MYTHS
+819+. Myths represent the savage and half-civilized science of origins,
the imaginary construction of the world. From the earliest times men
have shown curiosity respecting the origin of the things that lie about
them. In the presence of plains and mountains, trees and rivers, sun,
moon, and stars, beasts and human beings, they have felt the necessity
of accounting for the beginning of all these objects.[1413] This attempt
at giving a natural history of the world is in itself a scientific
procedure, but in the earlier periods of humanity it naturally attached
itself to the hypothesis of superhuman Powers--the production of this
variety of mysterious things appeared to demand capacity above that of
man. The science and the fancy of early man combined to produce a great
mass of theories and stories which to their inventors seemed to be a
satisfactory account of the origin of all things.[1414]
+820+. Myths thus furnish an important contribution to the history of
early opinion, scientific and religious; in the absence of written
records they often offer our only means of information concerning early
thought. They describe the origin not only of the physical world but
also of communities and social organizations and institutions. They have
a noteworthy vitality, lasting from the beginning of human communal life
into periods of advanced civilization; and, when adopted by great
religious organizations and interwoven into their theories of salvation,
they perpetuate to civilized times the ideas of the crude period in
which they originated. In many cases they stand side by side, and in
sharp contrast, with elevated moral conceptions of the deity, and then
have to be harmonized, usually with a great expenditure of exegetical
ingenuity, with the higher ideas of society.
+821+. The mythopoeic age, in the widest sense of the term, embraces
the whole period in which appeal is made, for the explanation of
phenomena, to other than natural agencies; but it is generally
understood to extend only up to the time when, though a general divine
Power is invoked for creation, this is regarded as working solely
through the laws of nature.[1415] And within this period the myth-making
impulse lasted longer in some directions than in others. In general, the
mythical theories concerning the larger processes, as, for example, the
creation of the world, received no addition after the establishment of a
settled civilization; but after this time even well-advanced communities
continued to invent mythical accounts of the origin of customs,
institutions, genealogies, and similar facts. Throughout the whole
myth-making period a progression may be recognized in the character of
the myths: from the earlier animal and human creators we pass to the
higher anthropomorphic forms, the great gods; there is increased
literary excellence, a molding and a remolding of the old crude stories,
with a combination of them into well-ordered histories; they are
constantly modified by the growing acquaintance with the laws of nature
and by the higher intellectual conceptions of the deity; and they are
more and more infused with ethical significance.
+822+. An examination of myths all over the world shows that the most of
them, especially those relating to creation and to the histories of the
gods, originated at a period when men stood intellectually and morally
on a very low plane.[1416] The first myth-makers were savages, with all
the well-known characteristics of savage life. Having next to no
knowledge of natural law, and holding to a practical identity of nature
among men, beasts, and physical things, they had no difficulty in
imagining all sorts of transformations and creative procedures. No limit
was conceived of for the power of beasts and men--there was no object in
heaven or earth which, according to the current ideas, could not have
been produced by some procedure which was similar to the procedures of
ordinary life. The ethical character of the creators and of the
introducers of general culture was that of the communities that imagined
them; naturally the stories were full of ethical barbarities and
violations of all the moral rules recognized at a later period; and, as
is remarked above, these stories continued into civilized times, and had
to be interpreted by various devices.
+823+. One of the most noteworthy facts in the history of mythology is
the general similarity of the myths that are found all over the world.
Allowing for continuous moral and intellectual progress and for local
differences of surroundings, it may be said that the theories of the
production of the earth and the heavenly bodies, of man and other
objects, of customs and institutions, show substantially the same types
everywhere. The question has been raised whether this virtual identity
is to be explained by the supposition of independent origination at
various points, or is to be attributed to a borrowing by one community
from another. The question of the migration of myths is a part of the
larger question of the migration of culture, and is attended with all
the difficulties that attach to this latter. It is not possible at
present to give an answer which shall embrace all the phenomena.
Obviously any satisfactory solution of the problem must be preceded by a
thorough examination of all particular myths, all social
characteristics, and all geographical and migratory relations affecting
the early communities; and on these points there is yet much to learn.
+824+. It is well known that customs and beliefs have sometimes passed
from one tribe or nation to another, when there has been close social
intercourse between the two. It is known also that early men were
capable of long journeys by land and by water: the migration legends of
various peoples are full of the details of such movements; in
comparatively recent times there have been great migrations of large
bodies of people, as, for example, from the Arabian desert to the north
and northwest, and from the central Asiatic steppes westward and
eastward; and the tribes of the Pacific Ocean appear to have traversed
long distances in their canoes. And when we consider the great lapse of
time, many thousands of years, that preceded the formation of the human
society with which we are acquainted, it appears to be impossible to
assign any limit to the possibility of tribal movements on the face of
the earth. On the other hand, we do not know whether, or how far, such
migrations issued in social fusion; and all the well-attested cases of
borrowing of customs and ideas have sprung from long-continued social
union.
+825+. Further, a distinction must be made between general resemblances
and minute agreement or complete identity; there may be a similarity so
great as to force on us the hypothesis of imitation, and there may be
general similarities that may be ascribed to ordinary human thought
working in different places under similar conditions. In fact, the
conditions of existence have not varied very greatly over the globe.
There are differences of climate and soil and surface-configuration, but
everywhere there have been the sky with the heavenly bodies, the
sequence of day and night, sunshine and rain, hunting and fishing,
trees, rivers, beasts and birds, and the cultivable soil; and as man's
problem was everywhere the same--namely, how to put himself into good
relation with his surroundings--and as his intellectual equipment was
everywhere substantially the same, it would not be surprising if he
should fall on similar methods of thought and procedure independently in
various parts of the world. It was natural to early man to think of the
sun as a ball of fire which had somehow been thrown up into the sky, and
of the moon as associated with the sun as sister or wife or husband, and
of the stars as children of these two. For creative agents early man had
to look to the beings about him, particularly to beasts, birds, and
insects. The process of creation was simple--the story usually amounts
merely to saying that such and such a beast or other being made this or
that object; and there is very rarely, if ever, a conception of an
absolute beginning; almost always a reconstruction of existing material
is assumed.
