Source: Mythological Dictionary (Ed. Meletinsky E.M.)

Word<миф>Greek and literally means legend, legend. Usually this refers to tales about gods, spirits, heroes deified or related to the gods by their origin, about the first ancestors who acted at the beginning of time and participated directly or indirectly in the creation of the world itself, its elements, both natural and cultural. Mythology is a collection of similar tales about gods and heroes and, at the same time, a system of fantastic ideas about the world. The science of myths is also called mythology. Myth-making is considered as the most important phenomenon in the cultural history of mankind. In primitive society, mythology represented the main way of understanding the world, and myth expressed the attitude and worldview of the era of its creation.<Миф как первоначальная форма духовной культуры человечества представляет природу и сами общественные формы, уже переработанные бессознательно-художественным образом народной фантазией>(Marx K., see Marx K. and Engels F., Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 12, p. 737).

The main prerequisites for a kind of mythological<логики>was, firstly, that primitive man did not distinguish himself from the surrounding natural and social environment, and, secondly, that thinking retained the features of diffuseness and indivisibility, it was almost inseparable from the emotional, spectacular, motor sphere. The consequence of this was the vast humanization of all nature, universal personification,<метафорическое>comparison of natural, social, cultural objects. Human properties were transferred to natural objects; they were assigned animation, rationality, human feelings, and often external anthropomorphism, and, conversely, the mythological ancestors could be assigned the features of natural objects, especially animals. The expression of forces, properties and fragments of the cosmos as animate and concrete sensory images gives rise to bizarre mythological fiction. Certain powers and abilities could be expressed plastically by multi-armed, multi-eyed, and the most outlandish transformations of appearance; diseases could be represented by monsters - eaters of people, space - by the world tree or a living giant, tribal ancestors - by creatures of a dual - zoomorphic and anthropomorphic - nature, which was facilitated by the totemic idea of ​​kinship and partial identity of social groups with animal species. It is characteristic of myth that various spirits, gods (and thereby the elements and natural objects they represent) and heroes are connected by family and tribal relations.

In myth, form is identical to content and therefore the symbolic image represents what it models. Mythological thinking is expressed in the vague separation of subject and object, object and sign, thing and word, being and its name, thing and its attributes, singular and plural, spatial and temporal relations, beginning and principle, that is, origin and essence. This diffuseness manifests itself in the sphere of imagination and generalization.

For myth, the identification of genesis and essence, that is, the actual replacement of cause-and-effect relationships with precedent, is extremely specific. In principle, a myth coincides with a description of the model of the world and a narration about the emergence of its individual elements, natural and cultural objects, about the acts of gods and heroes that determined its current state (and then about other events, the biographies of mythological characters). The current state of the world - relief, celestial bodies, animal breeds and plant species, way of life, social groups, religious institutions, tools, hunting techniques and cooking, etc., etc. - all this turns out to be a consequence of events of the long past time and actions of mythological heroes, ancestors, gods. The story of past events serves in myth as a means of describing the structure of the world, a way of explaining its current state. Mythical events turn out to be<кирпичиками>mythical model of the world. Mythical time is time<начальное>, <раннее>, <первое>, This<правремя>, time before time, that is, before the start of the historical countdown of current time. This is the time of the first ancestors, the first creation, the first objects,<время- сновидений>(according to the terminology of some Australian tribes, that is, the time of revelation in dreams), sacred time, in contrast to the subsequent profane, empirical, historical time. Mythical time and the events that fill it, the actions of ancestors and gods are the sphere of the root causes of everything that follows, the source of archetypal prototypes, the model for all subsequent actions. The real achievements of culture, the formation of social relations in historical time, etc. are projected by myth into mythical time and are reduced to single acts of creation.

The most important function of mythical time and myth itself is the creation of a model, an example, a model. Leaving models for imitation and reproduction, mythical time and mythical heroes simultaneously exude magical spiritual forces that continue to maintain the established order in nature and society; maintaining such order is also an important function of myth. This function is carried out through rituals, which often directly dramatize the events of mythical times and sometimes even include the recitation of myths. In rituals, mythical time and its heroes are not only depicted, but, as it were, reborn with their magical power, events are repeated and re-actualized. Rituals provide them<вечное возвращение>and magical influence, guaranteeing the continuity of natural and life cycles, the preservation of the once established order. Myth and ritual constitute two sides - theoretical and practical, as it were - of the same phenomenon. However, along with myths that have a ritual equivalent, there are myths that do not have such an equivalent, as well as rituals that are deprived of their mythological counterpart.

The category of mythical time is especially characteristic of archaic mythologies, but transformed ideas about a special initial era are also found in higher mythologies, sometimes as an ideal<золотой век>or, conversely, as a time of chaos, subject to subsequent cosmization. In principle, the myth aims to depict the transformation of chaos into space.

Subsequently, in epic monuments, mythical time is transformed into the glorious heroic era of the unity of the people, powerful statehood, great wars, etc. In mythologies associated with higher religions, mythical time is transformed into the era of the life and work of deified prophets, the founders of the religious system and community. Along with initial time, the idea of ​​final time, the end of the world (eschatological myths) also penetrates into myths. arise<биографии>gods and heroes, their life cycle and main exploits are described, etc. However, mythical time remains the main category of myth, just as creation myths and explanatory (etiological) myths are the most important; the most fundamental and typical type of myth-making.

