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3205: The Triumph of Civilization, 1793. Painting by Jacques Réattu 1760-1833. Hamburger Kunsthalle.
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The Greek myths, in their unknown beginnings,
are believed to have been acquired and transmitted
by oral tradition. The cause that originated the
Greek myths is story-telling. If there have been
other causes for telling those particular tales
different from what derives from mere
story-telling, any conclusive evidence of it is
lost in the eyes of modern scholarship or
considered as too partial or only verifiable in a
few cases.
Oral tradition may be said to be always a part
of the cultural life of any community. One
important feature of oral tradition is that it is
not fixed, as are literary works, a circumstance
that favors variations concerning both style and
content. Oral tradition must be distinguished from
mere oral communication, but as non-fixed or
partially fixed forms of communication appear in
the technological era, as most recently the
Internet, the relation between both has to be
reexamined by those who are qualified.
The myths are generally believed, at least since
the studies of the Swedish scholar Martin Nilsson
(1874-1967), to have been acquired during the
Mycenaean age being transmitted by poets and
minstrels in a monarchic and probably militaristic
society in which local kings were vassals of an
overlord. Nilsson's assumption in the early 1930s
that the Mycenaeans were Greeks was later confirmed
when the architect Michael Ventris deciphered the
Linear B tablets in 1952 a few years before his
death. Linear B is a script developed from the
Minoan Linear A (still undeciphered), used by the
Mycenaeans between ca. 1500 BC and 1100 BC, a
period which is also known as Late Helladic.
Important mythical tales are located in places
like Mycenae,
Tiryns,
Pylos or
Thebes, and it has been
remarked that these were also Mycenaean centers as
archaeological excavations have shown. Following
mythical chronology it may be said that the Greek
historical legends extend from ca. 1900 BC to ca.
1000 BC (the Roman extension of the myths overlaps
the Greek and may be said to cover the period from
ca. 1200 BC to 550 BC). From mythical chronology
nothing conclusive emerges, but its comparison with
historical dates is never out of place. Here are a
few examples: 1900 BC, the earliest date in the
Greek legends, is the date in which archaeology has
dated the building of the first Cretan palaces,
belonging to Minoan civilization. The destructions
of Thera and of Minoan and Cycladic sites
(1500-1450 BC) correspond in mythical chronology to
the myth of the Flood in
the age of Deucalion.
The fall of Cnossos in 1400 BC and the expansion of
Mycenaean power coincides with the myths of the
foundation of Mycenae by
Perseus and of Thebes by
Cadmus, and with a
certain migration or invasion from the Peloponnesus
to Crete recorded by the
traveller Pausanias, which in mythical chronology
corresponds to ca. 1400 BC.
The end of Mycenaean civilization is illustrated
by the destruction of the Mycenaean citadels in the
decades around 1200 BC. These are also the times of
the destruction of Troy and
the collapse of the Hittite empire.
After the destruction of Mycenaean civilization,
the iron age caught Greece in a period of decay
known as sub-Mycenaean or Proto-geometric, which
lasted from ca. 1100 BC until the beginning of the
Geometric period little before 800 BC. During the
Geometric period the Olympian games were
instituted, according to tradition in 776 BC. By
this time the Greek alphabet had been possibly in
use for approximately 200 years, having been
derived from Phoenician sources.
Around 700 BC, the myths enter the literate era
with the works of Homer and Hesiod, flourishing for
a few centuries after them through the works of
poets like Pindar (518-438 BC) and dramatists like
Aeschylus (525-456 BC), Sophocles (495-406 BC) and
Euripides (485-406 BC), and later through Roman
poets as Ovid (43 BC-AD 17) and Virgil (70-19 BC).
By the end of the Roman times, from the 4th century
to the 6th century AD, literary works were still
being created, as those by Quintus Smyrnaeus,
Nonnus, Tryphiodorus or Colluthus.
The poet was, particularly in the first years of
the literate era, the highest authority, but
already in classical times his position had
changed:
"I do not
believe that the gods indulge in unholy unions; and
as for putting bonds on hands, I have never thought
that worthy of belief, nor will I now be so
persuaded, nor again that one god is naturally lord
and master of another. For the deity, if he be
really such, has no wants; these are miserable
tales of the poets." (Heracles to Theseus. Euripides, Heracles 1340).
In addition to the poets the myths were also
told, collected or commented by historians and
compilers like Herodotus (484-430 BC), Diodorus
Siculus (80 BC - 20 BC), or Dionysius of
Halicarnassus (60 BC - AD 7), by the geographer
Strabo (64 BC -AD 25), the traveller Pausanias (fl.
ca. AD 150), the philosopher Plato (427-347 BC), a
number of scholiasts, and also by philologists and
mythographers, at least since the times of
Theagenes of Rhegium (fl. c. 525 BC) or Metrodorus
of Lampsacus (5th century BC). The typical
mythographers may be exemplified with the names of
Apollodorus (fl. ca. AD 100) and Hyginus (fl. ca.
