research paper on greek mythology

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• > Journals
• > The Journal of Hellenic Studies
• > Volume 92
• > Greek Mythology: Some New Perspectives

Article contents

Greek mythology: some new perspectives.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

A new approach to the ancient world is only too often a wrong approach, unless it is based on some concrete discovery. But I think it fair to talk of new perspectives , at least, in the study of Greek mythology. Certainly the old and familiar ones are no longer adequate. Indeed it is surprising, in the light of fresh intuitions about society, literacy, the pre-Homeric world, and relations with the ancient Near East, that myth—one of the most pervasive aspects of Greek culture—has been left in its old and rather cobwebby pigeon-hole. Rose's simple paraphrases are accepted as adequate for students; Nilsson's sparse pages in his history of religion are rightly respected, though some of them are too simple; the Murray-Cook-Harrison-Cornford reconstruction of religion, ritual and myth is regarded as a little excessive, but perhaps not too far out; Kerényi and Eliade are roughly tolerated, if not widely read by Classicists, and their books are ordered in profusion for the library; the psychological side is adequately taken care of, or so it is supposed, by what is left from Freud and Jung, with Cassirer as sufficient authority for the sources of mythical imagination.

Many of these critics had their moments of brilliant insight, but most were misleading in their theories taken as a whole. We can now accept that many myths have ritual counterparts, and some have ritual origins, without having to adopt Cornford's belief, developed after Harrison, Frazer and Robertson Smith, that all myths are such.

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1 Cornford , 's views are most clearly exemplified in ‘A ritual basis for Hesiod's Theogony’ in The Unwritten Philosophy ( Cambridge , 1950 ) 95 ff Google Scholar .

2 Malinowski , B. : see especially Myth in Primitive Psychology ( 1926 ) Google Scholar , reprinted in Redfield , R. (ed.), Magic, Science and Religion ( Boston , 1948 , paperback ed. Doubleday-Anchor , no. A 23) Google Scholar ; Eliade , M. : see e.g. The Myth of the Eternal Return ( London , 1954 ) Google Scholar ; Cassirer , E. : see The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms vol. ii ( New Haven , 1957 ) Google Scholar .

3 Radcliffe-Brown , A. R. , e.g. Structure and Function in Primitive Society ( London , 1952 ) 178 ff. Google Scholar , and cf. The Andaman Islanders (Cambridge, 1922) ch. 6, esp. 397 ff.

4 Cf. e.g. Patterns in Comparative Religion (London, 1958) ch. 1.

5 It may be that ‘traditional tale’ is as far as one can reasonably go in defining the common quality of everything that tends to be classified as a myth (excluding specialised applications like ‘falsehood’). Not all traditional tales, of course, are myths, even in this broad sense; for example tales that are clearly historical in essence may become traditional and yet have none of the other qualities that belong to one or another type of myths. The problem of definition (which also includes the question of the relation of myths to folktales) is an awkward one; it is necessary to remain aware of it, yet it is also legitimate to by-pass it to some extent, at least until the special properties of commonly accepted instances have been further explored.

6 Boas , F. , Tsimshian Mythology ( Washington , D.C., 1916 ) 879 ff. Google Scholar ; Benedict , R. , Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences xi ( 1933 ) 179 Google Scholar .

7 Cf. The Making of Homeric Verse ( Oxford , 1971 ), ed. Parry , Adam , lii ff. Google Scholar ; and as one specific instance of such discussion see Parry , A. , Yale Classical Studies xx ( 1966 ) 177 ff. Google Scholar , and Kirk , G. S. , Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society n.s. xvi ( 1970 ) 48 ff Google Scholar .

8 E.g. Fontenrose , Joseph , The Ritual Theory of Myth ( Berkeley , 1966 ) Google Scholar .

9 Lévi-Strauss , C. , Structural Anthropology ( London , 1963 ) 213 ff. Google Scholar ; Leach , E. R. , Lévi-Strauss ( London , Fontana Books , 1970 ) 68 ff Google Scholar .

10 Great flood: cf. ANET 2 (= Ancient Near Eastern Texts , ed. Pritchard , J. B. , 2nd ed. , Princeton , 1955 ) 42 –4 (Sumerian) Google Scholar ; ibid. 93–5, also Lambert , W. G. and Millard , A. R. , Atra-hasīs ( Oxford , 1969 ) 67 ff Google Scholar . (Akkadian). In Greek contexts the flood is variously associated with Ogygus, Deucalion, Lycaon.