Mythology is the most ancient, archaic, ideological formation of a syncretic nature. The embryonic elements of religion, philosophy, science, and art are intertwined in myth. The organic connection between myth and ritual, carried out by musical and choreographic<предтеатральными>and verbal means, had its own hidden, unconscious aesthetics. Art, even having completely emancipated itself from myth and ritual, retained a specific combination of generalizations with specific images (not to mention the broad use of mythological themes and motifs). On the other hand, myth and especially ritual had direct relation to magic and religion. Since its inception, religion has included myths and rituals. Philosophy developed, gradually overcoming the mythological heritage. But even after the isolation of various ideologies and even after significant progress in science and technology, mythology does not remain exclusively a monument to the primitive worldview and archaic forms of storytelling. Not to mention the close connection between religion and mythology, some features of mythological consciousness can be preserved throughout history in the mass consciousness next to elements of philosophical and scientific knowledge, next to the use of strict scientific logic.

Word "myth"- Greek and literally means legend, legend.

Usually this refers to tales about gods, spirits, heroes deified or related to the gods by their origin, about the first ancestors who acted at the beginning of time and participated directly or indirectly in the creation of the world itself, its elements, both natural and cultural. Mythology is a collection of similar tales about gods and heroes and, at the same time, a system of fantastic ideas about the world. The science of myths is also called mythology. Myth-making is considered as the most important phenomenon in the cultural history of mankind. In primitive society, mythology represented the main way of understanding the world, and myth expressed the attitude and worldview of the era of its creation. “Myth, as the original form of spiritual culture of humanity, represents nature and the social forms themselves, already processed in an unconsciously artistic way by folk fantasy” (K. Marx, see K. Marx and F. Engels, Works, 2nd ed., vol. 12, p. 737).

Myth (ancient Greek ?????) in literature - the creation of the imagination of a collective national or individual fantasy, generally reflecting reality in the form of sensory-concrete personifications and animated, humanized creatures, which are sometimes refracted (transformed) in the minds of some people as completely real.

Myth usually combines two aspects - diachronic (the story of the past) and synchronic (the relationship between the present and the future). Thus, with the help of myth, the past was connected with the present and the future, and this ensured a spiritual connection between generations.

Myth- this is the first form of spiritual exploration of the world, its figurative and symbolic reproduction and explanation. Myth organizes the world in the mind, transforms chaos into space and thereby creates the opportunity to comprehend the world as a kind of organized whole, presents it in a simple and accessible form.

In myth, figurative and symbolic reproduction and explanation always results in a prescription for action. As the famous English ethnographer B. Malinovsky noted, myth, as it existed in a primitive community, is not a story that is told, but a reality that is lived. This is not an intellectual exercise or artistic creation, but practical guide to the actions of the primitive collective. The purpose of a myth is not simply to give a person some knowledge or explanation. Myth serves to justify certain social attitudes, to sanction a certain type of belief and behavior.

Myths affirmed the system of values ​​​​accepted in a given society, supported and sanctioned certain norms of behavior. And in this sense they were important stabilizers of social life. However, this did not exhaust the stabilizing role of mythology.

Mythology concept

Mythology- historically the first form of spiritual culture. It arises at the earliest stage of social development. Then humanity, in the form of myths, i.e. legends, tried to give an answer to all the questions that worried people. A significant part of the mythology was made up of cosmological myths dedicated to the structure of the universe, the emergence of the most important natural phenomena, animals and people. At the same time, much attention in myths was paid to the various stages of people’s lives, the mysteries of birth and death, and all kinds of trials that await a person on his life’s path. A special place is occupied by myths about the achievements of people: the making of fire, the invention of crafts, the development of agriculture, the domestication of domestic animals, etc.

Mythology is the most ancient, archaic, ideological formation, having a syncretic character. The embryonic elements of religion, philosophy, science, and art are intertwined in myth. The organic connection between myth and ritual, carried out by musical, choreographic, “pre-theatrical” and verbal means, had its own hidden, unconscious aesthetics. Art, even having completely emancipated itself from myth and ritual, retained a specific combination of generalizations with specific images (not to mention the broad use of mythological themes and motifs).

On the other hand, myth and especially ritual were directly related to magic and religion. Since its inception, religion has included myths and rituals. Philosophy developed, gradually overcoming the mythological heritage. But even after the isolation of various ideologies and even after significant progress in science and technology, mythology does not remain exclusively a monument to the primitive worldview and archaic forms of storytelling. Not to mention the close connection between religion and mythology, some features of mythological consciousness can be preserved throughout history in the mass consciousness next to elements of philosophical and scientific knowledge, next to the use of strict scientific logic.

Myth is a legend that periodically appeared in preliterate society. They tell about the life of the first ancestors, the exploits of heroes, the deeds of gods and spirits. The very concept of myth has Greek roots and comes from the word “mytos”, which means “legend”.

First mentions of myths

The set of myths in ceremonial rituals acquired a verbal form, acting as one of the specific ways of systematizing information about the surrounding reality. On the other hand, stories about nature and man in it performed a number of important functions: religious, ideological, philosophical, historical, scientific.

The features of myths include an arbitrary approach to plotting, personification and zoomorphism.

The appearance of ideas about supersensible principles coincides with the appearance of the first burials. Thanks to ancient burials, many elementary forms of fine art have been found.

History of the origin of myths

In the Upper Paleolithic, a stable formation of a syncretic complex took place: myth - image - ritual. Maintaining this structure throughout speaks to its versatility. For many centuries it reflects both the rational principle and the irrational cultural core.

Paleolithic images were myths, and their creation was rituals. The “signified” and the “signifier” in the myths of primitive people existed in absolute unity.

Myth concept

Many sciences have various interpretations the concept of "myth". The meaning of the word is formulated from different positions, which leads to the presence of many vague and contradictory definitions. Among them are interpretations that are given in encyclopedic dictionaries, calling fantastic stories of folk origin myths.