+826+. Both explanations of the resemblances in myths, it thus appears,
are reasonable in themselves, and every case must be considered
separately. That a community has borrowed one story does not prove
borrowing in the case of any other story; and that a people has been a
center of distribution of certain myths does not prove that it was the
originator of all myths. These two propositions appear to be
self-evident, but they have often been ignored in discussions of the
provenance of mythical material.[1417]
+827+. The similarities in myths all over the world extend over the
whole domain of religion. Myths may be divided into those which deal
with the creation of the world and of man (cosmogonic), those which deal
with the origins of tribes and nations (ethnogonic), those which refer
to the origin of customs and institutions (sociogonic), and those which
are based on the forms and movements of the heavenly bodies, clouds,
winds, and so forth (solar, lunar, procellar, and so forth).
+828+. _Cosmogonic myths._[1418] Among early tribes the creators are
very often familiar animals, such as the coyote, the raven, the hare
(North America), the wagtail (among the Ainu), the grasshopper (among
the Bushmen)--in general, whatever animals appear to the men of a
particular tribe to show skill and power. Reference is made above to the
reasons which led early men to pay such high regard to the lower
animals.[1419] But in more advanced savage communities the creative
function is ascribed to a man, as among the Thompson River Indians and
in Southeast Australia; in Central Australia the authors of creation or
of the arrangement of things are beings who are indifferently men or
animals, but are regarded as the ancestors of the tribes. In the higher
religions the creators are nature gods and great gods, and finally the
one God stands alone as creator.
+829+. The act of creation is commonly represented as a process. Mud is
brought up from a pool, or an island is raised from the sea (the
Maoris, the Redmen), and these are stretched out so as to meet the needs
of men; or a dragon or a giant is cut to pieces and the various parts of
the universe are made from the pieces (Babylonia, India, Scandinavia);
or, in still later times, an unformed mass of water is conceived of as
the original state out of which all things are fashioned (Babylonians,
Hebrews, Hindus, Greeks); or the universe issues from an egg (the origin
of the egg being left unexplained),[1420] or the earth is represented as
the mother of all things (California). Elaborate cosmogonies are found
in New Zealand (the Maoris), in North America (the Pawnees, the Lenâpé,
and so forth), in Australia, and elsewhere. An interesting example is
the Californian Achom[=a]wi cosmogony. In the beginning, according to
this scheme, were only the sea and the sky, and from the sky came down
the Creator; or a cloud, at first tiny, grew large, condensed, and
became the Silver-Gray Fox, the Creator, and out of a fog, which in like
manner was condensed, came the Coyote, and these two made the earth and
man.[1421]
+830+. In all these cases the creation is out of already existing
material[1422] and the creator is really a culture-hero or transformer,
a character that clings to deities in the most advanced religions, as
the Egyptian, Babylonian, and Greek. The character of these early
transformers and creators is that of the communities in which they
originate. Morally they represent both the higher and the lower sides of
life, and this is true in all periods--the Hindu Indra is as tricksy and
unmoral as the North American Coyote, and the early form of Zeus
resembles these and other savage figures.[1423] The conceptions of the
creator grew more and more ethically good, but the lower representations
continued to exist side by side with the higher.[1424]
+831+. It is not altogether strange that the two sorts of creative
Powers should be early thought of as mutually antagonistic. The Maidu
bad creator is constantly opposing and bringing to naught the work of
his good rival, and their collision produces the actual state of things
on the earth.[1425] It is probably by way of explanation of the evil in
the world that in this myth the bad Coyote finally overcomes his rival.
The resemblance of this scheme to the Mazdean dualism, except in the
outcome, is obvious. For a full account of these systems we must await
further information; but at present there is no ground for holding that
the similarity is due to borrowing.
+832+. In various early cosmogonies the representation is found of an
earlier race or an early world that had been destroyed, sometimes by a
flood (Babylonia, India, Greece, Polynesia, North America, South
America), sometimes in other ways.[1426] Flood stories probably arise
from local inundations, and may therefore have been constructed
independently in various regions. In some cases the general conditions
favor the supposition of distribution from one point: it seems probable,
for example, that the Babylonian flood story was adopted by the
Canaanites and from them by the Hebrews (the supposition of common
descent from an original Semitic myth is made improbable by the
closeness of resemblance between the Babylonian and Hebrew forms); it
may have passed to India, but the Hindu story may be accounted for from
local conditions. But we know of no such intercourse between the
Americas, Polynesia, and Western Asia, as would suggest a migration of
the myth from the latter to the two former, though this is conceivable.
+833+. The origin of man is included in that of the world. He is made
from clay or wooden figures or stones, or, as in Australia, out of a
shapeless mass. The conception found in various parts of the world, that
the present race of men was preceded by another, appears to be due
sometimes to a real, though often confused, tradition of an earlier
population, sometimes to a vague conception of the conflict and
incompleteness in the world. Traditions of predecessors are found in
various parts of the world. In North America--as, for example, among the
Navahos--a part of the early history is the conflict with certain mighty
and evil beings who made good life impossible--a semidualistic
scheme.[1427] This view comes from the general disposition to conceive
of the past as the time of mightier agencies, good and bad, than now
exist.
+834+. A not uncommon representation is that man was originally not
mortal, or that it was a question whether or not he should be mortal
(death being generally regarded by early man as an abnormal event,
produced by supernatural agency). In such cases mortality is brought
about by an accident or an error: among the Maoris by a mistake of the
hero Maui;[1428] among the Hebrews by the disobedience of the first man,
or by his failure to eat of the tree of life; in South Africa by the
accident that the messenger who was to announce immortality was outrun
by one who announced mortality.[1429]
+835+. The belief that the earliest men were longer-lived and of larger
stature than their successors is found among certain peoples.[1430] Of
the origin of this belief in ancient times we have no accounts. It may
have been suggested by various objects supposed to be remains of men, or
it may have been due simply to a tendency to conceive of the beginners
of human society as superior beings (dedivinized gods). The Hebrew
tradition ascribed great age to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and
Moses, on a generally descending scale; the longevity of the
antediluvians is perhaps a speculative continuation of the series back
of Abraham on an ascending scale, though special mythical traits here
come in.
