...Theories of Myth University of Phoenix Theories of Myth Myths could have dissimilar meaning to society. A myth can portray a fairy-tale that is not true which could be precisely meant for entertainment to a narrator and whoever is listening to the story. A myth could portray a fairy-tale that maybe true. The stores told many years ago could have some false and true meaning. In order to comprehend the history of mythology, brilliant intellects capture dissimilar methods to understand the fairy-tales being read and determining to view if the stories were true, to view if the stories were false, to view if the stories of the imagination or if the stories were actually real thousands of years ago. An example of brilliant intellect is Sir William Jones who found legitimacy in the myths by investigating the dialect the stories were printed in. Sir William Jones was valued and respected as a young adult who spoke five languages and was considered a youthful genius in the 18th century. Sir William Jones assumed he could confirm the authenticity of the fairy-tales by using the dialect utilized many years ago. Sir William Jones traced the languages to one resource that all languages were developed from; this was called proto-indo-European that was a dialect presented as an idea. Sir Jones found a way to give legitimacy to his process, which others used and found that myths were vital and crucial windows into cultures and...
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...art. Myths and mythological characters have enthused masterpieces of composition, literature, sculpture and architecture. By studying myths, you can study how diverse societies have answered primary questions about the world and the individuals place in it. As individuals, the study of myths shows us how urbanized a meticulous communal system is with the conduct of life. By investigative myths, people can understand the feelings and principles that combine members of society into one group. Comparing the myths of a variety of cultures to determine how they are diverse and how they remind you of one another can also, show understanding on how people behave. For at least 2,000 years, scholars have speculated about how myths began. Some consider myths began as historical events that became unclear with the line of time. Others think myths resulted from an effort to explain natural occurrences that people could not value. Scholars have also urbanized others theories of how myths began. These theories answers all the questions about myths, but each contributes to an understanding of the subject. Today, people have methodical answers theories for many such questions about the world around them, also the usual events in terms of stories about gods, goddesses, and heroes. In the early days each society urbanized its own myths, which played a significant part in the society’s religious life. Most myths are alienated into two groups’ creation myths and explanatory myths. In this...
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...three creation myths Introduction In this essay I will analyse the creative use of metaphor in three creation myths: Japanese, Chinese and Australian aboriginal creation myths. Before going into the detailed analysis of each creation myth, I will first consider the most appropriate framework by outlining the concept of cognitive metaphor and its uses. I will also draw on historical and cultural background information of each creation myth to provide the context for my analysis. I will then employ the chosen framework to analyse the three creation myths and draw particular attention to the interplay of metaphor and language creativity. Finally, I will evaluate the effectiveness of the chosen framework by considering how far it enables me to interpret creation mythology in context. Cognitive metaphor theory Traditional approaches have regarded metaphor mainly as a rhetorical or artistic figure of speech (Johnson, 1989). Cognitive metaphor theory coming more recently has recognised metaphor as a persistent trait in human thoughts. It is based on the foundation that metaphor is not limited to literary texts but is a pervasive feature in all language uses (Jeffries and McIntyre, 2010). Lakoff, Johnson and Turner were the forerunners in establishing cognitive metaphor theory (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980; Turner, 1987; Lakoff and Turner, 1989). In the classic work Metaphor We Live By, Lakoff and Johnson (1980) argue that metaphor is not merely a matter of language but also a feature...
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...Theories of Myths Paper Myths are so important when it comes to understanding people; Myth comes from the Greek word ‘mythos’ that simply means story or word. Before histories and books on fiction, fact or fantasy were ever written, man from the earliest days told stories to each other and for each other to communicate, reassure, share, and make sense of his or her realities. Myths enact and present a narrative of how a character lives out or goes through an event or a set of events. Myths have come to symbolize a particular genre of fiction along the lines of legends and folktales - important aspects of meaning-making and identity-creation in cultures all over the world. Mary Magoulick (2009) defines myths as such, "Myths are symbolic tales of the distant past (often primordial times) that concern cosmogony and cosmology (the origin and nature of the universe), may be connected to belief systems or rituals, and may serve to direct social action and values." In this paper I will discuss three theories, compare two creation myths, and finish with a summary and conclusion of my reflection towards the theories. Myths are important areas and source of sociological, psychological, and even historiographical discourse in our attempt at understanding and learning of the world of our ancestors and the people and civilizations that came before us. From these myths we learn their world views, how they made sense of their realities and how they reacted to and processed natural and social...