There are also expanded modernized versions that say that myth is a syncretic understanding of the surrounding world, expressed by sensory-specific personifications and animate beings that are identified with reality. Philosophical views on the interpretation of this concept are based on the understanding of myth as a figurative diagram of the world that explains and prescribes a specific algorithm of actions.

What does the word myth mean? This question can be answered by synthesizing the meaning-making components from various approaches. This is exactly how we can formulate a complete and accurate definition of this concept: myths are texts and images that demonstrate a syncretic reflection of the surrounding reality in different eras of human development. Moreover, each culture has its own uniqueness, emphasizing numerous aspects of the development of a particular society.

Typology of myths

The school curriculum includes myths that can easily be called ancient, biblical or other ancient tales. They tell about events related to the creation of the world and the commission of ancient acts (mainly by Greek and heroes).

Researchers of historical mythology note that in a great variety of works of different nationalities, many basic themes and motifs are repeated. That is, the origin of myths does not completely determine their content. For example, some of the most ancient and primitive tales are tales about animals. The earliest of them only naively describe the characteristics of fauna representatives. And in ancient Australian myths, for example, the theory of the origin of animals from humans is widespread. But other peoples of the world, albeit not so clearly, spread in their legends the mythological idea that man was once an animal. Examples of myths of this kind: ancient Greek tales about the girl-nymph Daphne, about the hyacinth, about the narcissus and others.

The origin of the heavenly bodies was also often sanctified in myths. In the so-called solar, lunar and astral legends, the Sun, Moon and stars were often depicted as people who once lived on Earth and, for various reasons, subsequently rose to heaven. Such a myth is an alternative to the formation of the Universe invented by the people. Another common plot is a description of the process of creating the Sun by some supernatural being. In this case, the heavenly body was not spiritualized.

The central place in the totality of myths of many countries was occupied by works describing the creation of the world and the Universe, as well as man. Otherwise they are called cosmogonic and anthropogonic, respectively. Culturally backward peoples wrote little about these topics. In particular, the Australians only casually mentioned that the Earth's surface used to look different, but questions about its appearance were never raised.

Polynesians, North American Indians, the peoples of the Ancient East and the Mediterranean viewed cosmogonic processes from two points of view. One of them was based on the idea of ​​the creation of the world (creation), the other on the idea of ​​its development (evolutionary). According to creation theory, the world was created by a creator, god, sorcerer, or other supernatural being. In myths built on evolutionary theory, the world systematically develops from some kind of primitive existence. It could be chaos, darkness, darkness, etc.

There are also many mythological stories about sea creatures (monsters) that were seen by sailors, travelers and fishermen.

Modern myths and science

The essence of this problem is that it is difficult to broadcast a myth as a scientific fact. It is safe to say that it is a component of mythology. Moreover, it belongs to the secondary level of consciousness, which covers ideologically, culturally and scientifically processed information. In this context, a myth is a legend artificially created by man, which is based on assumptions and legends that gradually change under the influence of ideological and scientific factors.

Two directions of development of mythology

The appearance of myths is associated with the emergence, formation and development of a nation. This is how people form their individual origin stories. Later in myth-making there appear works intended for the masses (which are created by the elite), and tales created by the people themselves. Thus, we can talk about two directions in the development of mythology: closed and open.