AD 200), but many other names could be mentioned as
contributing to the myths in various forms, as some
works of Plutarch (AD 45-120), the collection of
Antoninus Liberalis (fl. ca. AD 100), or a certain
story by Lucius Apuleius (fl. ca. AD 160).
The work of mythographers, as we shall soon see, continued during the Middle Ages, but about two hundred years before the collapse of Rome the myths went through the historical accident of being banished. The persecution against the myths that were associated with the Olympian religion may be traced back at least to the activities of the Roman citizen St. Paul, who in Ephesus promoted or was involved in the notorious ritual of the burning of the books (Acts 19:19). In spite of recurrent periods of retaliation from the part of the Roman authorities (the same Paul was put to death), starting with the Emperor Nero and the burning of the bodies in AD 64, the new religion grew stronger in the course of the following two centuries, and by the time Constantine, called the Great (AD 285-337) was proclaimed emperor, the conflict was ended through the Edict of Milan in AD 313 and the new faith advanced ever since. The restoration of the Olympian religion attempted in AD 361-3 by Emperor Julian, called the Apostate, who proclaimed toleration for all religions while calling the Christians Galilaeans, did not survive the emperor himself, who was mortally wounded at the age of 31 in the course of an unlucky military campaign against the Persians. He was succeeded by Jovian, a Christian who took part in the same military adventure and was proclaimed emperor by the army. Jovian's reign was short but his successors were also Christians.
Yet the persecution was never complete, for the
Church, not having a literary tradition of its own,
adopted those of the Greek and Roman worlds. So
persecution was soon limited to refutation,
directed to avert the dangers of polytheism, or
even worse dangers, since the Olympian gods were
depicted not always as fantasies or dead gods, but
as real living demons.
The survival of the myths during the Middle Ages
in the East is probably best illustrated by the
works of the Byzantine mythographers Johannnes
Tzetzes and Eustathius (both lived in the 12th
century AD). Tzetzes is known for, among many other
works, his commentaries on Homer, his reviews of
Greek literature, his scholia and allegorical
interpretations. Eustathius, who is regarded as a
saint by the Orthodox Church, wrote, besides
commentaries on Pindar and Homer, many notes on
mythology and other subjects, being considered as a
representative of the allegorical interpretation of
the myths as well. The allegorical theories, which
assume that the myths conceal deeper meanings, are
among the most ancient and influential. The
allegorist sees the myth as disguising physical,
historical or philosophical meanings, and regards
these as the real raison d'être of the myth.
An important allegorist in the late 5th century BC
was Metrodorus of Lampsacus (not the epicurean, who
comes later), who, after studying Homer,
allegorised both gods and humans and is reported to
have said that
Agamemnon was the
Aether, Achilles the
sun, Helen the earth,
Paris the air,
Hector the moon,
Demeter the liver,
Dionysus the spleen,
and Apollo the bile.
Fabius Planciades Fulgentius (ca. AD 467-532),
known as the Mythographus, is considered to have
been particularly influential during the Middle
Ages, when his Mitologiarum libri tres was
widely read. According to Ruiz de Elvira, modern
psychoanalysis and structuralism do not differ
essentially from Fulgentius' allegorism.
In the west, however, the decadence of education
followed the barbarian irruption, and by the 7th
century AD, the cultural tradition had collapsed.
But neither cultural tradition nor the worshipping
of the Olympian gods ever disappeared completely,
as it has been recorded in the France of the 12th
century, specially in Orléans and Chartres,
where the classics were extensively studied, pagan
festivals were still held, and reliefs depicting
mythological motives were added to the cathedral at
Chartres, a by no means exceptional circumstance,
for there are multiple examples of the use of
mythological motives in Christian temples, and even
monks are known to have daily washed their faces in
a charming fountain decorated with the faces of
approximately twenty personages belonging to the
Olympian pantheon. These anecdotes suggest that
dogma cannot but soften with time and probably the
reason why oblivion is regarded not just as the
only true forgiveness but also as the only true
revenge lies in the observation that the enemy is
sometimes effectively kept alive when fought
against.
