1. humanities 101
Week 4: Mythology

2. Explaining the Universe
Human beings have always had the desire to understand how the world works.
Mythology was a way to explain how universe was made. Myths were used to express gratitude to the gods and teach morals to the youth.

3. Humanities connection
A lot of what we study in humanities has its roots in mythology.
Opera, Theatre, Literature, History, & Art
Archetypes

4. Archetypes in Mythology
Archetypes are models that exist in the universe, they show a connection and organization for the world.
creation, birth, revenge, passion, death, afterlife
What are some archetypes you remember from childhood stories?

5. The Hero
Arguably the biggest archetype because it is found in almost every culture.
Monomyth - the idea that hero is ubiquitous.
Heroes strive for arete or personal excellence. How can this be a good and a bad thing?

6. Making common ground Birth of Hero The Journey Hero’s Recognition
Limited Power

7. Importance of Heroes
Every culture seems to possess a need for heroes … what exactly do heroes do for society?
The “Special” Someone Syndrome
Heroes are not gods but rather demigods!

8. DeMystifying the Myth
Archetypes exist beyond the role of the hero … often used as didactic or heuristic tools.
Language, Numbers, Shapes, Adventures, Time & Space.

9. The Power of Words “Open Locks Whoever Knocks” Idiomatic Expressions
Language creates a cultural connection for the humanist.

10. The Power of numbers There is a magical quality in numbers.
24 hours, 60 minutes, 7 days, 12 months.
The Golden Ration = 1.618
Dante’s Divine Comedy

11. Stonehenge

12. Ying and Yang

14. The Epic Journey
In most of the epic journey’s the hero has to embark on an adventure, in which he gains knowledge about the world or self-discovery.
Odysseus
Aeneus
Paradise Lot

15. Where do we come from?
The nature of the universe is something puzzled ancient civilizations?
How do we explain certain phenomena?
If man is rational, then the universe should be!

16. Let there be light!
Many cultures including the West associated a divine presence as the creator of the universe!
How could something come from nothing? Myth making helped human beings explain these puzzling facts!

17. Why did that happen? Demeter and Persephone Pandora’s Box
Modern Scientists - Entropy
Philosophers - Mysteries
Seasons, Disasters
Suffering, Death
Demeter and Persephone
Pandora’s Box

18. Theseus What do we learn from the story of Theseus?
What relationship to universe to we see in the story?
Typical Hero? What archetypes do you see?
Make Connections

19. And they all lived happily ever after …
How we get our values
Don’t talk to strangers!
Listen to your parents!
The Importance of Being Attractive and Rich
Careful the things you say … children will listen!

20. “The fairy tale takes a child’s anxieties and dilemmas very seriously and addresses itself directly to them: the need to be loved and the fear that one is thought worthless; the love of life and the fear of death.”
Fairy tale syndrome

21. White Snake Grimm Fairy Tales Provides valuable albeit scary morals.
What is the moral? How compare to Theseus?

22. Popular Mythology
From our speech to our culture, mythology has been definitive basis for the humanities.
“What goes around, comes around”; “It must be fate!” ; “Just desserts” ; “Everybody does it”
As one can see, mythology influences they way we soak up the humanities.

24. Ulysses - Alfred Lord Tennyson
Come, my friends,
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

25. Next Week
Next week we will be discussing literature and the power of words! Be able to discuss the differences between poetry and novels.