University of Phoenix Material

Types of Myths Worksheet

Knowledge, Belief, Myth, and Religion

Directions: Answer the following question on knowledge, belief, myth, and religion in 3 to 5 sentences.

How are knowledge, belief, myth, and religion related to one another and how are they distinct from one another? Use an example from your life or popular culture to explain this relationship.

To understand myth or religion people need to have the knowledge and need to belief in what has become part of their faith and values as individuals. First knowledge is needed in order to understand the message and belief of that religion. Myth and religion go together because most of the religions are stories or writings that have been passing thru the years by others. It is only up to the person to decide how myth and religion are interpreted by knowledge and beliefs. This is why knowledge, belief, myth and religion are related to one another.

Myths

Directions: Choose two examples for each type of myth and identify the pieces of literature, such as a Shakespeare play, in which the examples are found.

Greek Myths

|Myth 1: |Literature it’s found in: |
|“In my opinion mortals have created their gods with the dress and|XENOPHANES, fragment 21 B 14-16 (Diels-Kranz) |
|voice and appearance of mortals. If cattle and horses had hands | |
|and wanted to draw or carve as men do, the cattle would show | |
|their gods in the form of cattle and horses would show them as | |
|horses, with the same form and appearance as their own. The | |
|Ethiopians say that their gods have snub noses and black skin, | |
|while the Thracians say that theirs have blue eyes and red hair”.| |
|Myth 2: |Literature it’s found in: |
|“One god is greatest among gods and men, but his appearance and |XENOPHANES, fragment 21 B 23 (Diels-Kranz) |
|thought are not like ours”. | |

Answer the following questions:

Describe Greek myths.

Greek myths had different points of view. According to Xenophanes Greek myths attacked the truth of the traditional tale cherished by the Greeks as their cultural heritage. On the other hand Plato considered myth stories to be an appropriate vehicle for giving expressions to these truths. This is why he started writing his own myth and one of them is “the myth of Atlantis” (Powell, 2002).

How have the above pieces of literature helped society to understand the universe?

The pieces above helps society understand that mythological gods or stories are different depending on what is the influence behind it. This could be influenced by the culture and the country. Myth is been going on for centuries and every culture has myths of gods, evil spirits, good spirits, heroes and more. It all depends on how is seen and from what perspective is been used.

Physical Allegory Myths

|Myth 1: |Literature it’s found in: |
|“The role that Cronus (Cronus= time) had in creation was |Powell, B.B. (2002). A short Introduction to Classical Myth. |
|interpreted to mean that all things were begotten by time. The | |
|children of Cronus are the ages, and the story that Cronus | |
|devoured means that “time consumes ages”. The story that Zeus | |
|overthrew Cronus and bound him in the underworld means that time,| |
|although great in extent, is nonetheless limited.” | |
|Myth 2: |Literature it’s found in: |
|“Demeter is the earth, Hades the shadow that is cast by the |Powell, B.B. (2002). A short Introduction to Classical Myth. |
|earth, and Persephone herself the moon which reflects the light | |
|of the sun…Persephone acts like a mirror reflecting little images| |
|of objects, so does the moon reflect the light of the sun. | |
|Persephone’ descent into the underworld and subsequent return | |
|refers to the waxing and waning of the moon, when the moon slips | |
|in and out of the shadow of the earth, Hades’ realm. By extension| |
|the story of Persephone’s descent and return means that after | |
|losing their bodies at death, human beings exist as souls and | |
|minds in Hades. If they are blameless, however they may | |
|subsequently escape to the sun as pure minds”. | |

Answer the following questions:

Describe physical allegory myths.

Physical allegory myths are stories that at the end they have a moral on how in these two cases time works in the myth of Cronus, the process of life and death with Persephone, Demeter and Hades. These are stories that helps us understand events that happen every day.

How have these pieces of literature helped society to understand the universe?

The first piece helps us understand that time is very important. Time makes us grow old and die (referring to the part that Cronus (time) devoured his children that were the ages). But time can also be used wisely and no matter what time always ends for everyone.

Historical Allegory Myths

|Myth 1: |Literature it’s found in: |
|“Uranus, so called because he was learned in the study of the |Powell, B.B. (2002). A short Introduction to Classical Myth. |
|heavens. From union with his human wife, Hestia, Uranus begot the| |
|Titans and Cronus. The column gave more information on about | |
|Uranus’ successors, Cronus, Zeus and their families. The war in | |
|heavens and Cronus’ swallowing his children were explained as | |
|recollections of palace intrigues. During his reign, according to| |
|the column, Zeus was said to have traveled the earth teaching the| |
|arts of civilized life, banning such reprehensive religious | |
|practices as cannibalism and founding temples. According to the | |
|story, he actually lived for a while on Mount Olympus, then at | |
|the end of a long life, Zeus retired to Crete, died, and was | |
|buried near Cnossus. That is why the Cretans spoke of “the tomb | |
|of Zeus””. | |
|Myth 2: |Literature it’s found in: |
|“Although Euhemerus’ story of the inscribed column is a fiction, |Powell, B.B. (2002). A short Introduction to Classical Myth. |
|his underlying theory is quite plausible and enters many modern | |
|interpretations of myth. By asserting that gods were in origin | |
|great men, so respected that they were worshiped after death, he | |
|attempted to explain myth as a form of early history. From his | |
|book comes the modern term euhemerism, the thesis that gods once | |
|were human. Many features of the Greek mythical tradition lent | |
|themselves to explanation along these lines. The gods, after all,| |
|were organized in a family on Olympus, and they looked and acted | |
|like Greek aristocrats. The god Asclepius shows many signs of | |
|having once been a real man, a | |
|famous doctor.2 As for such deified heroes as Heracles, everyone | |
|always thought them to be real men anyway, who had actually | |
|lived, founded cities, and done great deeds”. | |

Answer the following questions:

Describe historical allegory myths.