In addition, during the Middle Ages, the myths
survived through the studies motivated by the
theories of interpretation. One of them,
euhemerism, which had already seen the light in
antiquity, was now used as a proof against the
myths and the Olympian religion, for those who
originally were men had been turned into gods by
the ignorance and idolatry of the pagans, as that
theory proved. So the representatives of the
Church, on one side could say that the gods were
demons, thereby confirming their existence in a
certain dimension, and on the other side they could
argue, supported by euhemerism, that the Olympian
gods had originally been men, thereby confirming
their existence in history. This is an example of
what may be called a helpful enemy, and these
misdirected efforts were carried out, for example,
by Isidore, bishop of Seville and today a saint,
who lived around AD 600 and wrote an extensive work
called Origins. Euhemerism derives its name from
Euhemerus (fl. 300 BC), who is known for his tour
de force of turning gods into men, so that
Uranus,
Cronos and
Zeus became kings of a
remote past. Euhemerus became highly appreciated in
the Christian ecclesiastical milieu for having
stripped the gods of their divine nature, and for
that extraordinary prowess he was counted among
those "who lived sensible
lives and discerned more acutely" (Clement of Alexandria, ca. AD 150-211, Exhortation
to the Greeks 2.20P). Euhemerus claimed to have found the history of the gods written in a golden column in the island of Panchaea in the Indian Ocean.
Now that thanks to Euhemerus and his Christian
followers the gods became men, extensive
genealogies were elaborated paralleling those of
the pagans with those of the people of God, and in
these the mythical personages found a respectable
abode, for they were acknowledged as, for example,
precursors of arts and crafts. This is one reason
why students continued through the Middle Ages to
be burdened with mythology. And as monarchies are
highly dependent on genealogy, the temporal powers
of those times discovered their family links with
ancient heroes or invented new ones, thereby
improving the quality of their lineage. Also
Scandinavian mythology was made dependent on the
Greek by Snorre Sturlasson (AD 1179-1241) who, in
retrieving the Scandinavian tales in his
Edda
Songs, transforms the otherwise unknown
grandson of King Priamus
of Troy, whom he called
Tror into the god Tor. Similarly in a Victorian
time chart from 1890 the god Odin is described as
the first to have settled Scandinavia in 70 BC.
Euhemerism was adapted and diffused by Ennius
(239-169 BC) and by Lactantius (AD 240-320), a
Christian apologist.
Theories of interpretation seem to have always
interested the Church as instruments of refutation
and just as euhemerism was appreciated for the
possibility it offered for depriving the Olympian
gods of their divinity, allegorism was held in
esteem for its capacity to enrich Christian
morality. The symbols and allegories contained in
the myths interested, among others, John of
Salisbury (ca. AD 1110-1180), English bishop of
Chartres, philosopher and theologist, who firmly
believed that there were hidden teachings of high
moral value in the myths. By the 14th century this
process led to the rehabilitation of the Roman poet
Publius Ovidius Naso as a man versed in ethics and
even theology, and the Christians started to read
his
Metamorphoses
as the devil reads the Bible, that is, finding
in Ovid's poetry the truths that confirmed their
moral values.
Also astrology, which after the death of
Alexander the Great was introduced from Mesopotamia
and Egypt into the Greek world and later reached a
golden period in imperial Rome, contributed to the
preservation of the myths during the Middle Ages,
when the influence of the stars became more firmly
related to the course of history, the planets to
the gods, and the gods to symbols of moral virtue.
Despite the popularity that astrology reached in
later times, the idea of the divinity of celestial
bodies as opposed to the idea of stones wandering
in the sky was far from unfamiliar in classical
Greece:
"The situation
has been entirely reversed since the days when
thinkers thought of the stars as without souls. Yet
even then they were object of admiration, and the
conviction which is now actually held was suspected
by those who embarked on exactness: that in no way
could the stars as soulless things keep so
precisely to marvellous calculations, if they did
not possess intelligence. Some even then were bold
enough to venture this very proposition and they
say that it was reason that had ordained everything
in the sky. But these very men were deceived about
the nature of the soul, namely that it is older
than the bodies; they imagined it as younger and
thus so to speak ruined everything, and most of all
themselves." (Plato. Laws 967b et seq.).
Towards the end of the Middle Ages, the study of
the myths detached themselves from theology, and
mythological compilations were published like the
Liber of Albricus and the massive work
written by the author of
Decamerone,
Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-75), entitled
Genealogia Deorum, published in 1473,
reprinted several times, and relatively soon (1581)
translated into Italian, less than thirty years
after the first release of the Library of
Apollodorus (which had been used by the Byzantines)
in Greek and Latin in 1555. In 1548 appeared as
well the compilation called De Deis Gentium
Varia et Multiplex Historia, written by Lilio
Gregorio Giraldi, which also contributed to the
autonomy of the myths both in relation to theology
and interpretation. These written works together
with those that were created by the visual arts and
crafts, transformed 16th century Italy into a
landscape populated by the gods and heroes of
Greece and Rome: Renaissance was the word.
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