Mythologies of the Ancient World [antikvár]

Introduction The mythologies of the ancient world consist largely of tales of gods and heroes: their birth and death, loves and hates, spites and intrigues, victories and defeats, acts of creation and destruction. Not a few of the ancient myths are concerned with the creation and organization of the universe, the fashioning of man, and the establishment of civilization. In spite of certain basic similarities of theme, the ancient mj^ologies differ widely in the choice and treatment of the individual plots and motifs, in accordance with the history and culture, the character and temper of the people which produced them. Modem students of mythology disagree radically in their views of the nature, scope, and significance of the ancient myths. There are those who look upon them as trivial, superstitious fairy tales of litde intellectual and spiritual import—the infantile products of undisciplined imagination and capricious fantasy. Diametrically opposed to them are scholars who believe that the myths of the ancients represent one of the most profound achievements of the human spirit, the inspired creation of gifted and unspoiled mythopoeic minds, uncontaminated by the current scientific approach and analytic mentality, and therefore open and prone to profound cosmic insights which are veiled to modem thinking man with his inhibiting definitions and impassive, soulless logic. There are whole schools of modem mj^ologists who argue that ancient myth is closely bound to rite and ritual;