motifs or events that occur in mythologies across cultures Essential Questions What characteristics are found in different types of myths What natural phenomena supernatural phenomena and afterlife phenomena do myths explain ID: 632865
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Slide1
Myth Parallels
the common or similar
motifs or
events that occur in mythologies across culturesSlide2
Essential Questions
•
What characteristics are found in different types of myths?
•
What natural phenomena, supernatural phenomena, and afterlife phenomena do myths explain?
•
What differences in cultures’ mythic explanations can be attributed to geographical, historic, societal or other factors?
•
What universal values can be derived from comparing different cultures’ mythologies?
•
How are concerns related to power, love, and life addressed in a variety of myths?Slide3
Keep these nearby all semester!
Creation/ Creations Myths
Floods/ Flood Myths
Underworlds/ Underworld Myths
Quests/ The Hero’s Journey
Fate and Destiny
Order vs. Chaos
Pride and Hubris
Creative Sacrifice
Rebirth/ ResurrectionSlide4
Creation
The explanation of the existence of everything– natural phenomena, values, love, humans– is present in many myths.
Creation Myths
All
mythologies have a story of how the
universe was created
.
Creation Myths always begin with nothingness (primordial abyss).Matriarchy (earth mother) to PatriarchyFirst Man/ First Woman Birth or formation of godsSlide5
Example: The Cosmic Egg
(China)
"
In the beginning there was a huge egg that held all the opposites — hot and cold, light and dark, wet and dry. Also inside was Phan Ku, a giant who was covered in hair. He had horns on his head and tusks sprang from his mouth.
Phan
Ku broke out of the egg and separated the opposites through all the world. Every day he carved out the mountains and oceans with his chisel and mallet. And every day, for 18,000 years he grew three
meters
taller. When Phan Ku died his skull became the sky, his breath, the wind, his flesh, soil, and his blood, rivers. The fleas in his hair became human beings." Slide6
Heavens and Underworlds
The
destination of human souls in the
afterlife
Often different levels for different degrees of living morality
Underworld Myths
Center around the descent to the Underworld and (sometimes) the return.Slide7
Floods
(Deluge)
A flood (perhaps partially based in reality) is sent out by a god and wipes out an entire population.
Caused by gods’ anger toward humans
Sent for
cleansing of humanity, in preparation for
a new race of humans
Chosen few survive and rebuild populationSlide8
Example: The Aztec Ark
"
When the people on Earth became wicked, the god of the rain, Tlaloc, became angry and made it rain heavily. But Tlaloc saw that there were two good people, named Tata and Nena.
So
he warned Tata and Nena that a great flood was on the way. He told them to make an ark by hollowing out a huge tree trunk. The rain got heavier and Tata and Nena worked quickly to make a hollow log. Just as the flood hit, they climbed inside and were swept away.
Eventually
the rain stopped and the land appeared again. The Aztec ark had saved Tata and Nena."Slide9
Quests
A
hero
goes on a journey and oftentimes must overcome their own weaknesses and faults in order to succeed
.
Quests can be central to a myth or a subplot
The Hero’s Journey– An archetypal series of events that the hero encounters on his/her/their journey. Slide10
Fate and Destiny
Understood in most mythologies to direct a person’s life from birth to death.
No human or god can escape fate.
Dreams as Omens
Prophecies from prophets and oracles
The Fates/ The
Norns
– incarnations of destinySlide11
Order vs. Chaos
Since the universe begins in emptiness and chaos, the need for
fairness
and
stability
is quickly realized.
Younger gods vs. Older gods
Intelligence vs. StrengthCompassion vs. Violence Slide12
Pride and Hubris
The exploration of the dangers of having too much pride (hubris).
Confidence leads to recklessnessSlide13
Creative Sacrifice
Slain deities’ bodies create
an essential part of
reality– landscapes, humans, etc. Slide14
Miraculous Beginnings
Miraculous conceptions: Pregnancy in a human when intervention
by a deity/ supernatural
occurs
Miraculous
births:
make divine status
obvious, usually when the mother is human and father is a deity.Slide15
Rebirth/ Resurrection
Death leads to a return in the same body, another’s, or (in some cases) as
an immortal