Connected with the general belief in the superiority of early conditions
of life is the belief in a primitive earthly paradise; the history of
this conception is not clear, but in some cases the paradise appears to
have been the delightful abode of a deity, into which human beings were
for various reasons admitted, or the primeval fair and happy
earth.[1431]
+836+. The belief that the world or the existing order is to be
destroyed appears to be connected with the conception of history as
involving a cycle of ages, and the theory of ages may have arisen from
the tradition or the knowledge of social and political revolutions, the
rise of each new phase of civilization involving the destruction of its
predecessor. Traditions of past cataclysms may have helped toward the
formulation of an expectation of coming destruction. This expectation,
generalized under the influence of belief in a final judgment of men by
God, would lead to the announcement of a final destruction of the
present world. This destruction, which ushers in a new age, is
accomplished in various ways, sometimes by water, wind, or fire,[1432]
sometimes by supernatural enemies.[1433] The Hindu and the Persian
schemes of successive ages are relatively late theological
constructions, but they are based on the older idea that present things
must have an end.[1434] The Navaho series of five worlds represents,
apparently, nothing but traditions of social changes, interspersed with
minor ætiologic myths.[1435]
+837+. Many other cosmogonic details, common to various peoples, might
be added. Transformation from human to animal or mineral forms and the
reverse are to be found, as we have seen, everywhere. The slaying of
dragons by gods or heroes is often connected with creation, but belongs
sometimes in the category of cultural or nature myths. Abnormal forms of
birth and generation may be sometimes products of savage fancy, or they
may be attempts to set forth the mysterious or the supernatural in
certain beings, or they may be nature myths: in various mythologies a
god or a hero is born from the side or the thigh or the head of the
mother or the father; fecundation by other means than sexual union
appears in North America, Egypt, Greece, and generally in savage
tribes.[1436] The representation of the primeval parents, Heaven and
Earth, as having been originally united in a close embrace and then
separated, Heaven being lifted up and Earth remaining below, is so
remarkable that it might be doubted whether it arose independently in
different places; yet, as it is found in New Zealand,[1437] in
Egypt,[1438] in India,[1439] among the Masai of Eastern Central
Africa,[1440] and as the supposition of borrowing for these widely
separated communities would be difficult (except, perhaps, as between
Egypt and the Masai land), it is simpler to regard the myth as a natural
effort of early science.[1441] It need hardly be added that with all the
similarities in the various cosmogonic systems the diversities among
different peoples are as numerous as the differences of surroundings and
character.
+838+. Among most early communities the great figures of the past
(creations of imagination) to whom are ascribed the introduction of the
arts of life and the general betterment of society are regarded as
demigods, descended from parents one of whom is divine and the other
human; it is sometimes the father, sometimes the mother, that is
divine.[1442] This conception is a simple and natural explanation of the
supposed extraordinary powers of the personages in question. A more
refined conception represents man as receiving life from the breath of
God,[1443] whence easily comes the idea that man is the child of God and
has in him a spark of divinity.
+839+. _Ethnogonic myths._ Early science has to account not only for
the origin of the world and the human race, but also for the origin of
particular tribes and their surroundings. The area involved is the known
world, which among savage peoples is small in extent but increases with
knowledge, the general method of accounting for social division
remaining, however, the same. As a rule, the center of the distribution
of mankind is the territory of the particular tribe in which the myth
originates. There is always the conviction, expressed or implied, that
the tribe in question is the center of the world and the favorite of the
creative Power;[1444] it being established in its place, the rest of the
world is divided among other tribes--a conception that survives among
civilized peoples of antiquity.[1445]
+840+. The ethnogonic history generally takes the form of a
genealogy--every tribe or other group is derived from a mythical
ancestor, who among savages is frequently a beast, or half-beast
half-human, or even in some cases a rock or a stone. Familiar examples
are the genealogical systems of the Australians, the Maoris of New
Zealand, the Samoans, the American Indians;[1446] but the conception
appears to be universal. There was indeed no other natural way of
accounting for the origin of a tribe: as an existing family would reckon
its beginning from the grandfather, so the tribe would come from some
remote person, and so at a later time the nation, and then finally the
human race. As there were no historical records of such beginning, the
scientific imagination of early peoples constructed the first parents in
various ways, often by personifying the tribe and transferring its name
to the mythical ancestor. It is in this way that the genealogical lists
of the post-Mohammedan Arabians arose; it is certain that they had no
records of the past extending further than a few generations, and in
some cases the origins of the names in genealogical lists may be fixed.
The Greek method of naming ancestors is simple and obvious: the sons of
Hellen are Dorus, Xuthus, Æolus; the sons of Xuthus are Achæus and Ion;
and these are all descended from Deucalion. In like manner the
Pelasgians are carried back to the ancestor Pelasgus, and the
Peloponnesians to Pelops. The Roman Romulus, Remulus, Remus, are natural
inventions based on the name of the city.
+841+. Genealogical elaboration was carried out more fully by the
Hebrews than by any other ancient people. Not only were tribal names,
Jacob, Israel, Judah, Joseph, Ephraim, and the rest, personified, but
they were arranged in a well-shaped family system; and, the same method
being applied to all the nations known to them, these were carried up to
the three sons of Noah, and finally through Noah up to the first man,
whose Hebrew name, Adam, means simply man.[1447] The table of nations in
Genesis x is a remarkable example of ethnographic organization. As it is
based on geographical relations, it does not in all particulars accord
with modern ethnological schemes, but it is a noteworthy attempt to
embrace the whole world in a family picture. The view that the division
of the earth among the various peoples revolved around the Israelite
territory is expressed in the poem cited above,[1448] which is of the
seventh century B.C., and it may be inferred that this large
genealogical unification was completed among the Israelites at a time
when they felt the influence of the great Assyrian civilization, with
which they seem to have come into somewhat intimate contact. Later
examples are found in Vergil's Æneid and Milton's "History of Britain"
(in which he adopts early attempts at genealogical construction).
+842+. _Sociogonic myths._ Most of the customs and institutions of early
peoples go back to a time when there were no records, and their
introduction was naturally referred, so soon as reflection thereon
began, to gods and heroes of primeval time.
+843+. The arts of life are commonly explained in this mythical way.