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...Creation Myths Kimberly L. Moore HUM/105 World Mythology Diana Bernstein February 1, 2016 Creation Myths * I have chosen the “Greek Creation Myth,” and the “Mayan Creation Myth.” * In the “Mayan Creation Myth,” the heavens and the earth are both represented. The elements of earth are: day, moon and stars, mountains and hills, streams and rivers, animals, and human beings. The heavens are represented by Veracocha’s retreat to Lake Titcaca, from which he emerges in the beginning of the myth. It also describes a sea world as the god and his companions retreat to the coast of the sea, in the end of the myth, never to be seen again (Rosenberg p. 599) In the “Greek Creation myth,” earth, the sky world, and underworld are all represented. The earth is made from the earth Goddess, Gaia. The sky, and its starry mantle are Uranus, Gaia’s husband. The underworld is a place that contains the deepest, darkest depths of the earth, but also the “Blessed Isles,” a beautiful place where the heroes go when they die (University of Phoenix, 2015). * The creator in the Mayan creation myth is Lord Con Ticci Viracocha, “prince of the heavens and the earth” (Rosenburg p.599). Viracocha created the heavens and the earth first. Then, he created the animals and a race of “gigantic human beings” (Rosenburg p.571). He was displeased with the behaviors of the animals and humans, turned them into stone, and flooded the earth killing all of its inhabitants. He began again by creating day...
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...in Greek language as cosmogony, the diverse myth of creation varies drastically among many areas of the earth and during numerous periods throughout history (Leonard & McClure, 2004). The telling of such myths and stories gives insight to the culture and behavior of many societies. This information becomes religion for some and yet a way to pass down the history, heritage, and tradition of a civilization to another. The most common way to dissect and question a myth uses tools that would identify the nature of the story and outline the origin. The many distinct views in use to theorize and question mythoi are commonly the social, the psychological, the literary, the structural, and the political form of the myth. The areas in which to question commonly reference back to a toolkit that when brought into use in examination of a myth, the analysis is simple and questions cover many concerns. The debate of whether a myth is a story of imagination or holds any fact depends on if it comes from “a tale told by idiots,” or rather “sages, religious fundamentalists and agnostic theologians, idealists and cynics, racists and fascists,” or “philosophers and scholars” (Leonard & McClure, 2004, p. 5). Choosing to use social, psychological, and structural for the theoretical methods of inspection to breakdown and question the narrations of various myths of creation will show the function in their respective societies and cultures. The social aspect questions how the myth affects a...
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...sandwich factory in 1994. We hear of the narrator’s low-paid, meaningless job where mechanization has made the workers’ task subordinate and absurd. He works at a conveyor belt that spits out two loafs of bread. The mission of the employers is then to place ingredients in the sandwiches while the product is moving past them. They even rank the different ingredients; “…if you were unlucky or new, it would be tomatoes.” (l. 48, p. 3) Their large attention on such a small subject illustrates the extreme relativism that characterizes the story. We follow an unnamed 1st person narrator, and the story is told through his point of view. We only know that he is a man because someone at the factory wants him to find a female partner (l.93, p. 4). The language of the short story is characterized by a lot of humor and irony, for example the description of Dot, who would have been an excellent pirate, giving both blowjobs and sandwiches to the seagulks (l. 36, p. 3). The character Dot has, like many of the other workers, lost her soul by the monotonous work at the factory and she is now giving blowjobs to strangers at the local nightclub. We also hear of another co-worker who looks afraid every time he interacts with our narrator (l. 42, p. 3) - he is not used to human contact and is alienated from his colleagues. The narrator has not turned completely into a zombie yet and still contains some human characteristics - for example his shyness with women. In addition his cultural flavor has not ...
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...In the myths of history, religious metaphors are based on history, not nature. The stories have a beginning and an end. All three religions believe “human beings are considered human by virtue of being children of the one God who created all things” (Esposito, Fasching, & Lewis, 2014). In other words, there is one true God who is the True Creator. They each tell the myth of Adam and Eve being the first humans, and worship Abraham as he is considered to be a true model of obedience. In each religion, life’s goal is to be in harmony with God. In Judaism, to be in harmony with God you must be obedient to God’s will and even debate with God. In Christianity, one must accept God as their savior, and Islam says that you must submit to the will...
