[lit-ideas] Prehistorical, Founational "Mythos" (Hesiod, Theogonia)
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 09:14:32 EDT
Foundational Myth (Preliterate, Greek), "Mythos"
McCreery:
"one example of a preliterate people
with a creation myth in which the Word or words bring the cosmos into
being. I know of creation myths in which ancestors emerge from holes
in the ground, stomp around leaving valleys and mountains as records
of their passage, drip semen into the sea forming islands, do all
sorts of things. What I do not know, and this could be simple
ignorance (thus the question), is any case in which the Word or words
play the role that they do in Genesis, "And God *said* 'Let there be
light.'"
What about the idea of mythos in, say, Hesiod
I haven't been able to check the online Liddell-Scott of mythos, but some
OED quotes for 'myth', 'mythos', and 'mythus', and this link which refers to
the
'prehistorical' side to things, which looks as pretty illiterate to me (I
was always told that 'prehistory' means 'agraphia', illiteracy).
[PDF]
_COMPETING DISCOURSES: RETHINKING THE PREHISTORY OF MYTHOS AND LOGOS_
(http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/arethusa/v030/30.3lincoln.pdf)
muse.jhu.edu/journals/arethusa/v030/30.3lincoln.pdf
labelled mythos, Hesiod frames it differently, using the term logos instead.
8. Elsewhere logos always appears in the plural. 9. On three occasions ...
muse.jhu.edu/journals/arethusa/v030/30.3lincoln.pdf - _Similar pages_
(http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=related:muse.jhu.edu/journals/arethus
a/v030/30.3lincoln.pdf)
[< ancient Greek speech, narrative, fiction, myth, plot (further etymology
unknown). Cf. earlier _MYTHIC_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/cgi/crossref?query_type=word&queryword=mythos&first=1&max_to_show=10&single=1
&sort_type=alpha&xrefword=mythic&ps=a.) a., and later _MYTHUS_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/cgi/crossref?query_type=word&queryword=myt
hos&first=1&max_to_show=10&single=1&sort_type=alpha&xrefword=mythus&ps=n.)
n., _MYTH_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/cgi/crossref?query_type=word&queryword=mythos&first=1&max_to_show=10&single=1&sort_type=alpha&xre
fword=myth&ps=n.) n. [< classical Latin mthus or mthos (see _MYTHUS_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/cgi/crossref?query_type=word&querywor
d=myth&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&search_id=WEHO-qVubhg-4888&resul
t_place=1&xrefword=mythus&ps=n.) n.) or its etymon ancient Greek _MYTHOS_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/cgi/crossref?query_type=word&q
ueryword=myth&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&search_id=WEHO-qVubhg-488
8&result_place=1&xrefword=mythos&ps=n.) n. Cf. earlier _MYTHOS_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/cgi/crossref?query_type=word&queryword=my
th&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&search_id=WEHO-qVubhg-4888&result_pl
ace=1&xrefword=mythos&ps=n.) n., _MYTHUS_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/cgi/crossref?query_type=word&queryword=myth&first=1&max_to_show
=10&sort_type=alpha&search_id=WEHO-qVubhg-4888&result_place=1&xrefword=mythus&
ps=n.) n., and _MYTHIC_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/cgi/crossref
?query_type=word&queryword=myth&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&search_id=WEHO-qVubhg-4888&result_place=1&xrefword=mythic&ps=a.)
a. Cf.
also French mythe (1803).
N.E.D. (1908) gives only the pronunciation ( i·s) /mas/.]
1. = _MYTH_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/cgi/crossref?query_type=word&queryword=mythos&first=1&max_to_show=10&single=1&sort_type=alpha&;
xrefword=myth&ps=n.) n. 1a. Now rare.
1753 _S. SHUCKFORD_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-s2.html#s-shuckford)
Creation & Fall of Man Pref. xxi, Of this Sort
we generally find the Mythoi told of them. 1803 _G. S. FABER_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-f.html#g-s-faber)
Diss.
Mysteries Cabiri I. 324, I cannot but be persuaded that the poem of Homer at
least is a mere mythos. 1865 _J. S. MILL_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-m3.html#j-s-mill)
Auguste Comte 27 A God
concerning whom no mythos..had yet been invented. 1876 Contemp. Rev. June 113
The..mythos of Demeter and Persephoné. 1990 P. ALLARDICE Myths, Gods &
Fantasy
(BNC) 127 The Samoan people explain the mythos of Creation as follows.
[< classical Latin thus or thos myth, fable (recorded in a 2nd-cent. epitome
of a 1st-cent. grammarian; earlier as a Greek word in Varro) < ancient Greek
_MYTHOS_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/cgi/crossref?query_type=word&queryword=myth&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&result_place=1
&xrefword=mythos&ps=n.) n. Cf. earlier _MYTHOS_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/cgi/crossref?query_type=word&queryword=myth&first=1&max_t
o_show=10&sort_type=alpha&result_place=1&xrefword=mythos&ps=n.) n. and
slightly later _MYTH_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/cgi/crossref?query_type=word&queryword=myth&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&result_
place=1&xrefword=myth&ps=n.) n.
In classical Latin the word is only attested in the ablative plural ths; in
post-classical Latin the nominative singular form mythos is recorded (5th
cent.). Cf. German Mythos, Mythus (early 19th cent.).
N.E.D. (1908) gives only the pronunciation ( i·s) /mas/.]
= _MYTH_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/cgi/crossref?query_type=word&queryword=myth&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&result_place=1&;
xrefword=myth&ps=n.) n. 1a. Also: myths collectively; a mythology. Cf.
_MYTHOS_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/cgi/crossref?query_type=word&queryword=myth&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&result_place=1&xrefw
ord=mythos&ps=n.) n.
1825 _S. T. COLERIDGE_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-c3.html#s-t-coleridge)
Lit. Remains (1836) II. 335 This the most
venerable, and perhaps the most ancient, of Grecian mythi, is a
philosopheme.
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