The beginnings of agriculture are referred in Melanesia to the Little
One or to Qat, in Mexico to the god or culture-hero Quetzalcoatl, in
Peru to Viracocha or Pachacamac, or to Manco Capac and his wife. For the
Algonkins Michabo, the Great Hare, was the teacher of fishing and of
other pursuits.[1449] The Babylonian god Ea was the instructor of his
people in all the arts of civilization.[1450] In the Old Testament
Cainite (Kenite) genealogy the originators of pastoral life, of
metal-working, and of music, are the ancient ancestors.[1451] In the
Book of Enoch the employment of metals, the use of writing, and in
general all the early arts of civilization are ascribed to the fallen
angels, whose children are represented in the Book of Genesis[1452] as
the culture-heroes of the olden time. The introduction of writing into
Greece is ascribed by the Greeks to the mythical hero or demigod
Cadmus.[1453] Fire is in India the production of the god Agni[1454] (who
is simply fire elevated to the rank of a personal divinity); in the
Greek myth it is stolen and given to men by the demigod Prometheus[1455]
against the will of the gods, who are jealous of human progress.[1456]
Among various savage tribes there are similar histories of the
derivation of the use of fire from superhuman beings.[1457]
+844+. Early ceremonies, as we have seen,[1458] are universally
connected with religion, and their origin is ascribed to divine or
semi-divine figures of the past. In Australia the initiation ceremonies,
which take up a great part of the tribal life, are regarded as having
been established by the mythical ancestors.[1459] Among the Hebrews
when circumcision, an early initiation ceremony,[1460] became
religiously important, its establishment was referred to the ancestor
Abraham, who is said to have acted by direct command of God,[1461] but
in earlier documents there are hints of other origins for the
rite.[1462] The ritual dances of the North American Indians, which are
very elaborate, are accompanied by explanations in which the origin of
every detail is referred to some event or person in the supernatural
past;[1463] and similar explanations are given of the dances of
Mexico.[1464] In many cases the restrictions of food and other things
are ascribed to the experiences of the ancestors or to the commands of
deities: the Hebrew usage of not eating a certain sinew is connected
with the story of the struggle between Jacob and a divine being.[1465]
+845+. Festivals also were treated in this manner as soon as men began
to reflect on the origin of society. As one feature in the festival
sacred to Mars (March 1) was the dancing of the priests who carried
curious shields, it was narrated, to account for this, that the shield
of Mars fell down from heaven;[1466] and the goddess Maia, according to
one conjecture, was invented to explain the name of the month of
May.[1467] A Greek explanation of the fact that children at a later
period were not called by the mother's name was that in the contest
between Poseidon and Athene for the control of the city of Athens the
latter deity prevailed by the votes of the women, who were in the
majority, and to appease the wrath of Poseidon this rule was then made
by the men.[1468] The Gileadite festival in which maidens lamented the
death of the daughter of Jephthah[1469] was doubtless an old rite in
which the death of some divinity was bewailed. The Greek Boedromia was
referred to the succor given by Theseus against the Amazons,[1470] and
in the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries ætiological myths
connected with Demeter, Kore, and Dionysos formed the central part of
the proceedings.[1471] In the Old Testament the spring festival
(Passover) is connected with the departure of the people from Egypt, and
the autumn festival (Tabernacles) with the sojourn in the wilderness;
and by the later Jews the midsummer festival (the Feast of Weeks,
Pentecost) was similarly brought into connection with the giving of the
law on Mount Sinai.
+846+. _Relation between myth and ritual._ The question whether myth
comes from ritual or ritual from myth has been much discussed. Obviously
universal precedence cannot be allowed to either of the two. There are
cases in which primary mythical beliefs determine the form of religious
procedure: the belief, for example, that a god, as anthropomorphic
divine patron, must be placated and provided with all the accessories of
a potentate, leads to the offering of food and other gifts and to the
establishment of abodes and attendants; the sense of his aloofness and
of his powerful and dangerous qualities induces cautionary rules for
approach to his presence; because he has manlike intellectual and
emotional limitations his favor must be secured by prayers and praises;
if he has a son, this latter may act as mediator between his father and
a suppliant, or one god may mediate with others in behalf of men.[1472]
On the other hand, there are many examples of myths that arise as
explanation of ritualistic details.[1473] It is sometimes hard to say on
which side the precedence in time lies. In general, it seems, it is from
broader and fundamental mythical conceptions that ritual arises, while
mythical narratives spring from particular ritualistic observances.
+847+. Important religious changes which have come to pass through
natural changes of thought, usually by the movement toward greater
refinement, are explained as having been introduced by some great
reformer. The abrogation of human sacrifice was a reform of great
moment: in Mexico it is ascribed to the god Quetzalcoatl,[1474] and in
the Old Testament to Abraham acting by command of God.[1475] One of the
Incas of Peru is said to have reached monotheistic views by a process of
reasoning, and the post-Biblical Jewish myths ascribed the same
achievement to Abraham.[1476]
+848+. As a rule sacred places were connected with stories of the
presence of divine personages or mythical ancestors. In Samoa, the
Hawaian group, and other Pacific Islands many stones are connected with
stories of heroes, spirits, or gods.[1477] In Central Australia every
stone, rock, or tree has its myth of the half-bestial ancestors.[1478]
In Greece, as Pausanias relates, there was hardly a place that did not
have its story of the origin of some sacred spot or thing due to a
god.[1479] In the earlier books of the Old Testament the sacred places,
which were Arabian or Canaanite shrines adopted by the Hebrews, are
generally connected with the presence of the patriarchs or other great
men. The magical qualities of springs, pools, and other bodies of water
are explained by stories in which a god or other divine person descends
into them, or in some other way communicates power.[1480]
+849+. _Myths of heavenly bodies, winds, and vegetation._ As the sun,
the moon, and other objects of nature were regarded as anthropomorphic
persons and naturally came into relation with men, their imagined
adventures have produced a great mass of stories in all parts of the
world. These stories are partly attempts to account for phenomena and
partly are simply products of fancy; the myth-maker is very often a mere
story-teller. The sun, conceived of usually as an old man, is supposed
to live in a house up in the sky, to have his wife and children, to
receive visitors, and to interfere to some extent in human affairs. An
eclipse was obviously to be regarded as the work of an enemy of the sun,
usually a dragon (so in many low tribes, and in India). A great excess
of heat on the earth might be explained by the supposition that the
chariot of the sun had been driven too near the surface.[1481] The
waning of the moon was supposed to be due to her sorrow at the loss of
her children, the stars, which were devoured by the sun. The moon might
be a fair woman who becomes enamored of a human being. At a later time
in the progress of astronomical knowledge the planets and certain of the
stars were individualized--they became actors in human history or, still
later, the abode of supernatural beings.[1482]
+850+. The beginnings of astrological theory are probably to be
recognized at a very early period. The height of the sky above the
earth, the persistence with which the stars seem to look down on men,
the invariability of their courses, the mysteriousness of their origin
would naturally lead to the belief that they had some control over human
affairs. Meteors, regarded as falling stars, have always been objects of
dread. The development of astrology has been due to the increase of
astronomical knowledge and to the tendency to organize religion in its
aspect of dependence on the supernatural Powers.[1483]
+851+. Winds have played a less prominent part in theistic history than
the heavenly bodies, but have given rise to not a few myths in
religions of different grades of culture and in different parts of the
world.[1484] In the Scandinavian myths the storm wind as a
representative of the prevailing climatic condition has assumed special
prominence. In the Iliad when a messenger is dispatched to the abode of
the winds to secure their aid, these are found feasting like a human
family.[1485] Later, winds are, of course, subordinated to the great
gods.