11 Iliad i 5; on the Dios boule cf. schol. A Vind 61 and fr. 1 of the Cypria , most conveniently in Homer, OCT vol. v, pp. 117 f.

12 Cf. Farnell , L. R. , Greek Hero Cults and Ideas of Immortality ( Oxford , 1921 ) esp. pp. 19 Google Scholar ff.

13 Brief references for what follows in the main text: Shukallituda, cf. Kramer , S. N. , Mythologies of the Ancient World ( Garden City, N.Y. , 1961 Google Scholar ; Doubleday Anchor no. A 229) 117 f.; Geriguiaguiatugo, Lévi-Strauss , C. , Le Cru et le cuit ( Paris , 1964 ) 43 Google Scholar ff., cf. Kirk , G. S. , Myth, its Meaning and Functions ( Cambridge and Berkeley , 1970 ) 64 f. Google Scholar ; Winnebago trickster, cf. Radin , P. , The Trickster ( London , 1956 ) 38 Google Scholar f.; Egyptians: cf. Wilson , J. A. in Frankfort , Frankfort, Wilson , and Jacobsen , , Before Philosophy ( Penguin Books , 1949 ) 54 –6 Google Scholar ; Kumarbi , , ANET 2 ( cf. n. 10 above), 120 Google Scholar f., cf. Kirk , , Myth (above) 214 –19 Google Scholar ; Loki, cf. Turville-Petrie , E. O. G. , Myth and Religion of the North ( London , 1964 ) ch. 5 Google Scholar ; Zuni, cf. Benedict , R. , Zuni Mythology ( New York , 1935 ) Google Scholar passim ; Pitjandjara, cf. Mountford , C. P. , Ayers Rock ( Sydney , 1965 ) Google Scholar passim .

14 Cf. Walcot , P. , Hesiod and the Near East ( Cardiff , 1966 ) chs. i and ii Google Scholar .

15 Hesiod , , Theogony 295 Google Scholar ff. (Echidna), cf. 821 ff. (Typhoeus); 665 ff. (Titans and 100-handed giants).

16 Inanna's descent: ANET 2 , 52–7; Enkidu: ibid. , 97–9 (i.e. Epic of Gilgamesh, tablet XII).

17 Adapa: ANET 2 , 101–3; cf. Kirk , , Myth , 122 –5, 130 f Google Scholar .

18 Hesiod , , Works and Days 131 Google Scholar f. (silver race), 181 (grey-headed babies).

19 Rose , H. J. , A Handbook of Greek Mythology ( London , 1953 ) 14 Google Scholar .

20 Heraclitus fr. 15 Diels-Kranz ( cf. Kirk-Raven , , The Presocratic Philosophers [ Cambridge , 1963 etc.] 211 f. Google Scholar ): ‘If it were not for Dionysus that they made the procession and sang the hymn to the shameful parts, the deed would be most shameless …’.

21 Benedict , R. , Patterns of Culture ( Boston , 1934 etc.) 123 –6 Google Scholar .

22 Etana: ANET 2 , 114–18.

23 Cf. Kirk , , Myth 152 Google Scholar ff., esp. 170 f.; Vidal-Naquet , P. , Annales v ( 1970 ) 1285 –7 Google Scholar .

24 The possibility that the oak and cloth are also oriental in derivation is re-raised by West , M. L. , Early Greek Philosophy and the Orient ( Oxford , 1971 ) 52 – 60 Google Scholar ; his arguments at this point are far from decisive.

25 This article is a substantially unchanged version of a talk given to the Triennial Conference of Classical Societies in Cambridge in July 1971.

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• DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/629974

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The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Mythography

R. Scott Smith is Professor of Classics at the University of New Hampshire, where he has taught since 2000. His major field of study is ancient myth and mythography, with special focus on the intersection of mythography, space, and geography. He is currently co-director of a digital database and map of Greek myth, MANTO: https://manto.unh.edu. In addition, he is interested in how mythography operates in scholia and commentaries and is undertaking a student-supported project to translate mythographical narratives in the Homeric scholia. He also produces the podcast, The Greek Myth Files .

Stephen M. Trzaskoma is currently Dean of the College of Arts & Letters at California State University Los Angeles. Formerly, he served as Professor of Classics and Director of the Center for the Humanities at the University of New Hampshire. His two primary research areas are Greek prose fiction and ancient mythography, and he has published numerous studies in these areas, as well as translated key primary sources.

