Jung
Toys for Children or
Supernormal Sign Stimuli?
A Philosophy of Mythology
• Archetypes are forms devoid of content
(Elementary ideas).
• Content is supplied by:
– The natural environment
– Historic tribal or national life
– The family triangle
– Biological maturation and aging
Campbell:
Four Functions of Mythology
1. Elicit and support a sense of awe
2. Render a cosmology corresponding to
the actual experience, knowledge, and
mentality of the culture
3. Integrate the individual into the current
social order
4. Provide spiritual enrichment and
realization
Themes of Hunting Mythology
• Death is a consequence of magic and
violence.
• The dead are dangerous spirits to be
defended against.
• Animals are willing victims of a sacrifice
and return from death as through a veil.
• The shaman has made a deal with the
animal master.
Hunting Mythology (cont.)
• The feminine has the power of life-giving
magic
• Trickster figure
– Coyote
– Rabbit
– Fox
Planting Mythologies
• Death entered the world via a murder.
• The primary food plant grows from the
body of the sacrificed victim.
• Sex entered the world at the same time.
• Ritual sex and human sacrifice ensures
the continued growth of the food plant.
Planting Mythologies (cont.)
• The moon illustrates the dying and
reborn God
– Snake
– Boar
– Bull
• The goddess has the power to resurrect
the dead God – both life-giving and
destructive.
The Hieratic City-States
• The heavenly bodies control the order of
existence.
• The Priest observes the heavens and
mediates order.
• The King ritually embodies order –
particularly the moon.
• His Queen is the sun.
• Other individuals served the hierarchy.
The Four Great Culture Domains
• India:
– Yogic arrest in the immanent great void
– Influenced by tropical planting zone
• China:
– Spontaneous accord with the way of Earth
and Heaven
– Influenced by arctic hunting zone
Four Domains (cont.)
• Levant:
– Supernatural revelation and the one true
community under God
• Greece:
– Human reason and the responsible
individual
– Influenced by arctic hunting zone
Campbell
M True poetry of the poet
Y
(artist) (philosopher)
T
R
H
E
• Poetry overdone of the
O
L
prophet
I
L
G
• Poetry done to death by
O
I
the priest
G
O
N
Y
Schelling’s Dialectic
of Mythology
Schelling’s Dialectic
of Mythology
A: There is no truth at all in mythology. It
is: 1) either meant merely poetically,
and the truth found in it is merely
contingent; 2) or it consists of
meaningless representations that
ignorance produced, and which the
poetic arts later developed and
combined into a poetic whole.
(J.H. Voss)
B: There is truth in mythology, but not in
mythology as such. The mythological is:
1) either a mere form, disguise of a) a
historic truth (Eumeros), b) of a physical
truth (Heyne); or 2) misunderstanding,
distortion, a) of a purely scientific
(essentially irreligious) truth (G. Hermann),
b) of a religious truth (W. Jones).
(Fr. Creuzer)
Schelling’s Dialectic
of Mythology
C: There is truth in mythology as such.
Schelling
• Myth is a theogonic process – a demand
or command to the true God who resides
in pre-historic time
• The essence of man is to be a Godpositing creature
• The meaning of mythology can only be
the meaning of the process by which it
emerges into being