TOPIC OUTLINE

MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE

EL 110

Maria Elizabeth G. Galimba

BSED ENGLISH 2A
 Chapter 1: Overview of Mythology and
Folklore

OVERVIEW
Folklore and mythology are fascinating, important subjects. They show how those who came
before us — and who came before modern science and technology — sought to explain the
world, communicate their cultures, and teach important lessons about how to live. And folklore
and mythology are still very much with us today, connecting us to the past through language,
art, and traditions. And today we are going to unlock them through this module.

Where do we come from? What will happen to us when we die? How should we live our lives?
We still ask these questions today. In fact, the desire to ask them may be one of the things that
make us human. Societies ask these questions, but not every society answers them in the same
way. In most ancient human societies, the means of answering these important questions was
religion. One way that ancient religions tried to answer basic questions about life and what it
means to be human was through telling stories, specifically myths. A myth, in the original
sense of the word, is a story whose truth is unquestioned.

The terms myth, folklore, legend, and fairy tale are often used interchangeably, leading to the
misconception that they mean the same thing: fanciful tales. Although it's true that these terms
may refer to bodies of writing that answer some of life's basic questions or present
commentary on morality, each type presents a distinct reader experience. They've all stood the
test of time, which speaks volumes about their on-going hold on our imaginations.

But how does mythology differ than folklore?

MYTHOLOGY VS FOLKLORE
Mythology and folklore are two different things often mentioned in tandem and though in
some cases they are very similar but they aren’t exactly the same.

MYTHOLOGY FOLKLORE

a form of storytelling (most ancient form of a form of storytelling (most ancient form of
narrative) narrative)

Bigger/wider a subset/ a branch of mythology

sacred texts Small

 Deities and supernatural figures told on much smaller case(town, village, city)

Gods and Goddesses

Beginning of time, explanation of civilization

and culture

MYTHOLOGY
- consider to be sacred texts
- aims to tell us about the time before we existed
- deities and supernatural figures that is believed to be involved in our creation

At a time when our scientific knowledge was very limited, these stories provided explanations
to things that we’ve only really begun to understand. When religions have lost their following
or when they were absorbed into others, they began to be referred to as mythology. So, even
today’s most practice religions in a couple of thousand years from now could be seen as not
much more than just stories of mythology.

FOLKLORE
- differ from mythology is in time and scale
- the creatures, spirits and deities of folklore almost just exist without this need for a
religious or cosmic connection
- told on a much smaller scale (exclusive to a specific village, town, or city)

FOLK LITERATURE AS A RELEVANT HISTORICAL ARTIFACT

Literature in its very sense centers on human life and daily experiences. Many articles and texts
about it found in books, journals,researches and historical records speak of its vital role in the
shaping of life and history itself. It dated since the time and life began on Earth. From the stone
carvings of the ancient times, to the hieroglyphics or the “sacred carvings” of both Egyptians
and Mesopotamian civilization of the Sumerians to the scrolls,ancient texts and records, listing
all what transpired during the ages, literature has betrothed itself to history and its making.
But despite these hard evidences proving literature’s value and coexistence with history, many
still consider it as false, insignificant and oddly vital.

Until about 4000 BCE all literature was oral, but, beginning in the years between 4000 and
3000 BCE, writing developed both in Egypt and in the Mesopotamian civilization at Sumer.
From that time on there are records not only of practical matters such as law and business but
increasingly of written literature. As the area in which the habitual use of writing extended
over Asia, North Africa, and the Mediterranean lands and eventually over much of the whole
world, rapid growth in the composition of written literature occurred, so that in certain parts of
the world, literature in writing has to a large extent become the normal form of expression for
storytellers and poets.

And this is considered to be as an historical artifact. Below are our descriptors on how folk
literature became a relevant historical artifact:

1. Folk literature results into preservation of traditions

2. It teaches rich literary heritage among cultures in the world
3. Folk literature is a wonderful resource of illuminating traditional values and lifestyles
4. Folk literature is a repository of valuable concepts from generations to generations
5. Folk literature is a manifestation of man’s civilization

Nevertheless, during all the centuries in which the world has learned to use writing, there has
existed, side by side with the growing written record, a large and important activity carried on
by those unlettered, and those not much accustomed to reading and writing.

GENRES OF FOLK LITERATURE

There are many ways for cultures to express their beliefs through folklore. Some populations
use song and dance to tell their stories, while others tell larger-than-life stories about mythical
heroes. Here are some types of folklore that you might know.

