Chapter Twenty-Four
Lecture Two
Theories of the Nineteenth and
Twentieth Centuries
Romantic Theories
Romantic Theories
• Friedrich Creuzer
– Symbolism and Mythology of the Ancient
Peoples, Especially the Greeks
• Johann Bachofen
– Das Mutterrecht
– Friedrich Engles, The Origin of the Family,
Private Property, and the State
– Vladimir Propp
Anthropological Theories
Anthropological Theories
• Edward Tylor
– Primitive Culture
– Andrew Lang, Myth, Literature, and Religion
• James Frazer
– The Golden Bough
– Ritual theory of myth
Anthropological Theories
• Bronislaw Malinowski
– Magic, Science and Religion
– Charter theory of myth
– Functionalism
Linguistic Theories
• Max Müller
– Solar mythology
– Disease of language
• William Jones
– Indo-European
– Indo-European comparative mythology
• George Dumézil
– Functions in IE society
Psychological Theories
Psychological Theories
• Sigmund Freud
– Condensation
– Displacement
– Oedipus Complex
– The Interpretation of Dreams
• Carl Jung
– Collective unconscious
– Archetypes
Psychological Theories
• Erich Neumann
– Dragon combat
– Great Mother
Structuralist Theories
Structuralist Theories
• Claude Lévi-Strauss
– Reconciliation of opposites
• Paris school of myth criticism
– “Syntax” of the interrelations of myths
– E.g. Hestia and Hermes
Contextual Approaches
Contextual Approaches
• Walter Burkert
– Structure and History in Greek Mythology and
Ritual
– Programs of action
• Feminist criticism
– Some myths explain and reinforce women’s
social roles
Conclusion
Conclusion
• Humans create an alternate world through
myth
• Grand theorizers
– Must disregard what doesn’t square with or
doesn’t seem important to the theory
– Myth, particularly classical myth, is too varied
to be understood by one approach
End