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This volume brings together 40 chapters penned by specialists that treat various aspects of Greek and Roman mythographical writings—works that organize or interpret myths—and their relationship to other aspects of ancient intellectual and cultural development. An introduction by the editors provides a survey of mythography in Greece and Rome, an overview of the contents of the book, and a discussion of existing and emerging trends in interpretation of mythography. Five sections contain chapters that analyze the development of mythography, individual mythographers and works, intersections with other elements of ancient culture, mythography and the visual arts, and the continuation and reception of mythography by Christian writers in later antiquity, the medieval period, and the Renaissance. Each chapter seeks both to give an up-to-date survey of the status of research and to outline areas for innovative future research. Altogether, these contributions make up the first comprehensive treatment of the phenomenon of Greek and Roman mythography.

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A Brief History of the Study of Greek Mythology

Note that a completely updated version of this article has now been published in J.N. Bremmer, The World of Greek Religion and Mythology (Tuebingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019) 511-531.

Related Papers

Jordi Pàmias

Jordi Pàmias works on [a] large time scale, offering a history of the reception of Greek myth from the beginning up to the nineteenth century, often, however, "zooming in" on particular writers. Pàmias starts, in fact, with the earliest Greek literature and shows how internal evidence in Homer points to already ongoing reception. There was, in short, Greek myth before the Greek myth that we know, and it was being reworked from the beginning [...] (from Lowell Edmunds' Introduction).

R. von Haehling (ed.), Griechische Mythologie und Frühchristentum, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2005, 21-43. Note that this article has been updated and revised in my The World of Greek Religion and Mythology (Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019) 427-445

Jan N . Bremmer

Gabrielle Bonheur

This is the original English version of this article, which has now appeared in a somewhat abbreviated, French version in C.Calame and P. Ellinger (eds), Du récit au rituel par la forme esthétique. Poèmes, images et pragmatique cultuelle en Grèce ancienne, Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2017, 271-304

The World of Greek Religion and Mythology = Collected Essays II, published by Mohr Siebeck: https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/en/book/the-world-of-greek-religion-and-mythology-9783161544514?no_cache=1&tx_sgpublisher_pi1%5Bbacklink%5D=1

From the publisher: In this wide-ranging work on Greek religion and mythology, Jan N. Bremmer brings together his stimulating and innovative articles, which have all been updated and revised where necessary. In three thematic sections, he analyses central aspects of Greek religion, beginning with the gods and heroes and paying special attention to the unity of the divine nature and the emergence of the category 'hero'. The second section begins with a discussion of the nature of polis religion, continues with various facets, such as seers, secrecy and the soul, and concludes with the influence of the Ancient Near East. The third section studies human sacrifice and offers the most recent analysis of the ideal animal sacrifice, combining literature, epigraphy, iconography, and zooarchaeology. Regarding human sacrifice, it concentrates on the famous cases of Iphigeneia and the werewolves of Mount Lykaion. The fourth and final section investigates key elements of Greek mythology, such as the definition of myth and its relationship to ritual, and ends with a brief history of the study of Greek mythology. The multi-disciplinary approach and rich footnotes make this work a must for anybody interested in Greek religion and mythology.

ubaldo lugli

In search of a scientifically useful minimal definition of the term "myth", this article traces the development of the concept from the cultural environment of classical Greece, in which it was born, until its modern use in the framework of socio-anthropological studies. Of all the terms of the vocabulary of religious anthropology "myth'' is certainly the most used one. Unfortunately, its wide-spread use is directly proportional to its indeterminateness. Moreover, it regards not only the everyday lexis (what is exactly intended, when, for instance, people call an actor or a soccer player "mythic"?), but also academic communications: various authors can intend by this concept diametrically opposed things.

S.M. Trzaskoma and R.S. Smith (eds), Writing Myth: Mythography in the Ancient World, Peeters: Leuven, 2013, 55-73

in S. des Bouvrie (ed.), Myth and Symbol I, Athens: The Norwegian Institute, 2002, 135-52

Laura Feldt (ed.), Wilderness Mythologies, Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 2012, pp. 25-53, but note that the article has been updated and reprinted in my Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome (Tuebingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2021) 45-63

Ulrike Kenens

Comparison of the versions of Ps.-Apollodorus, his main source Pherecydes, Byzantine scholars, and the D-scholia to Homer makes clear the distinct agendas and methods, including selectivity and contaminatio , used by mythographers of different periods.

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RELATED PAPERS

A. Bernabé et al. (eds), Redefining Dionysos, Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 2013, 4-22. Note that the article has been reprinted and updated in my The World of Greek Religion and Mythology (Tuebingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019) 29-45

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