Myth in the Ancient World - Assignment Example

G.S. Kirk (1974: 38-68) had identified the ‘five monolithic theories’ of myth. These theories are that all myths are nature myths, that they are explaining the cause or effect, act as a charter, evoke the creative era, and that they are rituals. Kirk wrote that ‘Myths constitute an enormously complex and at the same time indefinite category, and one must be free to apply to them any of a whole set of possible forms of analysis and classification’ (1974: 38). Each of these ‘five monolithic theories’ can be used to provide an explanation for both Biblical and Near Eastern myths. ‘The Old Testament commences with one of its most interesting myths, that of the Creation and Fall of Man. The story is to be found in the first three chapters of Genesis…’ (1971: 1). The myth of Creation in the Bible is not only used to explain the creation of man, but of the whole universe and everything contained within it. This certainly can be seen as evoking the creative era, as it depicts the whole process that God went through in order to create the miraculous place that humans found themselves living in. The author that wrote Creation certainly had to put a lot of thought into the symbolism of the time that passed and what was created when. The Fall of Man relates the story of how Eve spoke with the serpent and tempted Adam with the forbidden fruit. After eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, God has them removed from the Garden of Eden. ‘The essential point is that it is a matter of belief in Judaism and Christianity that the original world created by God must have been a model world...’ (Frye, 2004: 144). This can be seen as a great example of how people are explaining the truth of the world in comparison to the perfect world that God would have created in his infinite wisdom. In order to explain the cause for the problems in the world, the Fall of Man demonstrates that the first humans, Adam and Eve, committed a crime that got them pushed out of the beautiful place that had been created just for them. Their disobedience to the rule that God set forth for them is the reason why people have to deal with sorrow, death and despair in their lives while not living in a beautiful garden will they will not want for anything. Sodom and Gomorrah is a very power portion of the Bible. These cities are destroyed because of their “godless” ways and the amount of sinning that occurs within the walls. Some experts believe that the destruction was actually caused by an earthquake. ‘Ben-Menahem et all. (1977) and Ben-Menahem (1981) considered that magnitude of the Sodom and Gomorrah earthquake was more than 7.0 on the Richter scale somewhere along the Dead Sea rift’ (Neev and Emery, 1995: 33). Therefore, this myth of the Bible can be considered a natural in that it was a way to explain the tectonic event that occurred, but could also be considered as a charter as it lays out a punishment for those that sin. The myth of God testing Abraham by requiring him to sacrifice his son is a powerfully story. Abraham is ready to do what his God asks, when God tells him that it will not be necessary for him to follow through with the sacrifice. ‘... [In] obeying and in acting upon God’s command to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham, in his acquiescence, is also ‘sacrificing’ himself to God’s command’ (Davis, 2007: 105). This biblical myth is an example of a charter in that it shows while God can require sacrifices when following his path; he would not require a person to sacrifice something that is that important to the person. Another portion of the Bible is the myth of Noah building an ark to deal with the great flood that was being sent to wipe the human race out. Noah was to gather up the animals of the Earth in pairs after creating a large boat to save some of the lives from the disaster that was coming. ‘Ten generations, we are told, had passed since God set Adam upon the newly created earth, and mankind had become very wicked: human beings were wholly given over to planning and doing evil’ (Cohn, 1999: 14). This certainly can be viewed as a myth that acts as a charter in that it demonstrates that humankind needs to follow the will of God otherwise they will be divinely punished. It can also be seen as cause and effect in that the cause is the evil of humanity with the effect being that God again will send a punishment towards them. Additionally, it is possible to see this as explaining an element of nature, such as flooding that can occur that could devastate the land. Another biblical myth is that of Daniel in the lion’s den. Men jealous of the relationship between Daniel, a Christian, and King Darius decided to create a law that worshipping any God other than the King was punishable by being thrown to the lions. Daniel refused to follow the new law and was thrown to the lions. The next day he was found unharmed by King Darius, who then embraced Daniel’s God as his own. ‘The Lord delivered Daniel because of his faith (6:23) and because he was innocent of any crime before the king or any sin before the Lord (v.22)’ (Wiersbe, 2007: 1367). This is another example of cause and effect in that Daniel did not give up on his faith in the Lord or pretend to not worship him, so God protected him from being eaten. This point is truly honed in by the fact that the men that were jealous of Daniel were then thrown to the lions and eaten. The biblical myth of Jonah and the whale is another popular story. Jonah does not desire to be a prophet or listen to what God wants him to do and ends up being eaten by a whale. ‘The Book of Jonah is not apocalyptic but survivalist; Jonah, the evasive prophet, is resurrected from the belly of the whale, after he has repented fleeing from Yahweh out of pique’ (Bloom, 2001: 266). The potential monolithic theory that this story may represent is not as immediately noticeable as the other Biblical myths that have been discussed previously. However, this can be seen to act as a charter between humankind and God. Basically, that humans are here to follow God’s will, and what is fated by God will eventually happen, even if the person tried to deny this fate. Also, this can be seen as the start of a ritual in that it is necessary to listen to God, and by extension those that speak for God, such as priests and ministers. This could certainly