Fables and Folktales

- Traditional stories about common people
- folktales typically involve a person or animal learning a valuable lesson by obeying – or,
in most cases, not obeying – cultural rules

Some examples of folk tales include:

1. “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” – a British story about a girl who breaks into the house of
the three bears, tries everything out, and gets scared away
2. “The White Elephant” – a folktale from Asia about how the kind white elephant is treated
kindly
3. “Anansi the Spider” – an Ashanti folk tale about the trickster, Anansi, who takes the form of
a spider and empowers people of African descent all over the world
4. “The Ant and the Grasshopper” – one of Aesop’s fables about the grasshopper who plays
all summer, the ant who prepares for the hard time ahead, and the winter that greets them
both

Fairy Tales
- include elements of fantasy stories, such as royalty and magic
- Several early collections of fairy tales include stories published by the Brothers Grimm
in Germany and Hans Christian Andersen in Denmark
- Often told to children as early introductions to social rules and expectations
Here some examples of fairy tales told around the world:
1. “Cinderella” – a fairy tale about a servant girl who becomes a princess, thanks to a little
magic and true love. Though it was first published in France by Charles Perrault, there are
many different versions of this fairy tale all over the world.
2. “The Golden-Headed Fish” – a Middle Eastern story of a hero who must find a king’s
remedy from the magical golden-headed fish
3. “The Little Mermaid” – the popular Danish story about a mermaid who gave up her fins, and
ultimately her life, for love
4. “Rapunzel” – a German fairy tale about a kidnapped child who grew up isolated in a tower,
with only her magically long hair to lift others in and out

Mythology
Many cultures explain everyday phenomena with tales of mythological figures. They range
from stories about Greek gods, French pourquoi tales, and American tall tales. You’ll typically
find legendary characters doing extraordinary things in these types of folk tales.

Examples of cultural mythology include:

1. “Prometheus Steals the Fire” – the Greek myth that depicts how the trickster Titan
Prometheus stole fire from the gods for human beings
2. “Why the Porcupine Has Quills” – a Chippewa pourquoi tale that explains how the
porcupine came to defend itself
3. “John Henry” – an American tall tale about John Henry, a freed slave, and his hammer that
beat a mechanical steel driver to give his people their land
4. “Quetzalcoatl” – the Aztec legend of the feathered serpent who created mankind in the
Mesoamerican region

Folk Songs
Cultures often put their stories from folklore to traditional music. They range from everyday
stories of common folk to heroic tales told in ballad form.

Some folk songs you might recognize include:

1. “O Danny Boy” - an Irish ballad that tells the story of Danny going off to war and returning
to a much-changed homeland
2. “Arirang” – a folk song from Korea that has been sung for over 600 years
3. “My Country, ‘Tis Of Thee” – a traditional American folk song about the history and
freedom of the country
4. “Waltzing Matilda” - a bush ballad from Australia that depicts a traveler who runs into
trouble one fateful day

Folk Dance
If you’ve ever been to a cultural festival or wedding, you’ve probably seen a folk dance. They
are traditional dances taught to each new generation in a specific culture. These dances often
require large groups of people and are performed at community gatherings and special events.
Check out these examples of folk dances from different cultures:
1. Tarantella – a fast couple dance from Southern Italy
2. Barynya – the traditional fast-paced Russian dance with both stomping and squatting steps
3. Square dance – a moderately paced American dance in which sets of couples respond to a
caller
4. Native American sun dance – a celebratory dance practiced by many Native American
tribes. The sun dance was forbidden by the American government until 1934.

Proverbs
- one or two-sentence expressions that reinforce a society’s morals and beliefs
- meant to guide behavior within a culture
- Some cultures use proverbs as adages or maxims

Common proverbs from international cultures include:

1. The night rinses what the day has soaped. – Swiss proverb about consequences
2. In a battle between elephants, the ants get squashed. – Thai proverb about oppression
3. The pen is mightier than the sword. – English proverb about communication
4. It takes a whole village to raise a child. – African proverb about community

Folk Art
Art created in a traditional medium by ordinary people is folk art. These artists are not
professionally trained, but instead, rely on traditions passed down by folk artists before them.
The items they create can be displayed as artwork or used for everyday purposes.