+852+. From time to time theories have arisen explaining many deities
and heroes as representatives of the heavenly bodies, and many stories
of gods and heroes as reflecting the phenomena of the sky or the air.
Such theories have been carried so far sometimes as to explain
everything in mythology as a solar or lunar or astral myth. These
constructions leave much to the fancy, and it is not difficult to find
in mythical narratives references to the movements of the sun or the
moon or the stars or the winds. It is possible that such reference
really exists in certain stories. It is probable also that simple myths
representing such phenomena have been in later times elaborated and
brought into connection with a more detailed astronomical knowledge. The
same principles of interpretation should guide us here as are referred
to above.
+853+. There are doubtless cases in which a hero or a god represents the
sun or the moon, the correspondence between the adventures of the hero
and the movements of the heavenly bodies being plain. The twelve labors
of Heracles may represent the passage of the sun through the twelve
signs of the zodiac; but if this be the case, it is certain that such
construction was relatively late, and that the separate adventures must
be referred to some more simple facts. If Heracles slays the Hydra, it
is more natural to regard this as having represented originally some
mundane phenomenon of nature or some simple conflict of the savage life.
The same thing is probably true of the adventures of the Babylonian
hero Gilgamesh, who is sometimes considered to be the original of
Heracles. Nothing is easier than to expound the story of Samson in the
Old Testament as a series of solar and other phenomena,[1486] but the
probability is that he embodies the vague recollections of early tribal
adventures, and, notwithstanding his name (which means 'solar,' that is,
devoted to the sun), there is no good ground for supposing that his
history has been astronomically worked over. A similar remark applies to
many discussions respecting various deities, Hindu (as Indra), Egyptian
(as Osiris), Semitic (as Nergai, Marduk, Nabu), and Greek (as Apollo).
In all such cases it is necessary to inquire first whether the
explanation of the myth may not be found naturally in some ordinary
human experience or some very simple natural phenomenon, and a line of
demarcation must be drawn between original forms of the myth and later
learned constructions.
+854+. Another source of mythical narration is the history of
vegetation, which at the present time has largely supplanted the solar
theory. The amazing spectacle of the decay and revival of vegetation,
naturally referred to superhuman power, and the importance of plants for
human life, have led to the construction of stories (sometimes founded
on ritual) in which the adventures of the spirit of vegetation are
recounted. Obviously there is a sound basis for this view. The earth was
necessarily regarded as the mother from whom came the corn and wine that
supported human life. The study of the relatively modern European
ceremonies[1487] has brought out the persistence of such an idea, and
the similarity between the new ceremonies and the old may be said to
have demonstrated the existence of an early cult of the divine Power
controlling vegetation.
+855+. The Asian Magna Mater and the Greek Mother (Demeter) or Maiden
(Kore, Persephone) are identical in function with the corn maiden of
modern times, and the latter figure may be a degraded or socialized
descendant of an early deity. When we add that ancient local deities all
took account of the products of the soil, it will not seem improbable
that a great mass of stories should have arisen describing the
adventures of the Spirit of Vegetation.[1488] The descent of a hero or a
god into Hades may be explained as the passage of the sun from its
summer warmth to its winter feebleness, or as the annual death and
revival of vegetation. Which of these views shall be adopted will depend
in any case on the particular coloring of the story, on the
signification of the names involved, or on the ceremonies accompanying
the worship. It is not now possible to frame a theory that shall embrace
all possible phenomena.
+856+. Certain great myths have in the course of time taken on elaborate
literary form, and in this form show traces of advanced thought on some
fundamental questions. Such myths occur among half-civilized peoples.
There is, for example, the great mythical cosmogony of the Maoris of New
Zealand--a scheme seemingly so philosophic in form that it excites
wonder as to how it could have arisen in such a place.[1489] The story
of the adventures of Maui, a general Polynesian figure, constitutes a
Polynesian history of the rise of civilization. Among the North American
Indians the mythological systems of the Algonkins, the Pawnees, and
other tribes, include the origin of all forms of natural objects and all
institutions of society. The histories of the Great Hare of the Lenâpé,
the Thunder Bird of the West, and the various transformers or
culture-heroes, are scarcely less elaborate than the New Zealand
stories. The mythologies of the Finns also (given in the Kalevala) are
noteworthy. Passing to higher forms, it is sufficient to note the
suggestive story of Balder among the Scandinavians, and, in the ancient
world, the Egyptian Osiris myth, the Great Dragon myth of the Babylonian
cosmogony, the various forms of the story of a primeval paradise, and
the ceremonies and ideas that have arisen in connection with the death
of a god.
+857+. The motif of the _antagonism between light and darkness_ appears
to be attached to or involved in certain myths, especially the great
cosmogonies and stories in which solar deities figure prominently. The
original unformed mass of matter is often, perhaps generally, conceived
of as being in darkness, and its transformation is attended with the
appearance of light[1490]--light is an essential element in the
conditions that make earthly human life possible; in contrast with the
Upperworld the Underworld is dark. The diffusion of light is a main
function of the sun, and the high gods dwell in continual
brightness.[1491] Light is the symbol of right, security, and happiness.