MYTHOLOGY

MYTHOLOGY

(from the Greek mythos - legend, legend and logos - concept, teaching) - a way of understanding the world in the early stages of human history, fantastic stories about its creation, about the deeds of gods and heroes. In M. Cosmos appears as a whole formed by the interaction and mutual transformations of living and dead, conscious and elemental, man and the environment. This was achieved by transferring to nature the connections and dependencies characteristic of primitive society, i.e. by animate it. The mythological world is syncretic: there is no clear separation of subject and object, object and sign, cause and effect; procedures of logical generalization and proof are replaced by metaphorical comparison by analogy, external similarity, and the convergence of heterogeneous phenomena on the basis of similar emotional and sensory perception. Thus, there is a kind of tension in the relationship between natural chaos and purposeful human activity, a certain predictability of the results of the latter is achieved, which is consolidated by the formation of increasingly complex rituals, rites, and stereotypes of collective behavior. As an archaic way of understanding the world, mathematics gradually gave way to scientific, reliable ideas about natural and social reality, subordinated to the criteria of rationalistic-philosophical knowledge.
Another tendency has also appeared in history: M. constituted the mother’s womb, the starting point for the formation of early forms of religion, namely the so-called. paganism. M. and religion share many common features - the recognition of another world, a god or gods, miracles and signs incomprehensible to the human mind, etc. At the same time, significant differences between them gradually emerged, highlighting more and more clearly the very nature of religiosity, which in one way or another differs from the properties of being fantastic, fabulous, and metaphorical. Religion presupposes not just belief in the supernatural (“heavenly”, “high”), but also in its decisive influence on the fate of the earthly world. Therefore, it practices a special purposeful influence on otherworldly forces - what is called a cult.
M. reveals typology with early forms of religion - magic, fetishism, animism, totemism. Pagan gods also do not stand above nature; they act within the balanced Cosmos as personifications of numerous natural and social elements, ensuring that the universe is established once and for all. Gradually they become more and more personified, receiving clear spheres of natural and social reality subject to them; their habitat rises to the sky; there is a demarcation between the mythological and religious characters of the subsequently dominant theism: an increasingly rigid body and spirit, flesh and soul, sacred and profane, earthly and heavenly. The many faces of antiquity the pantheon formed the original basis for developed forms religions (primarily theism), increasingly isolated from mythology and oriented towards the latter - the transcendental omnipotent God standing above the world.
The essence of this process, which took place within the framework of a community-tribal formation, was characterized by A.F. Losev: “Myth is not religious, because it exists in the supersensible world and according to this faith, including a certain kind of life, magic, rituals and sacraments, and in general. Myth does not contain anything supersensible in itself, does not require any faith... From the point of view of primitive man, who had not yet reached the separation of faith and knowledge... here we should not be talking about faith, but about the complete identification of man with his environment, that is, nature and society. Not being a magical operation, it does not include any ritual. Magic is a literal or substantial myth... Magic, ritual, religion and myth are fundamentally different phenomena that not only often develop quite independently, but even quarrel with each other” (Mythology // Filosofskaya. M., 1964. Vol. 3).
Equally important, etc. As society becomes more complex and stratified, a special number of professional figures emerge (shamans, sorcerers, priests, clergy, clergy, as well as special social institutions, primarily ecclesiastical ones), who claim the role of distributors of omnipotent supernatural energy. Religious institutions are merging with government government structures, which creates narrow corporate interests of individual classes and social groups to pass off as “public”, “national” interests. “Religion and the people who represent it are, to some extent, beginning to take the place of family, tribe and roc. They bind a person instead of leaving him free, and he begins to worship not God, but a group that claims to speak on his behalf. This happened in all religions” (Fromm E. Psychoanalysis and Religion // Twilight of the Gods. M., 1989).
It would be a simplification to reduce M. to a collection of naive and entertaining fairy tales, gradually giving way to a scientifically sober view of the world. This is a self-valuable, complete consciousness, an integral cultural gene pool of the people, sanctioning and reproducing the traditional norms of behavior and spiritual values ​​for a given community.
Although religion, as a more rigid, despotic form of consciousness in structure and organization, suppressed M., she cannot completely break with it; many religious, incl. and theistic, ideas are still interpreted within the framework of mythological images traditional for this region. Hence the ancient “demythologization” of religion, dramatically staged in our time by R. Bultmann.
M. is not only the guardian of the collective people's memory, but also a constantly reproduced way of understanding events that seem miraculous and unknowable. It is no coincidence that mythological constructions come to life and are filled with extremely modern content in the works of outstanding writers (M. Bulgakov, H. L. Borges, G. Hesse, J. Joyce, T. Mann, G. G. Marquez, A. de Saint-Exupéry) , seeking to comprehend the secrets of human existence, inaccessible to a cold mind.
The entire daily life of a modern person is filled with numerous myths, constantly cultivated by the mass media, not to mention the fact that myth-making is readily used by professional ideologists to manipulate mass consciousness. It is enough to refer to the official M. of Nazi Germany. Moreover, precisely today, when conflicts and wars on religious and ethnic grounds have become more frequent, M. has become an essential component of mass culture, an imperative motive for the activities of millions and millions of people. Generations of humanists, skeptics, freethinkers, and atheists who defended the ideals of religious tolerance and freedom of conscience pointed to this danger of deifying power and using ahistorical tales, myths, and religious ideas.

Philosophy: Encyclopedic Dictionary. - M.: Gardariki. Edited by A.A. Ivina. 2004 .

During the Enlightenment, B. Fontenelle (1657–1757) wrote about M., who in his op. “The History of Oracles” (1686) and “The Origin of Fiction” (1724) depicts primitive mathematics as fiction, as a region of superstition, prejudice, and deception. Together with Bayle (1647–1706), he explains everything wonderful in M. by the ignorance of savages. Montesquieu and Voltaire also viewed the ancient views purely rationalistically, not seeing any intrinsic value in them. logic. Voltaire and Diderot explained all myths and miracles solely by the activities of priests who deliberately deceived in order to strengthen their authority. One of the chapters representatives of English empiricism D. Hume in op. "Natural Religion" (1757), based on polytheism as natural. religion, tries to explain it using later very popular methods of psychologism, i.e. derives it not from the contemplation of celestial phenomena, but from life experiences, ch. arr. fear and hope, involuntarily transferred by a person to everything. Wieland (1733–1813), although he proceeded from the doctrine of a supreme being, interpreted M. not only rationalistically, but even euhemerically. The most significant thing for the philosophy of the Enlightenment is that understanding of antiquity. M., which was developed by I. I. Winkelman in his “History of the Art of Antiquity” (1764). In antiquity art and mythology, Winckelmann saw noble simplicity and calm grandeur. This concept passed on to Schiller, Goethe and many romantics.

In general, the Enlightenment understanding of M. was distinguished by straightforward rationalism and the absence of historical. approach. Researchers who have studied the sources that enlighteners used in their judgments about M. come to the conclusion that these sources are unreliable and have almost no scientific basis. values. Approaching M. from the point of view. limited bourgeois reason, the Enlightenment saw M. as a product of ignorance and deception, as a superstition that must be eradicated by reason.