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...A creation story or a creation myth can be defined as a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how humans adapted to it. Some creation stories, such as African creation stories existed for years. These stories has been told and passed down by many. With creation stories many people can interpret in many different ways. One of the most common creation stories that have been told was the creation of the world. In this paper I chose to write about The Planet of Life. I chose to write about this creation paper because the story itself is really interesting to me and this story reminds me of stories from the bible. This creation story, The Plant of Life, comes from a Nyamwezi story. The alternate name for Nyamwezi is Wanyamwezi. It is located in Unyamwezi. Tanzania’s national language is Kinyamwezi. The religion they believe in is spirituality shaped by traditional beliefs; Islam and Christianity. They have much respect for the living dead. The Nyamwezi people were called Wanyamwezi. They lived in East African country of Tanzaina. Their home area was called Unyamwezi, “the place of the Wanyamwezi”. As years passed the Nyamwezi culture has both influenced the cultures of neighnoring African societies as well as the national Tanzanian culture. Their religion has also had great impact on modern Nyamwezi customs. The Nyamwezi tribe “people of the moon” is the second largest in Tanzaina. The family lives together and the villages are not necessarily based on kinship relationships...
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...Kristine Moore Dr. Mills American Literature I 26 April 2015 The One that Launched A Thousand Religions “خالق واحد صحيح” (For purposes of understanding I refer to the creators in each religion as a he. This research is not intended to argue the gender of a higher being.) Native Americans, Christians, Deists, Muslims, and many other cultures have similarities in the ways they view the dawn of man. Creation stories have dated back anywhere from thousands of years to millions, yet it cannot be decided which version tells the true beginning. Religions and tales of the supreme beings who created Earth and life, come down in manuscripts and drawings that depict each individual purpose of life. With the advancement of technology, war, and government, the reason for man’s existence has changed and therefor his purpose needs to be redefined. خالق واحد صحيح in Arabic means “the one true creator” who holds and gives all power and life. The God, Allah, or Sky-Holder’s power is taken away in order for man to make what he has created right and so begins the beginning of a thousand religions. When man first thought about how to expand his power he did so while looking at his kingdom. From ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and even men like Christopher Columbus, power has stemmed from the ownership of land masses and the conquering of unexplored terrain. The world is in the state it is now because it shows who has gained the most power, yet man has neglected to protect the one thing that gave...
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...Clearly few things rile people up more than religion and politics. These controversial topics fascinate and titillate the best of us including William H. Jennings, author of Storms over Genesis and Professor of Religion, Emeritus, at Muhlenberg College. His investigative work into the interpretations of the first three chapters of the most famous book in the world, the Bible, gives the reader insight into the environmentalist views, feminist views, and those of creationists. By seeking clarification of the various creation stories, Jennings tries to illuminate the current scholarly views of this ancient text including the origin and timeline of the Earth. The Earth has been in existence for quite some time. Just how long is still unknown, but scientists, especially environmental Darwinists, estimate the Earth is 4.55 billion years old (Jennings 86). But the date of Earth’s origin and the presence of man are two separate questions depending on if one relies on biblical references or stories, creationism, which put the age of the world, the beginning of creation between 6,000-10,000 years (77) or modern science. A Gallup poll found supporters of each side to be fairly split, forty-six percent towards creationism and thirty-six percent pointing to Darwinism as the correct derivation (88). Why is the question of Earth’s origin so germane? According to many, because Genesis only deals with God’s creation of man in His image, and science can prove the existence of “pre-Adam” man dating...