But it is doubtful whether the expression of the antithesis and conflict
of light and darkness is the immediate object of the early portraitures
of deities and the mythical narratives of creation and the future of the
world. The Egyptian Ra has no conflict with darkness, and the struggle
between Osiris (and Horus) and Set, while it may be and often is
interpreted in this sense, is susceptible of other interpretations. The
motif in the Babylonian cosmogony is the bringing of order out of
disorder, in which work the creation of light is an incident. In
ethically advanced religious systems, such as the Hindu and the Persian,
the good Powers are connected with light and the wicked Powers with
darkness, but a conflict between these adjuncts is not brought out
clearly. No such conflict appears in Greek mythology. Where a
supernatural being intervenes in defense of light (as when a god
destroys a dragon-creature who attempts to swallow the sun), this is
simply an explanation of a physical phenomenon, and not a conflict
between light and darkness.
+858+. The theory, widely held, that a great body of early myths,
including the conception of the characters and functions of many
deities, represent the struggle between light and darkness, is,
therefore, not sustained by the facts. Such a generalization is found in
late philosophic systems, but it does not belong to early religious
thought, which deals with concrete personal agents.[1492] A conflict
between two gods is often to be explained as the rivalry of two
districts or of two forms of culture. Attacks on luminous bodies, or
defenses of them, are common as ætiological myths, and an antagonism
between light and darkness then naturally appears, as is observed above,
as an accessory or incident, but not as an immediate object of mythical
portraiture. The closeness of the relation between the
light-and-darkness theory and the solar theory of myths is obvious.
+859+. _Myth and legend._ In the course of the formulation of myths they
have naturally become mingled with legend. As they narrate the
achievements of the great supernatural figures of the past, these
achievements have often become blended in the twilight of tradition with
actual (though embellished) experiences of the clan or tribe and of the
great men therewith connected.[1493] In such cases it is generally
difficult to decide where legend ends and myth begins, and every story
must be investigated separately, and its nature determined from what is
known of the real history of the time and of the development of mythical
ideas. Familiar examples of this combination of legend and myth appear
in connection with the Homeric poems, certain Asian and Greek cults, and
the early histories of Greece and Rome and Israel.[1494] The elucidation
of such narratives must be left to the technical investigator in the
various historical periods. In general, it may be said, there is enough
historical material to enable us to trace the development of tribes and
nations with a fair degree of certainty; and the caution already
expressed against excessive mythological interpretation is especially in
place in such researches.[1495]
The material published under the general title of "folk-lore" consists
of various elements--purely religious usages and ideas, mythical and
legendary narratives, and fanciful stories. As the term, defined
precisely, refers only to popular survivals from defunct religious
systems, its material shows a constant process of modification from
generation to generation by newer ideas. The mythical element,
extricated from the general mass, must be treated in accordance with the
general principles of the criticism of myths.[1496]
+860+. _Mythical biographies._ As gods and heroes are the actors in
mythical constructions of society, the stories in such constructions
generally assume the form of anecdotal biographies of these personages.
Such sketches gather fresh material from generation to generation, are
gradually worked up into literary shape, and, being brought into
connection with historical traditions, assume historical form, and are
then sometimes accepted in their homes and elsewhere as
historical.[1497] As they embody the ideas of the times in which they
originate, they have, in so far, historical and psychological value.
Charm of style has given some of these stories literary value, and they
have been accepted as part of the literary treasure of the world. They
are sometimes combinations or fusions of myth and legend, and these two
elements are not always easily distinguishable the one from the
other.[1498]
+861+. In questions that touch the original nature of a god the possible
difference between earlier and later conceptions of him must, of course,
be borne in mind. When a deity has been definitely shaped and has become
a patron of a community, he may be identified by the people, or
particularly by poets and priests, with any object or idea that is of
special interest to the community. The baals of the agricultural
Canaanites presided over irrigation, but were not specifically
underground gods;[1499] they were rather general divine patrons
interested in all that interested the people. A solar deity, becoming
the favorite god of an agricultural community, may be regarded as
connected with vegetation; or a god of vegetation may be associated, in
astronomical circles, with the sun. A divine figure is often composite,
the product of the coalescence of several orders of ideas. In general it
may be said that the simplest and least socially refined function of a
god is likely to indicate his original character. We must go behind the
conceptions of cultivated times to the hints given in popular
observances and poetry.
+862+. _Interpretation of myths._ For savage and half-civilized
communities, and for the masses in civilized times, the stories of the
achievements and adventures of gods, heroes, and ancestors, accepted as
history, have been and are sources of enjoyment and of intellectual
impulse. Narrated by fathers to their families, and recited or sung by
professional orators and poets to groups and crowds throughout the
land,[1500] they have been expanded and handed down from generation to
generation, receiving from every generation the coloring of its
experiences and ideas, and in the course of time have taken literary
shape under the hands of men of genius, and have been committed to
writing. For the early times they not only formed a body of historical
literature, but also, since they described relations between men and
gods, came to be somewhat vague yet real sacred scriptures of the
people.[1501] As such, being regarded simply as statements of facts,
they needed no outside interpretation; and being molded by human
experience, they carried with them such moral and religious instruction
as grew naturally out of the situations described. A more highly
cultivated age, dissatisfied with bald facts, desired to find in the
stories the wisdom of the fathers, and the imagination of poets and
philosophers was long occupied with discovering and expounding their
deeper meanings till further research set aside such attempts as
useless. The treatment of mythical material thus shows three stadia: the
acceptance of myths as genuine history; esoteric explanations of their
assumed profound teachings; and finally, return to their original
character as primitive science, having their origin in crude conceptions
of life. A brief sketch may show how the interpretation of myths has
come to be regarded as an historical and sociological science.
+863+. _Ancient interpretations of myths._ When the progress of thought,
especially in Greece, made it impossible to accept the current beliefs
concerning gods and their doings, it was felt necessary to put some
higher meaning into them--they were rationalized and spiritualized by a
process of allegorization. This process seems to have begun in Greece as
early as the sixth century B.C.[1502] It was the philosophers who
undertook to reinterpret the Homeric mythical material, and the extent
to which this procedure had been carried in the time of Plato is
indicated by the fact that he ridicules these modes of dealing with the
poet.[1503] But Homer maintained his place in literature, and the demand
for a spiritualizing of his works increased rather than diminished. A
science of allegory was created, Pergamus became one of its chief
centers,[1504] and the Alexandrian Jew Philo applied the method to the
interpretation of the Pentateuch. It was speedily adopted in the
Christian world, and has there maintained itself, though in diminishing
extent, up to the present day.[1505] As a serious interpretation of
ancient myths, outside of the Old Testament, it is no longer employed.