explain how individuals that follow the teachings of the Bible are going to be willing to stick with the rituals of the church as it would be what God wants and that it would be pointless to not follow with them. A story located in the New Testament about Jesus is how he was able to multiply bread and fish to feed the masses and expose his divine power given to him by his father, God, in his role as the Messiah. ‘David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel all speak of Jehovah as a shepherd who leads, watches over, and rescues his sheep, gathers the lambs in His arms, and gently leads those who are with young’ (Smith, 2006: 56). By identifying with a shepherd who protects and helps those individuals who follows him, this myth can be seen as part of the cause and effect monolithic theory. By following the Word of God, they are then helped, healed and protected by the church. The parable of the Good Samaritan is a biblical myth that still has impacts on today’s society with the Good Samaritan laws that can be found in some areas. A man who was robbed, beaten and left by the side of the road is ignored by two individuals that would consider themselves religious. A Samaritan, who is not considered religious, then sees the man and gives him assistance. According to Hood, Hill and Spilka: Jesus apparently wanted to make the point that people should model their behaviour after the Samaritan, not after ‘religious’ people who may be so caught up in their thoughts that they do not see the needs of the people around them (2009: 408). This is certainly a parable that is seeking to act as a charter in the way that people live their lives. In that a person should be willing to help others no matter the circumstances. Another Near Eastern civilization that can be used as an example here is the Mesopotamian myths. For instance, in the creation myth, the hero, Marduk slays Tiamat who is the goddess of creation in the form of a dragon as she was rampaging over the death of another god. Her body is torn apart to create the heavens and the earth. ‘Ea helped him create humans from the blood of Kingsu, a husband of Tiamat’ (Matthews, 2010: 218). This myth is truly one that evokes the creative era in that the people would hold a festival to relive these events as they believed this was the way that the world was created along with humankind. It was celebrated in a way that allows for the people to take part in the myth of the creation. In Mesopotamian myth, the god Sin, also known as Nanna, is the god of the moon. ‘Moon temples were built by the pre-Islamic Arabs who, like their ancestors, considered the planet mild and beneficent, an understandable view for a people who had to endure the daily torments of the sun at its height’ (Rice, 1994: 169). The worship of Sin can be a nature myth. This was a way for the people to worship a natural occurrence for the fact that if offered relief from the harsh rays of the sun. A very popular Mesopotamian myth is the epic story of Gilgamesh. ‘The text explains in passing why temples take in orphan, how there came to be two New Year’s Days in the Babylonian calendar, how the Levantine Rift Valley was riven, how dwarfs came to be…’ (George, 2003: xiv). This is an epic tale that deals with the worry over death, such as dealing with the death of a friend and looking for ways to make a person immortal in the minds of others. Throughout this tale, the monolithic theories of nature and even acting as a charter can be witnessed. For instance, this touches on the area of the tale, such as the rift valley, of how the natural landscape came to be. Today, humans understand that the tectonic plates and the way that they move will form rift valleys, but in the past they needed another way to explain why the earth would dip in that fashion. It also can be seen to act as a charter in that it gives people an idea about how death can take over a person’s life. The death of his friend is what spurred Gilgamesh on to find immortality and lead him on the adventure that he took. Everyone truly goes on an adventure when they are dealing with death in that they are moving on to another phase in their life without that person. ‘Religions, philosophies, arts, the social forms of primitive and historic man, prime discoveries in science and technology, the very dreams that blister sleep, boil up for the basic, magic ring of myth’ (Campbell, 2008:1). The ‘five monolithic theories’ of myth that Kirk believed to be the best explanations behind myths can be seen in Biblical and Mesopotamian myths to help give reason as to why these myths were told to the people and the purpose that they posed. References Bloom, H. (2001). How to read and why. New York, Touchstone Books. Campbell, J. (2008). The hero with a thousand faces. Novato, Calif, New World Library. Cohn, N. (1999). Noah's flood: the Genesis story in Western thought. New Haven, Yale University Press. Davis, W. V. (2007). poetry and theology. Waco, TX, Baylor University Press. Doane, T. W. (1971). Bible myths and their parallels in other religions, being a comparison of the Old and New Testament myths and miracles with those of heathen nations of antiquity, considering also their origin and meaning. New Hyde Park, N.Y., University Books. Frye, N. (2004). Biblical and classical myths: the mythological framework of Western culture. Toronto, University of Toronto Press. George, A. R. (2003). The epic of Gilgamesh: the Babylonian epic poem and other texts in Akkadian and Sumerian. London, Penguin Books. Hansen, W. F. (2004). Handbook of classical mythology. Santa Barbara, Calif, ABC-CLIO. Hood, R. W., Hill, P. C., & Spilka, B. (2009). The psychology of religion: an empirical approach. New York, Guilford Press. Kirk, G. S. (2009). The nature of Greek myths. New York, Barnes & Noble. Matthews, W. (2010). World religions. Belmont, CA, Wadsworth/Cengage Learning. Neev, D., & Emery, K. O. (1995). The destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah, and Jericho: geological, climatological, and archaeological background. New York, Oxford University Press. Rice, M. (1994). The Archaeology of the Arabian Gulf c. 5000-323 BC. London, Routledge. Smith, C. (2006) The Life and Work of Messiah. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse. Wiersbe, W. W. (2007). The Wiersbe Bible Commentary. Colorado Springs, David C Cook. Read More