A new understanding of M. as an expression of popular wisdom begins in the 18th century. with the so-called "The Poems of Ossian", created by the English. poet J. Macpherson and attributed to mythical. singer Ossian, and the activities of German. writer and philosopher Herder, who proceeded from the concept of the people as a spiritual community, as the true creator of literary and including mythological. works. The doctrine of M. him was also of great importance. philologist Chr. G. Heine, who argued that myths are philosophemes of the cosmos, expressed not with the help of abstract concepts, but with the help of fantasy, natural for primitive man. C. F. Dupuis also pointed out that myths are images of deities. emanations in space. This thereby prepared the understanding of M., characteristic of romanticism, which tried to restore the Middle Ages and even more ancient eras in spite of the Enlightenment, but which in the field of M. just for the first time took the position of historical-realism. and philosophical-theoretical. research. And in this he was progressive. Already for Herder M. there is the most significant thing that a person could say to society. For Herder, as for the romantics, M., philosophy, religion and poetry are inseparable. Romanticism consolidated and developed Herder’s teaching about materialism, understood it as an expression of the spiritual substance of the people, and finally went beyond the limits of classicism, replacing its stable, plastic. forms with an incessant striving into endless distances, be it the depths of man. subject, be it the all-encompassing expanse of the cosmos, be it popular wisdom and creativity, extracted by romantics from the depths of centuries.

Romantic M.'s understanding was primarily artistic and theoretical. Romantics gave and general art. interpretation of M., reflected in the doctrine of “Kunst-Mythologie”, or “artistic M”. Representatives of this interpretation of M. were K. F. Moritz (1757–93) and K. A. Böttiger. In the field of literature, this theory was developed by F. Schlegel and A. Schlegel, L. I. Arnim (1781–1831), C. Brentano (1778–1842), J. Grimm (1785–1863) and W. Grimm (1786 –1859). F. Schlegel in his “Conversation on Poetry” (1800) set the task of creating a new poetry, which “must be produced from the innermost depths of the spirit; it must be the most artistic of all artistic works, for it must embrace all the others. .." ("Jugendschriften", Bd 2, W., 1882, S. 358). Since M. was interpreted in romanticism as a people. wisdom, then all world symbolism was understood as universal symbolism for all mankind. wisdom of peoples. This is symbolic. M.'s understanding was presented by Chr. G. Heine (1729–1812), F. Kreutzer (1771–1858), J. Görres (1776–1848) and F. Butman (1764–1829). Philosophy mythological basis teachings were given by the works of Schelling and partly Hegel. Systematic Philosopher Schelling developed the concept of mythology in his “Philosophy of Mythology and Revelation,” where the concept of myth is interpreted using the Aristotelian doctrine of four causes: formal, material, moving and final. According to Schelling, M. represents the substantial unity of these causes. If the formal cause (type, appearance of a thing) is understood in the literal sense as a material cause, then the idea will immediately become a being, i.e. will turn into a fairy tale, and if this magical wonderful idea is also understood as an efficient cause and, moreover, as acting in a certain direction, i.e. as a target, then a magical, wonderful creature arises, acting on its own and for its own sake. goals. This is a myth.

Along with this, Schelling gave the concept of historical. development of M., which he developed in the treatises “World Epochs” (published 1861) and “Samothrace” (published 1815). Adjacent to this interpretation of M. is dialectical-historical. Hegel's concept, which gave a vivid description of eastern, ancient and European. M. in his teaching about symbolic, classical. and romantic arts forms.

Thus, during the first decades of the beginning. 19th century in the field of studying metal, he created deep concepts that presented metal as a product of national creativity and as an expression of folk wisdom. However, along with the romantic. M.'s interpretation also included concepts that criticized romanticism. So, for example, I. G. Voss (1751–1826) directly attacked symbolic. interpretation of myths in romanticism and interpreted by Dep. myths and religions in a very reduced and prosaic manner. form. G. Herman (1772–1848) through arbitrary etymologization deprived the mythical. images of their mystery and magic and reduced them to natural phenomena. Against speculative and philosophical. The interpretation of myths was carried out by the philologist K. O. Muller (1797–1840). At the same time, he pointed to the folk-creative origin of music, its inevitability for certain periods of cultural development, and its study in historical terms without deducing Greek music from Indian and with precise consideration of all its local differentiation. In Russia, P. M. Leontiev took a similar position to Muller.

Ideas about M., created by romanticism, were received in the 2nd half of the 19th century. positivist interpretation in connection with the development of empirical psychology, as well as the collection and study of historical. materials. The theory of Western borrowing is becoming widespread. myths from the East, which were put forward in different countries (T. Benfey, Gladstone, O. Groupe, Berard). So, for example, the Group brought out all the Greek. myths from Phenicia. P. Foucart brought the Eleusinian Mysteries out of Egypt; V.V. Stasov believed that Russian. epic heroes originate from Persia and India. Similar ideas were developed in the works of G. N. Potanin and the early A. N. Veselovsky (1838–1906). The doctrine of migration mythological. motifs and images from one people to another has roots back in the 18th century. However, along with such fully proven theories as the origin of the Greek. Apollo from Asia Minor (Wilamowitz-Möllendorf) or Hephaestus from the same place (Malten), there were many researchers who followed the path of Herodotus with his famous Egyptomania or Fr. Delich with his pan-Babylonism. The theory of borrowing examined a number of facts, but did not solve the problem of the origin of M., but only attributed it to more distant historical ones. eras.