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...In the J and P Flood narratives there are three similar themes that can be also seen in other ancient myths such as the Near Ancient Floods told by Utnapishtim, the Flood in Mesopotamian literature and the Gilgamesh Flood story. In all the flood stories the deteriorating relations humans and the soil are a portion of why the flood occurs. The divinely ordained separation of the divine from human realms is another attribute and the continuous corruption of humanity leads to the flood. Inanother example of anthropomorphism, and promised never again to curse the ground regardless of human wickedness. In the P version of the flood, we find similar language as seen in the P account of Creation. The same reasons that brought about the flood in J are in P but instead of seven pairs of clean animals and two pairs of unclean animals, Noah is instructed to bring two of every kind of animal and they are to be male and female. The idea of having male and female animals is thought to be because of reproduction among the different species once the flood ends. Genesis 7. 11 say “All the fountains of great Deep burst forth and the windows of the heavens were opened.” The flood lasted a year opposed to the 40 days and nights in the J version of the flood. At the end of the flood, creation was renewed and ravens were released instead of doves. Genesis 9:1 says “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”, which displays the second creation. Humans are now allowed to eat meat but are warned...
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...Contemporary Creation Myth Team B understood the concepts in this weeks reading and found the stories to be interesting. The stories most interesting are the sacrifice stories. The God Ymir was killed because the other Gods thought he was mean. When his lifeless body fell his body parts turned into different things such as seas, lakes, skies, trees, and mountains. T he belief of these stories actually teach that in order to have life there must be death. Other types of stories are the stories that consist of secretion of body fluids that create birth as in the accretion myths (Leonard & McClure, 2004, p. 34). Reminds us of the movie Gremlins and how they keep making new evil little monsters when they come in contact with water or eat after midnight. As long as these two things do not happen the gremlin stays sweet almost sacred furry animal. A concept is the emergence myths. These myths have people that travel through worlds until they emerge into one. A person could keep traveling until they become perfect and can continue the work of other Gods (Enotes, 2013). A person in this particular time could be a man that is successful in our world today, such as Bill Gates. A person as successful as Bill Gates is an icon and to some Godly for representing such things that are in the future. A modern day creator, Bill Gates was a technological innovation keen business strategy with aggressive gung ho tactics. He and his partner Paul Allen built the world's...
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...Babylonian Creation Myth (summary) The Babylonian creation myth is recounted in the "Epic of Creation" also known as the Enûma Elish. The Mesopotamian "Epic of Creation" dates to the late second millennium B.C.E. In the poem, the god Marduk (or Assur in the Assyrian versions of the poem) is created to defend the divine beings from an attack plotted by the ocean goddess Tiamat. The hero Marduk offers to save the gods only if he is appointed their supreme unquestioned leader and is allowed to remain so even after the threat passes. The gods agree to Marduk's terms. Marduk challenges Tiamat to combat and destroys her. He then rips her corpse into two halves with which he fashions the earth and the skies. Marduk then creates the calendar, organizes the planets, stars and regulates the moon, sun, and weather. The gods pledge their allegiance to Marduk and he creates Babylon as the terrestrial counterpart to the realm of the gods. Marduk then destroys Tiamat's husband, Kingu using his blood to create humankind so that they can do the work of the gods. (Sources, Foster, B.R., From Distant Days : Myths, Tales, and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia. 1995, Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press. vi, 438 p., Bottéro, J., Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia. 2004, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. x, 246 p., Jacobsen, T., The Treasures of Darkness : A History of Mesopotamian Religion. 1976, New Haven: Yale University Press. 273.) Enuma Elish 'When on high' The Babylonian Epic of Creation...
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...on the secular organization that was assigned to your team in Week 1. Explain how one to three of its locations functions as a sacred place(s). As you do so, explain what elements mythic sacred places have in common, and how they function in their cultures. Illustrate your analysis of your chosen contemporary secular place by comparing it to at least one other sacred place taken from a traditional myth. Format your paper according to APA standards. ============================================== HUM 105 (Rome) Week 5 Learning Team Assignment: Secular Organizations and Sacred Places Paper (UOP) FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www. hum105tutorials.com Write a 1,400- to 1,750-word paper on the secular organization that was assigned to your team in Week 1. Explain how one to three of its locations functions as a sacred place(s). As you do so, explain what elements mythic sacred places have in common, and how they function in their cultures. Illustrate your analysis of your chosen contemporary secular place by comparing it to at least one other sacred place taken from a traditional myth. Format your paper according to APA standards. ============================================== HUM 105 (Washington) Week 5 Learning Team Assignment: Secular Organizations and Sacred Places Paper (UOP) FOR MORE CLASSES VISIT www. hum105tutorials.com Write a 1,400- to 1,750-word paper on the secular organization that was assigned to your team in Week 1. Explain how one to three of its...
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