Myths are, indeed, important as reflecting early opinions, religious and
other--good doctrinal matter may be extracted from them, but this must
not be ascribed to the intention of their authors and reporters. In the
Old Testament itself the Jewish editors have socialized the mythical
material (weaving it into the history, as in Genesis), or have brought
it under the work of the national deity.
+864+. _Recent interpretations._ In recently proposed interpretations we
may note first certain attempts at a _unification_ of some body of myths
or of all known mythical material. These attempts, almost without
exception, take the sky and the heavenly bodies as their basis.
At the end of the eighteenth century, when the theory of human unity
had taken hold of the French revolutionists, C. F. Dupuis[1506]
undertook to explain all the cults of the world as having come from the
worship of the universe--a conception broad enough to cover everything;
but he practically reduces it to the worship of the heavenly bodies,
particularly the sun, and derives all myths from stellar objects. His
work is ingenious, learned, and suggestive, but in his day the facts of
ancient mythology were insufficiently known.
+865+. In the next century the study of Sanskrit and Old Persian widened
the field of knowledge, the science of Indo-European grammar was
created, and on this followed attempts at the construction of an
Indo-European mythology. The first definitely formulated unification was
the theory of F. Max Müller,[1507] which derived all Aryan
(Indo-European) myths from phenomena of the sun and the dawn, largely,
he held, through misunderstandings of the meaning of old descriptive
terms (myths as a "disease of language"). It is conceivable that a word,
originally used simply as descriptive of an actual fact, may have passed
into a proper name and become personalized and the center of adventures;
but the character of early man's thought, as we now know it, makes it
impossible to regard such a view as a probable explanation of the mass
of mythological material. Müller's services to the science of the
history of religions were great, but his theory of the origin of myths
has now been generally abandoned.[1508]
+866+. The great discoveries of literary material made in Egypt and
Babylonia since the middle of the nineteenth century have aroused
special interest in the religions of these countries. Leadership in
ancient civilization is claimed by Egyptologists and Assyriologists,
each party for its own land. It is, however, Babylonia that has given
rise to the largest theories of the unity of myths--a fact due in part
to its development of astronomy, in part, perhaps, to the resemblance
between the Babylonian mythical material and that of the Old Testament.
Dupuis[1509] had observed that the ancient Chaldeans taught that the
heavenly bodies controlled mundane destinies, and, according to
Diodorus, that the planets were the interpreters of the will of the
gods. This is substantially the point of view of E. Stucken,[1510] who,
in common with Dupuis (though, apparently, independently), holds to the
unity of ancient religions and the astral origin of all myths. From
Babylonia, he thinks, myths passed to all parts of the world, Egypt,
Asia, Europe, Polynesia, and America--in such migrations, however, it
was the motif that passed; the personages might vary in different
lands.[1511] Finally he traces all sagas of all peoples to the creation
myth.[1512] This supreme unification is reached by arguments so
far-fetched as to deprive them of force.
Stucken's position was adopted and elaborated by H. Winckler, who was
followed by A. Jeremias and some others.[1513] Winckler attempts to show
that a single religion existed in the ancient Oriental world (with a
single system of myths), and that this was dominated by the conception
that there was a correspondence between the heavenly world and the lower
world in such wise that all earthly affairs were indicated by the
movements of the heavenly bodies, whence arose the whole religious
system of Western Asia and Greece.
+867+. What is true in this theory (to which the name of
"Panbabylonianism" has been given) is that Semitic mythology is a unit,
with Babylonia as its birthplace, and that certain elements are common
to the Egyptian, Semitic, Greek, and other mythological systems. The
substantial identity of Babylonian, Aramean (Syrian), and Canaanite
myths is generally acknowledged:[1514] the Old Testament dragon-myth
(which occurs also in the New Testament Apocalypse) is found in full
shape only in Babylonian material;[1515] the Syrian Adonis myth is at
bottom the Babylonian story of Tammuz and Ishtar. The probability is
that all early Semitic schemes of creation and prehistoric life are
essentially one. Further, such conceptions as the origin of the world
from an unshaped mass of matter and the origin of man from the earth are
widely distributed over the earth.
+868+. Babylonia, then, is the chief mythopoeic center for the Semitic
region, but we are not warranted in extending its influence as
myth-maker beyond this region. The myths of the Indo-European peoples
have in general the stamp of independent creation. Loans there may be
(as, for example, in the myths connected with Aphrodite and Heracles,
and perhaps others), but these do not affect the character of the whole.
The relation between the Semitic and the Egyptian mythologies is still
under discussion.
+869+. The astral element of the theory, based on arbitrary parallelisms
carried out without regard to historical conditions, is an unauthorized
extension of the generally accepted fact that certain myths are astral.
Winckler's assumption of an astral "system" that obtained throughout the
Western world is supported only by unproved assertions of the sort just
referred to.
+870+. Jensen's contention that all myths come from the Babylonian
Gilgamesh story[1516] exhibits the same general method as the theories
of Stucken and Winckler (giving assertion in place of proof), differing
from them only in the material of comparisons.
+871+. The fundamental vice of these theories (apart from the arbitrary
character of the assertions made by their authors) is the failure to
take into account the historical development of mythical conceptions,
their beginnings in the rudest periods of human thought, and their
gradual elaboration and distinct formulation in the great communities,
in which process, along with the varieties of local conditions, certain
fundamental resemblances remain throughout.[1517]
+872+. Besides these more prominent or more definitely formulated
theories there has been in some quarters a disposition to insist too
strongly on lines of mythical development connected with the plant
world, particularly with the death and revival of vegetation. All that
we know of the history of mythical material among existing savages and
in the earliest forms of belief of civilized nations forbids the
limitation of the origin of myths to any one department of nature or to
any one part of the world. Myths, like gods, may be composite: of this
nature, probably, are some cosmogonic histories,[1518] and the stories
of Gilgamesh, Heracles, Perseus, and many others. The lines of origin
mentioned above have, naturally, in some cases, coalesced, and their
combination into single coherent narratives has been spread over long
periods of time. For this reason there is always need of detailed
investigations of particular myths as a preparation for a general
history of mythology.[1519]
+873+. _Modern critical methods in the interpretation of myths._ The
treatment of myths has followed the general course of the development of
thought in the world. In the old national religions they were
incorporated in the substance of the religious beliefs. The reformers of
thought either ignored them (so, for example, Confucius and Buddha), or
denounced their absurdities (so Plato and others), or allegorized or
rationalized them (so many Greek philosophers); the early Christian
writers treated Old Testament myths as history, and ridiculed the myths
of Greece and Rome. During the long period when the European peoples
were assimilating the ideas of Christianity the study of myths remained
in abeyance. After the classical revival there was a return to the
allegorizing method, the fondness for which has not yet completely died
out.[1520]
+874+. The extension of knowledge in the eighteenth century gave an
impetus to the study of religion, the results of which for mythological
investigation appear in the works of Dupuis and others.[1521] These
authors were necessarily ignorant of many important facts, but they
have the merit of having collected much material, which they treated as
something that had to be explained in accordance with the laws of human
thought.