Historical allegory myths are representation of heroes and gods as humans and it tells the story of the good deeds, the wisdom and their own representations not only as gods but as human beings. Because of all they did people still worshiped them even after they died.

How have these pieces of literature helped society to understand the universe?

These pieces of literature helps society understand the concept of evolution in knowledge and they were not gods necessarily. These two pieces puts the gods as simple humans with wisdom and knowledge that they wanted to share with the society.

Moral Allegory Myths

|Myth 1: |Literature it’s found in: |
|“We have already seen a crude example of it in the explanation of|Powell, B.B. (2002). A short Introduction to Classical Myth. |
|the story of Apollo and Daphne as exhorting young women to remain| |
|chaste. So the Harpies who rob Phineus of his food are really | |
|prostitutes who ruin young men through their high fees. The | |
|goddesses in the Judgment of Paris represent three kinds of life:| |
|the active (Hera), the contemplative (Athena), and the amorous | |
|(Aphrodite), among which every man (Paris) must choose. The | |
|coupling of Leda and the Swan is an allegory for the joining of | |
|Power (Zeus) and Injustice (Leda, who is raped), whose fruit is | |
|inevitably scandal and discord (Helen)”. | |
|Myth 2: |Literature it’s found in: |
|“Homer’s description of the cave of the nymphs on Ithaca, where |Powell, B.B. (2002). A short Introduction to Classical Myth. |
|Odysseus hides his treasure after returning from his wanderings | |
|(Odyssey 13.102–112). The cave, he argues, represents the | |
|universe because it is generated from matter and is natural; the | |
|nymphs, as spirits of water, represent the ceaseless flow of | |
|events within time; the looms of stone on which they weave | |
|represent souls descending to incarnation, as the flesh is woven | |
|on the bones (the stones of the body)”. | |

Answer the following questions:

Describe moral allegory myths.

Moral allegory myths are the system of advice between good and bad decisions and/or behavior. These are stories to be taking in consideration and to evaluate the way people are behaving as individuals this includes the so called “cause and effect”.

How have these pieces of literature helped society to understand the universe?

These are pieces that help society understand the behavior around an individual or a group of people. It has problems that happened everyday for example rape “The coupling of Leda and the Swan is an allegory for the joining of Power (Zeus) and Injustice (Leda, who is raped), whose fruit is inevitably scandal and discord (Helen)” (Powell, 2002).

Medieval and Renaissance Myths

|Myth 1: |Literature it’s found in: |
|“For example, the frankly erotic content of the Song of Solomon, |Powell, B.B. (2002). A short Introduction to Classical Myth. |
|which tells of sexual love between a man and a woman, was | |
|explained as an allegory of God’s love for the church (in fact | |
|the poem descends from secular Egyptian love poetry)”. | |
|Myth 2: |Literature it’s found in: |
|“For example, the story of Liber (the Latin equivalent of the |Powell, B.B. (2002). A short Introduction to Classical Myth. |
|Greek wine-god Dionysus) was understood to be an allegory in | |
|which Semelê, the mother of Dionysus, and her three sisters | |
|represent four stages of intoxication: (1) too much wine, (2) the| |
|forgetfulness it causes, (3) lust, and (4) sheer madness”. | |

Answer the following questions:

Describe medieval and Renaissance myths.

These are myths based on religion; are more used as rules to follow in a way to do things the “right way”. It can be used as an explanation brought by the church on how is God’s love for the human kind.

How have these pieces of literature helped society to understand the universe?

Now in our days is very common to see and understand these myths because they are part of society. Some of them are rules to follow stipulated by the church.

Theories of Enlightenment Myths

|Myth 1: |Literature it’s found in: |
|“Myth was rooted in the ignorance of humans living at earlier |Powell, B.B. (2002). A short Introduction to Classical Myth. |
|stages of cultural development. Fontenelle shifted the emphasis | |
|of theory from interpreting myth to explaining the origin of | |
|myth, which, he asserts, originates and develops in savagery and | |
|ignorance”. | |
|Myth 2: |Literature it’s found in: |
|“Greek myth, too, he assumed, was the product of a “primitive” |Powell, B.B. (2002). A short Introduction to Classical Myth. |
|mode of thought. This radical, new, and dramatic approach, taking| |
|as its premise the notion of progressive evolutionary development| |
|away from an earlier condition of savagery to present conditions | |
|of civilization, was destined to shape Western thought for the | |
|coming centuries and continues to do so today”. | |

Answer the following questions:

Describe theories of Enlightenment myths.

The theories of Enlightenment stated that the Greek myth was a primitive way to think and the Bible was too. That way of thinking was not what the people needed. The people needed to expand their thinking; they needed to have more knowledge.

How have these pieces of literature helped society to understand the universe?

These pieces helped the people of that time understand that knowledge was needed and that myth was needed to be replace for a way of thinking that could benefit the society as a whole.