From ser. 19th century in philosophy literature was put forward solar-meteorological. theory (A. Kuhn, M. Muller, F. I. Buslaev, L. F. Voevodsky, O. Miller), which interpreted all myths as an allegory of certain astronomical objects. and atmospheric phenomena. This theory, which gained enormous popularity, was based on empirical data. psychology, which explained the whole mental life based on elementary feelings. representations. Because the sun is an obvious source of light, warmth and life for every person, and darkness and darkness have always been associated with negativity. the influence of nature on humans, then these natural phenomena were the basis for M.’s explanation. Russian researcher L.F. Voevodsky in the 2nd half. 19th century so he interpreted Odysseus as the sun, Penelope’s suitors as stars, and Penelope as the moon; the conquest of Troy was interpreted by him as the sunrise, Greek. the heroes turned out to be solar heroes, and Elena - the moon. The founders of this theory combined the interpretation of myths with a special theory of language, according to which the root of each word was also designated by a candidate. a natural phenomenon, and M., who talked about gods and heroes and elevated natural phenomena to the rank of gods and heroes, was interpreted as a special kind of “disease of the tongue.” The enormous amount of work that appeared in this mythological school, was devoted to explaining exactly this kind of roots of words, so that the original Indo-European religion and the sky were constructed with the personification of all the phenomena occurring on it, including thunder and lightning, as well as all atmospheric phenomena. Thus, solar-meteorological. theory in means. least connected with the theory of borrowing. Ch. lack of solar-meteorological theory is that she considered dep. human sides consciousness in isolation from others and from the entirety of societies. relations in a specific historical period; individual feelings. ideas are the result of a relatively late development and could not have existed in the primitive era. The linguistic theory of comparative mythology by A. Kuhn and M. Muller, supported by such major historians as Ed. Meyer and Y. Beloch, presently. time is completely refuted.

In contrast to this kind of theories, such interpretations of myth arose that reduced it to the elementary forms of man. practice and consciousness. Myths were interpreted as a reflection of the most ordinary phenomena of life, as a result of which the so-called arose. "inferior M." (V. Schwartz, V. Mangardt, partly G. Usener). The theory of "lower M." had great value in the sense that it forced researchers to study not only major mythological ones. images, but also the smallest and purely local ones, including all folklore in general. Instead of solar-meteorological In the allegory, the doctrine of a particular, local demon was put forward, which is why the whole theory is also called demonological. This circumstance allowed the "lower M." play a significant role in the fight against the idealistic, and sometimes even racist exaltation of Indo-European proto-mythology over the mythology of other countries and peoples. However, this theory could not hold out for long due to the fact that socio-historical theory was also alien to it. approach to M., and her minor demons, from which she derived major deities, in turn required explanation, since their socio-historical nature remained unknown. origin and purpose.

However, the philosophy of positivism was not limited to these theories of M. Well-known psychologists and linguists M. Lazarus and H. Steinthal interpreted M. not as a product of the influence of external nature on a person, but, on the contrary, as a product of the transfer of the subject’s sacredness to nature. These concepts were associated with the so-called. animistic theory, for which M. acted as a stage of primitive spiritualism. consciousness, equally characteristic of all peoples. Representatives of this school used extensive materials from anthropology, ethnology and ethnography of many others. peoples and even departments. wild tribes, trying to find common historical characteristics in them. patterns, basing all M. on the idea of ​​spirits, first small and then large. In England, representatives of animism. directions were E. Tylor (1832–1917), G. Spencer, E. Lang, F. Jevons; in Germany - L. Frobenius, P. Ehrenreich and others.

In the 60s 19th century in Switzerland, sociology received its original development. M.’s understanding thanks to the work of Bachofen, who, in his book on maternal right, highly appreciated by Engels, proved it using material from antiquity. M. the presence of matriarchy among all nations. With Bachofen, M. was no longer just animism, but received a special kind of socio-historical. comprehension, which was based on the worldview of a person from the times of the maternal community and which remained in the form of rudiments in antiquity. M. In France, sociologist. The movement became very famous thanks to the activities of E. Durkheim and his students M. Mauss and Hubert. According to this doctrine, there is no knowledge and no activity outside a society of one type or another. At the same time, society cannot be reduced either to biology or to Ph.D. in general. material facts, but has its own essence, irreducible to anything else. The idea of ​​the world always bears traces of one or another type of society. development. Even any sensory representation is by no means the same at all times, but has one or another structure, according to the type of given society. development.

In the 19th century along with animistic, sociological. and anthropologist. understanding of M. there were attempts and historical. her research. In particular, a historical and philological school using lit. methods. and linguistic analysis. So, for example, G. Usener, based on the analysis of language, constructed a whole history of mythological. ideas ranging from gods associated with a given moment to major deities. Philologists 2nd half. 19th century – beginning 20th century U. Wilamowitz-Möllendorff, M. Nilsson, O. Kern and many others. others created extensive summaries of the history of antiquity. M. and religions, using not only philological. apparatus, but also data from archaeology, ethnography, folklore, linguistics and general history ancient world. The outstanding work of such a synthetic. historical-philological type is A. Kuhn's 5-volume book on Zeus. In Russia, representatives of historical and philological. schools are V. Vlastov, F. F. Zelinsky, N. I. Novosadsky, S. A. Zhebolev, E. G. Kagarov, B. L. Bogaevsky, I. I. Tolstoy.

Development of mythological theories 2nd half. 19th century and beginning 20th century shows that positivist-minded mythological scientists in solving the problems of M. were far from understanding the people as the creator of history and M. Positivists analyzed only the department. side M., which, of course, brought great benefits to science, but they will end. They still did not give an outline of M. as a product of national creativity.

Modern bourgeois mythological theories are based exclusively on logical. and psychological human history data consciousness, as a result of which M. is interpreted as a subtle and highly intellectual phenomenon, which it was not at all during the period of savagery and barbarism. Therefore, these theories are, as a rule, and sometimes even ahistorical. character.