Sodom and Gomorrah is a very power portion of the Bible. These cities are destroyed because of their “godless” ways and the amount of sinning that occurs within the walls. Some experts believe that the destruction was actually caused by an earthquake. ‘Ben-Menahem et all. (1977) and Ben-Menahem (1981) considered that magnitude of the Sodom and Gomorrah earthquake was more than 7.0 on the Richter scale somewhere along the Dead Sea rift’ (Neev and Emery, 1995: 33). Therefore, this myth of the Bible can be considered a natural in that it was a way to explain the tectonic event that occurred, but could also be considered as a charter as it lays out a punishment for those that sin.

The myth of God testing Abraham by requiring him to sacrifice his son is a powerfully story. Abraham is ready to do what his God asks, when God tells him that it will not be necessary for him to follow through with the sacrifice. ‘. [In] obeying and in acting upon God’s command to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham, in his acquiescence, is also ‘sacrificing’ himself to God’s command’ (Davis, 2007: 105). This biblical myth is an example of a charter in that it shows while God can require sacrifices when following his path; he would not require a person to sacrifice something that is that important to the person.

Another portion of the Bible is the myth of Noah building an ark to deal with the great flood that was being sent to wipe the human race out. Noah was to gather up the animals of the Earth in pairs after creating a large boat to save some of the lives from the disaster that was coming. ‘Ten generations, we are told, had passed since God set Adam upon the newly created earth, and mankind had become very wicked: human beings were wholly given over to planning and doing evil’ (Cohn, 1999: 14).

This certainly can be viewed as a myth that acts as a charter in that it demonstrates that humankind needs to follow the will of God otherwise they will be divinely punished. It can also be seen as cause and effect in that the cause is the evil of humanity with the effect being that God again will send a punishment towards them. Additionally, it is possible to see this as explaining an element of nature, such as flooding that can occur that could devastate the land. Another biblical myth is that of Daniel in the lion’s den.

Men jealous of the relationship between Daniel, a Christian, and King Darius decided to create a law that worshipping any God other than the King was punishable by being thrown to the lions. Daniel refused to follow the new law and was thrown to the lions. The next day he was found unharmed by King Darius, who then embraced Daniel’s God as his own. ‘The Lord delivered Daniel because of his faith (6:23) and because he was innocent of any crime before the king or any sin before the Lord (v.22)’ (Wiersbe, 2007: 1367).

This is another example of cause and effect in that Daniel did not give up on his faith in the Lord or pretend to not worship him, so God protected him from being eaten. This point is truly honed in by the fact that the men that were jealous of Daniel were then thrown to the lions and eaten. The biblical myth of Jonah and the whale is another popular story. Jonah does not desire to be a prophet or listen to what God wants him to do and ends up being eaten by a whale. ‘The Book of Jonah is not apocalyptic but survivalist; Jonah, the evasive prophet, is resurrected from the belly of the whale, after he has repented fleeing from Yahweh out of pique’ (Bloom, 2001: 266).

The potential monolithic theory that this story may represent is not as immediately noticeable as the other Biblical myths that have been discussed previously. However, this can be seen to act as a charter between humankind and God. Basically, that humans are here to follow God’s will, and what is fated by God will eventually happen, even if the person tried to deny this fate. Also, this can be seen as the start of a ritual in that it is necessary to listen to God, and by extension those that speak for God, such as priests and ministers.

Read More