Here are some examples of folk art:

1. Russian nesting dolls
2. Italian mosaic pottery
3. American quilts
4. Mexican leatherwork

THEORIES RELATED TO FOLK LITERATURE

ANCIENT THEORIES
1. Rationalism refers to a logical viewpoint that regards reason as a source of intellect, sets
apart knowledge from opinion, and allows the academic scholars to observe human behavior
from a logical system of ethics in daily life. It is in this premise that one must scrutinize myths
to make sense of the statements contained in them without taking literally their references to
gods, monsters, or the supernatural.

Examples: Creation myths among various areas in the world

2. Allegorical Theory is an approach to literature in which a character, place, or event is used
to deliver a broader message about real-world issues and occurrences. It encompasses all
forms of arts that may have two or more meanings. It illustrates or conveys complex ideas and
concepts in ways that receivers can understand. Many allegories use personification of abstract
concepts. In most allegories, the action of the narrative “stands for” something not explicitly
stated.

Example: In the Iliad, Apollo attacks Poseidon. Theagenes claims that this illustrates the
fundamental physical opposition between the basic principles of fire and water, for Poseidon is
the god of the sea, and stands for water, while Apollo stands for fire.

3. Etymological Theory: concerns with how the words are created, its origin and how the
meaning of words has changed over the course of history. While it is widely known that the
Greek and Latin tongues have contributed many words to the English language, through
etymological study it is also clear that there are hundreds of words in our vocabulary derived
specifically from myths of gods and heroes.

Example: The name of the goddess Aphrodite was take from the Greek word apros which
means “sea foam” as this was her origin by birth

4. Euhemerism is a device used to interpret literature, especially mythology, in which

mythological accounts are believed to have originated from real historical events or
personages. This forms an idea that a real person can become a deity or a supernatural
immortal being through the constant telling and re-telling of their stories that leads to the
distortion of the actual story. The method was named after the Greek mythographer (compiler
of myths) Euhemerus.

Examples: Certain gods were originally great people venerated because of their benefactions
to humankind (like making temples or being their
oracles)

MODERN THEORIES
1. Naturalism is a literary movement that believes the value of the roles of family, social
conditions, and environment in shaping human character. It concludes that natural forces
predetermine a character’s decisions, making him/her act in a particular way. It is in this
premise that naturalistic writers write stories based on the idea that the environment
determines and governs human character

Example: Hindu deity Rahu is known for causing eclipses. In Hindu mythology, Rahu is known
for swallowing the sun and causing eclipses.
2. Ritualism is an observance of ritual in public worship or ritual practices grounded on the
value of the symbolism and a belief in the practical importance of established rites as channels
of spiritual grace.

Among the many theories of myth and many theories of ritual, the myth and ritual theory is
distinctive in connecting myths to rituals. The myth and ritual, or myth-ritualist, theory
maintains that myths and rituals operate together. The theory claims not that myths and rituals
happen to go hand in hand but that they must. In its most uncompromising form, the theory
contends that myths and rituals cannot exist without each other. In a milder form, the theory
asserts that myths and rituals originally exist together but may subsequently go their separate
ways. In a still milder form of the theory, myths and rituals can arise separately but
subsequently coalesce.

Example: Stories similar to Egyptian way of preparing the voyage of the dead towards Anubis,
god of the underworld through a rigorous manner.

3. Diffusion refers to the spread of a cultural item from its place of origin to other places (Titiev
1959:446). A more expanded definition depicts diffusion as the process by which discrete
culture traits are transferred from one society to another, through migration, trade, war, or
other contact (Winthrop 1991:82).

Examples: They are variations upon the rendition of creation myths coming from the Greeks,
Roman, Norse and many more.

4. Evolutionism
• Evolutionary theory investigates interactions between “human nature” and the forms of
cultural imagination, including literature and its oral antecedents.
• By “human nature,” they mean a pan-human, genetically transmitted set of dispositions:
motives, emotions, features of personality, and forms of cognition.
• They posit that literary text can be analyzed at four levels:
➢ as a manifestation of a universal human nature;
➢ as a special instance within a specific cultural formation that organizes the elements of
human nature into shared imaginative constructs (conventions, beliefs, myths, and
traditions);
➢ as the work of an individual author, whose identity has been shaped by some unique
combination of inherited characteristics and historical circumstances; and
➢ as a specific imaginative construct that reflects cultural influences but also displays
original creative power.

As nouns the difference between evolutionism and diffusionism is that evolutionism is

(countable) any of several theories that explain the evolution of systems or organisms while
diffusionism is the belief that changes in one culture are caused by diffusion of ideas from
another, especially the west. Concept of evolutionism describe how societies and culture
change over time.