+875+. The turning-point in the development of mythological science was
the rise of the modern critical study of history, begun by Voltaire and
Gibbon and carried on by Niebuhr and others. A vigorous group of writers
arose in Germany. Creuzer,[1522] indeed, holding that the myths of the
ancients must embody their best thought, and falling back on symbolism,
cannot be said to have advanced his subject except by his collection of
materials; there is some basis for his position if the ancient myths are
taken in the sense given them by the later poets and philosophers, but
the supposition of a primary symbolism in myths is set aside by an
examination of the ideas of undeveloped races. Creuzer's theory was
effectively combated by Voss.[1523] Other writers of the time adopted
exacter methods of inquiry,[1524] and K. O. Müller,[1525] particularly,
laid the foundation for a scientific treatment of myths by
distinguishing between their real and their ideal elements, between the
actual phenomenon and the imaginative (the true mythical) explanation of
it.
+876+. The next generation witnessed two retrograde movements in the
interpretation of myths. F. Max Müller, dazzled by the wealth of
Sanskrit mythological material, revived the solar theory, with a
peculiar appendage;[1526] the defects of his theory must not blind us to
the great service he performed in arousing interest in the comparative
study of myths and leading the way to a formulation of the conception of
the general history of religion. On another side the vast accumulation
of the religious ideas and usages of lower tribes led Herbert Spencer to
his euhemeristic view.[1527] Neither of these theories has seriously
affected the growth of the science of mythology.
+877+. A saner direction was given to investigation by the great
biological and sociological studies made in the second half of the
nineteenth century.[1528] E. B. Tylor definitely stated the view that
the origin of myths is to be found in all the ideas of early man. By a
very large collection of facts[1529] he showed that the same
representations that are familiar in Egyptian, Semitic, Hindu, Greek,
Roman, and other ancient myths occur also in the systems of
half-civilized and savage communities; and he pointed out how such
representations had their basis in the simple ideas of undeveloped men
and how their survival is to be traced through all periods of history.
This fruitful view has been illustrated and developed by later
writers,[1530] and much light has been thrown on the genesis and growth
of myths by studies of existing popular customs in civilized
communities.[1531]
+878+. Interest in the subject has now become general, and collections
of material are being made all over the world.[1532] At the same time it
is recognized that every local mass of myths must be studied first by
itself and then in connection with all other known material, and that
great caution must be exercised in dealing with questions of origin,
transmission, and survival. Archæological and geographical discoveries
have widened the known area of human life on earth; it is seen that the
history of man's development is more complicated than was formerly
supposed.
+879+. We are still without a general survey of myths arranged in some
orderly fashion.[1533] The material for such a collection is scattered
through a great number of publications, in which the mythical stories
are not always treated critically. The most useful principle of
tabulation, perhaps, would be an arrangement according to motifs, under
which geographical or ethnological and geographical relations might be
noted. At the present time it would be possible only to make a beginning
in such a work, since the obtainable material is not all recorded, and
the complicated character of many myths makes an arrangement by place
and motif difficult. Still, even an incomplete digest would be of
service to students of mythology and would pave the way for a more
comprehensive work. The importance of the study of mythology for the
general history of religions is becoming more and more manifest. This
study, in its full form, includes, of course, psychological
investigation as well as collections of statistics; but the psychology
finds its material in the facts--we must first know what men believe,
and then explain why they believe.
+880+. It must, however, be added that myths have influenced mainly the
dogmas and ceremonies of religion--their part in more intimate or
spiritual worship, the converse of the worshiper with the deity, has
been comparatively slight. Religious ceremonies are ordinary social
customs and forms transferred to dealings with supernatural Powers.
Dogmas are quasi-philosophical expressions of conceptions concerning the
nature of these Powers and their relations with men, and sometimes
contain mythical material which is then introduced into worship; if, for
example, a man is divinized and worship is paid him, the tone of the
worship is affected by the divine character thus ascribed to him. But in
general, as men, in worship proper, approach a deity to get some
advantage from him, the appeal is to him directly without regard to
ceremonies or minute dogmas. Savages, though in theory they may make a
god to be an animal or a plant, come to him devoutly as a superior being
who can grant their requests. In higher religions the deity addressed is
for the moment an omnipotent friend standing apart from the stories told
of him. Rival sects lose sight of their differences in the presence of
needs that drive them to God for help. Prayer is a religious
unifier--communion with the Deity is an individual experience in which
all men stand on common ground, where ritual and dogmatic accessories
tend to fade or to disappear.
+881+. Long after myths in their original forms have ceased to be
believed they persist in the form of "fairy tales," which retain
something of the old supernatural framework, but sink into mere stories
for amusement.[1534]
But fairy tales are not the only form in which ancient myths persist.
Myths have played their prominent part in the history of religion for
the reason that they embody the conception of the tangible supernatural
in a vivid and dramatic way. To this personalization and socialization
of the supernatural men have continued to cling up to the present time;
the mass of men demand not only the presence of the supernatural as
protection and guidance, but also the realization of it in objective
form. This objectiveness was useful and necessary in early times, and
the demand for it remains in periods of advanced civilization. In the
reigning religions of the world at the present day myths continue to
hold their place and to exercise their influence,[1535] the more that in
the course of time they become fused with the constantly advancing
ethical and spiritual thought of the communities in which they exist.
The tendency appears to be to minimize, under the influence of general
enlightenment, the crude supernatural parts of such combinations, to
exalt the moral and spiritual, and to allegorize or rationalize the
rest. But along with such process of rationalization the mythical form
is maintained and continues to be a powerful element in the general
structure of religious opinion and life.