Frost Giant, and his cow, Audhumbla. The cow licked frost and salt from the ice. One day she licked so vigorously that she uncovered something like hair; the next day a head appeared and the third day the full form of a god who became the father of Odin, Vili, and Ve. These three brothers slew Ymir and made the universe from his body, using his blood for the seas, his skull for the sky and his eyebrows for Midgard, the earth, the abode of man. Odin created the sun, moon, and stars, and with his brothers made a being from an ash tree, whom they called Aska, man, and from an alder made Embla, woman. Odin gave these beings life and soul. Vili gave them reason and motion. Ve gave them senses and speech.

A mighty ash tree, Ygdrasill, grew up out of Ymir's body and supported the universe. Its three immense roots extended, one into Asgard the dwelling of the gods, one into Jotunheim, the abode of the giants, enemies of the gods, and one into Niffleheim, the region of darkness and cold. Odin or Woden is the most important of the gods, Frigg is his wife, and they dwell in Asgard. His dwelling is Gladsheim, home of gladness. Valhalla is his banquet hall. Thor, the thunderer, is the son of Odin, and strongest of the gods. Bragi is the god of poetry. Iduna, his wife, has a box of apples, of which the gods partake in case they feel age approaching. With the taste of Iduna's apples, they become young again. Heimdall is the watchman of the gods who prevents the giants from crossing the rainbow bridge Bifrost. He can see in the dark, can hear grass grow, requires less sleep than a bird, and possesses a horn which can be heard over the whole world. Loki is half-man and half-giant. He pushes into the society of the gods and appears to be friendly, but in reality is mischievous and evil-minded. The Feuris wolf, the Midgard serpent, and Hela (Death) are his children.

It was believed by the northern nations that a time would come when all visible creation, including gods, giants, and men, would be destroyed. Then would follow Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods. After various forerunners of the evil day, Heimdall would sound his horn summoning gods and heroes to the last great battle in which all must die, and the heavens and the earth would be destroyed. After Ragnarok, Alfadur (Almighty) would construct a new earth where gods and men might dwell together in happiness. See Odin; Ragnarok; Vallhalla; Valkyrior; Hela; Thor; Loki; Frigg; Midgard; Eddas

AMERICAN INDIAN MYTHOLOGY. The traditions and myths of the various tribes of Indians differ in some respects, but certain beliefs are common. They believe in the existence of one Great Spirit, the Master of Life. The most common name for this supreme being is Gitche Manitou. The institution of totemism is common among them. They believe generally in the immortality of the soul, various materialistic ideas as to the future life finding expression in different mortuary customs. A myth of importance, which has been of influence in many tribes, is the story of a hero of miraculous birth who comes to teach and aid his people, who leaves the earth when his work is accomplished, but who is expected to return at some future time. Longfellow uses this myth as the foundation of his poem, Hiawatha, into which he has woven many of the most fanciful legends and pleasing myths of the Indians. Among them are the story of Nokomis, who fell from the moon; of the lazy Shawondasse, who wooed the prairie dandelion; of Oweenee, and her husband who is released from enchantment by her faithful love. In this poem we see, too, how animals, birds, trees, and inanimate objects are endowed with personality. The hunter listens to the speech of squirrel and rabbit; the fisherman asks the sturgeon to take his bait; Hiawatha speaks to the cedar, the larch, and the fir, when he goes to the forest for material for his canoe. He whispers to the canoe itself when he shoves it into the water. We read, too, of the smoking of the peace pipe, of blessing the cornfields, of the wedding feasts, the game of plum stones, the death dance, the beggar's dance, of the fear of ghosts, of famine, of fever, and of faith in the Great Spirit and the Land of the Hereafter. See Hiawatha

MARY BLANCHARD MURPHY.