5. Freudian this criticism uses the psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud to interpret a work
in terms of the known psychological conflicts of its author or, conversely, to construct the
author’s psychic life from unconscious revelations in his work. It is fundamentally concerned
with the articulation of sexuality in language. It has moved through three main emphases in its
pursuit of the “literary unconscious” — on the author (and its corollary character), on the
reader and on the text. It started with Freud’s analysis of the literary text as a “symptom of the
artist”, where the relationship between the author and the text is analogous to dreamers and
their dreams. Freud was concerned with the unconscious mind and its connection to our
suppressed thoughts, disturbing memories, and primal human drives such as sex and
aggression.

According to his theories, the human psyche is divided into the id, the ego and the super ego.
The id is connected to our unconscious drives and the ego is linked to our conscious
experiences. Lastly, the super ego mediates our behavior by balancing the impulses of the id
and the ego. Moreover, he is specifically known for theorizing the Oedipus Complex.

Example: Freud used Oedipus' myth in his work of Interpretation of Dreams, he justified that by
saying that myth gives vent to the repressed fears of humankind. We feast on Oedipus' crime
because he represents our suppressed feelings, desires, and we feel relief when he is punished
because of our feeling of guilt.

6. Jungian Archetypes Theory (Carl Jung) an archetype is defined as “a very typical example
of a certain person or thing” or “a recurrent symbol or motif in literature, art, or mythology.”
Jung believed that myths and dreams were expressions of the collective unconscious, in that
they express core ideas that are part of the human species as a whole. In other words, myths
express wisdom that has been encoded in all humans, perhaps by means of evolution or
through some spiritual process. For Jungians, this common origin in the collective unconscious
explains why myths from societies at the opposite ends of the earth can be strikingly similar. A
Jungian analysis of classical mythology would claim that the main gods and goddesses’
express archetypes that are common to human thinking everywhere.

Jung contested Freud’s ideas – he acknowledged the unconscious mind but placed more
emphasis on an individual’s lived experiences and future aspirations. He departs from Freudian
theory by conceptualizing the idea of a collective consciousness. Jung justified human behavior
by exploring the sense of connectedness that we feel regarding our emotions and actions.
Jung’s ideas were influenced by his extensive knowledge regarding philosophy, mythology and
religion.

Example: Out of Chaos, the earth (Gaia) emerged and gave birth to the Sky
(Uranus), and together they created their progeny.
7. Structuralism
A movement of thought based primarily on the linguistic theories of Ferdinand de Saussure,
structuralism considered language as a system of signs and signification, the elements of
which are understandable only in relation to each other and to the system. In literary theory,
structuralism challenged the belief that a work of literature reflected a given reality; instead, a
text was constituted of linguistic conventions and situated among other texts. Structuralist
critics analyzed material by examining underlying structures, such as characterization or plot,
and attempted to show how these patterns were universal and could thus be used to develop
general conclusions about both individual works and the systems from which they emerged. It
is concerned with the analysis of language, culture, and society. As well as the method of
transmitting an idea and how meaning is created, rather than the idea itself.

“Structuralism” and “Formalism” devoted their attention to matters of literary form (i.e.
structure) rather than social or historical content; and that both bodies of thought were
intended to put the study of literature on a scientific, objective basis. “Structuralism” relied
initially on the ideas of the Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure. Like Plato, Saussure
regarded the signifier (words, marks, symbols) as arbitrary and unrelated to the concept, the
signified, to which it referred. Within the way a particular society uses language and signs,
meaning was constituted by a system of “differences” between units of the language.
Particular meanings were of less interest than the underlying structures of signification that
made meaning itself possible, often expressed as an emphasis on “langue” rather than
“parole.” “Structuralism” was to be a metalanguage, a language about languages, used to
decode actual languages, or systems of signification.

8. Historical Criticism Theory is the historical approach to literary criticism. It involves looking
beyond the literature at the broader historical and cultural events occurring during the time the
piece was written. An understanding of the world the author lived in (events, ideologies,
culture, lifestyle etc.) allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the work. It further
believes that the closest knowledge of a thing lay in the study of its origins; outlined a concept
of poetic logic by which one could grasp imaginatively the myths, customs, and fables of
primitive cultures; and presented a theory of cultural development.

Example: Sophocles' trilogy of plays surrounding the myth of Oedipus would be one example