The most abstract mythological. theories in modern science are theories based on mechanics and mathematics. and structural-linguistic. concepts. Sov. ethnographer V. G. Bogoraz (Tan) noted that miraculous transformations into material, the presence of an object in several places at once, its instantaneous disappearance or appearance are based on the fact that a person in that era has a completely original idea of ​​time and space, absolutely not similar to the traditional Newtonian understanding of time as something heterogeneous and incapable of contracting or expanding. In this regard, Bogoraz compared mythical and fairy-tale ideas with mechanics and mathematics. Einstein's teachings. This theory of Bogoraz, which produces a spectacular impression, requires criticism. consideration. Modern , using mathematical methods for studying language, uses these methods also for studying the arts. and mythical creativity. According to Lévi-Strauss, for example, myth is a matrix representation and a field for solving certain problems of primitive logic, and certain images are totemic. M. - a kind of code that serves for the construction of primitive thinking various models peace. Naturally, in M. it is possible to distinguish structural and mathematical. side, but this side of M. is far from the only one.

In modern bourgeois science has also developed a number of psychological and psychoanalyst. theories. One of them belongs to V. Wundt, who in his 10-volume work “Psychology of Nations” brought it to its logical conclusion. end the theory of animism, creating a definition. a system where totemism, animism, manism (cult of ancestors), and in the end, all myths about nature received a harmonious and deep characterization. However, at its core, Wundt’s theory was idealistic, highlighting all kinds of irrational aspects - will, will, etc.

Among psychological teachings of the 20th century The most widespread was the concept of S. Freud, which reduced all phenomena of culture and social life to mental. life of the individual, and in this latter brought to the fore the subconscious, mainly sexual, which supposedly are the unities. factor of all consciousness. human life. According to Freud, consciousness creates various kinds norms, laws, commandments, rules that suppress the subconscious. sphere, being for it a censorship of the spirit or sublimating it in an unrecognizable form. Therefore, subconscious. the sphere can manifest itself only in areas that are abnormal (dreams, accidental slips of the tongue, slips of the tongue, forgetting, etc.) or downright abnormal (all kinds of neuroses, psychoses, mental disorders, etc.). M. and religion are from this point of view. collective psychosis. All Greek M. turns into Freud's irrational. reflection defined psychological complexes. Gaia-Earth, first and last, according to the Greek. M., gives birth to Uranus-Sky, with whom he immediately enters into marriage, but the children who appear from this marriage, the so-called. The titans are thrown into Tartarus by Uranus due to sexual competition. Mother Earth, who wants to be the wife of all husbands, helps one of the titans, Kronos, castrate Uranus and thereby gain his supreme power in space. Kronos, having freed himself from his father and sexual rival (Uranus), immediately marries again with the same Mother Earth, but only under the name of Rhea. His behavior as the ruler of the Universe is again determined solely by sexual motives: he swallows all his children so as not to have them as competitors in communicating with Rhea. But Rhea finds to save one son, Zeus, who, all because of the same sexual competition, enters into battle with Kronos and the Titans, and after he is overthrown in Tartarus, he also marries Mother Earth (in the form of Hera). The very religious-mythological. is nothing more than the feeling of guilt of defeated sexual competitors before one or another victorious ruler who has taken possession of the universal sexual essence, the Earth. Therefore, all types of sex that have arisen in history are a collective dream of humanity, which is in a state of complete neurosis as a result of the impossibility of sexual satisfaction. One of the greatest Freudians, K. Jung, saw in M. an expression of the “collective unconscious” inherent in all people, peoples and races, and the entire cosmos; basic He considered the task of psychoanalysis to be the study of the types and “archetypes” of this “collective unconscious.” Interpreting all the phenomena of M. exclusively from the point of view. psychopathology, depicts mythological. consciousness in an extremely simplified form, ignoring its social essence and historical. its origin.

In contrast to the psychoanalysis of Freud and his school, certain psychologists and anthropologists in the 20th century. engaged in the study of the rational basis of M. To this direction belongs, for example, Lévy-Bruhl, according to whom primitive thought is entirely based only on phenomenal memory and on associations by contiguity. A bird flies through the air, feathers and snowflakes also fly through the air; therefore, a feather is a bird and a snowflake is a bird. The feather is white, the snowflake is also white, and the deer’s tail is; therefore, the deer is a feather and, ultimately, a bird. The thinking of primitive man, according to Lévy-Bruhl, is determined by the law of participation. Hence Lévy-Bruhl made an erroneous statement. the nature of primitive thinking. We can talk about weak differentiation of logic. categories in primitive thinking, but not about the absence of at least one of them. Lévy-Bruhl's works were subjected to sharp criticism at one time, and Lévy-Bruhl himself subsequently also abandoned his “prelogical” theory of primitive M.

Widespread in the bourgeoisie. science also has cultural and historical. theory of myth formation. The largest figure in this area was the English. ethnographer and anthropologist Fraser. In his op. “The Golden Bough”, which appeared back in the 90s, based on enormous material, he established three periods of human spiritual development - magical, religious. and scientific. Fraser studied a number of profound phenomena of primitive M., such as, for example, the appearance of agrarian demons and their connection with the origin of supreme power, numerous. ecstatic cults with M. growing out of them, the religion of the suffering and dying god in pre-Christ. religions and their connection with Christ. teaching.

Dr. bourgeois researcher Malinovsky examines myth in its inextricable connection with ritual and magic, at the same time highlighting its enormous cultural power, which lies in establishing unity with the past, in harmony with labor, magic, productive and other social factors primitive society. Malinovsky derives epic and tragedy from the cultural significance of myth. Among those representatives of cultural and historical. theories that highlight magic and ritual in M.'s explanation include J. Dumézil, P. Centiv, G. R. Levy, A. Lord, C. Autran, J. Bedier, F. Raglan, J. de Vries, C. Baudouin, E. Miro, R. Carpenter. Unlike solar-meteorological school, this school is called "neo-mythological". She views every myth as a reflection of ritual and a rethinking of ancient magic. ritual, often pursuing, however, these ideas in a very one-sided form. C. Autrand and J. Bedier deduce the latest heroic. tales from purely priestly traditions. The most extreme position is taken by J. de Vries and C. Baudouin, who interpret the ritual origin of M. using the methods of Freudianism.

M. X. M. and N. K. Chadwick take a purely historical approach, and to a large extent also Baura and K. Weiss. In Soviet science, cultural-historical. interpretation of M. and the related comparative-historical. The world epic is given by V. Ya. Propp (in his later works), P. Bogatyrev, V. M. Zhirmunsky, V. I. Abaev, U. B. Dalgat, E. M. Meletinsky, Golenishchev-Kutuzov and others.

For bourgeois science late 19th - early. 20th centuries characterized by a wide distribution of various kinds of symbolic. theories. The founder of these theories of M. was F. Nietzsche. In his early work on the origin of tragedy, Nietzsche considered the Greek. tragedy as two principles - Dionysian (orgiastic, frenzied, exalted) and Apollonian (calm, majestic, balanced and plastic). The art of the ancient Greeks of the classical period acquired a symbolic character from Nietzsche. character, created, in his opinion, from two fundamentals. beginnings, which found expression in the images of Dionysus and Apollo. Scientific and philological The treatment of this theory was given by E. Rohde, and in Russia by V. Ivanov.

Neo-Kantianism ch. arr. in the person of E. Cassirer also came to understand M. as a “symbolic form.” If Tylor and Wundt thought that in primitive times the ready-made concept of the soul was transferred to, then Cassirer postulates for M. the complete indistinguishability of internal. and external, the gradual and very slow maturation of the opposition between internal and external and the all-encompassing power of myth, in comparison with all other categories of people. consciousness and cognition are only secondary and abstract. The indistinguishability in M. of the ideal and the real, internal and external, soul and body, individual and society was put forward in the 1927–30s. Regardless of neo-Kantianism, A.F. Losev, who at that time was inclined towards Hegel, Schelling and Husserl. Similar theories were put forward by A. Yolles and E. Bruce.

The symbolist theory at its core is also that theory of M., which was put forward by the existentialists who saw in the Greek. mythology and Homer has his own. (Heidegger, K. Dienelt, etc.).

The above mythological theories of the 20th century, despite their enormous diversity, are overwhelmingly based on individualistic. philosophy, using to explain M. this or that ability or activity of the department. human, mental, affective-volitional, sexual, cultural, artistic, scientific, religious, etc. All these theories undoubtedly provide one or another explanation of some real aspect of myth-making. However, none of these theories could explain the social essence of M. For such an explanation, turning to the department is completely insufficient. human abilities spirit, if only because these abilities themselves require explanation. Disclosure of the essence and origin of M., as well as its socio-historical. foundations, is possible only with historical-materialistic. positions.

Marxist literature about M.

Marx K., Capital, vol. 1, in the book: Marx K. and Engels F., Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 23, p. 61–93 (on fetishism); him, To the criticism of political. savings, [M. ], 1953, p. 224–225 (about ancient M.); his, Forms preceding capitalist. production, [M. ], 1940 (about the basis of M.); Engels F., The origin of the family, private property and the state, [M. ], 1963 (from M. matriarchy); Lenin V.I., Soch., 4th ed., vol. 38, p. 370 (on “primitive idealism”); Lafargue P., The Myth of Prometheus (and other articles on M.), in the book: Lafargue P., Essays on the history of culture, 2nd ed., M.–L., , Bogaevsky B., Ritual gesture and society. structure of ancient Greece, in the collection: Religion and Society, L., 1926, Tronsky I.M., Greek religion. shepherd (Towards the formulation of the question), in the same place, Boldyrev A.V., Religion of ancient Greek. sailors (Experience in studying professional religion), ibid.; Altman M., Blind Famir, in the book: Yafetic. collection (Recueil Japhétique), 6, L., 1930; Bogaevsky B.L., Male deity in Crete, ibid.; by him, Pottery deities of Minoan Crete, Izv. Academician ist. mat. cult., vol. 7, issue. 9, L., 1931; Schmidt P. B., Metallic. in myth and religion of ancient Greece, ibid., vol. 9, no. 8–10, L., 1931; Tronsky I.M., The Myth of Daphnis, in the collection: Language and Literature, vol. 8, Leningrad, 1932; Altman M.S., On the semantics of proper. names in Homer, in the book: From the history of pre-capitalist. formations, L., 1933, p. 437–74; Bogaevsky B. L., Minotaur and Pasiphae on Crete in the light of ethnographic. data, in collection: art. S. F. Oldenburg. To the 50th anniversary of scientific societies. activities, L., 1934, p. 95–113; Tronsky I.M., Ancient myth and modern times. fairy tale, ibid., pp. 523–34; Kagarov E. G., Shamanism and the phenomena of ecstasy in Greek. and Rome religions, "Izvestia. Academic Sciences of the USSR". Episode 7. Dept. society Sciences, 1934, No. 5; Altman M.S., Remnants of the tribal system in their own. names in Homer, [L. ], 1936; Sternberg L. Ya., Primitive religion in the light of ethnography, Leningrad, 1936; Freidenberg O., Poetics of plot and genre, Leningrad, 1936, Altman M. S., Grech. M., M.–L., 1937; Marr N. Ya., Izbr. works, volumes 1–5, Leningrad, 1933–1937; Radzig S.I., Antique M. Essay on ancient myths in modern light. Nauki, M.–L., 1939; Dymshits Z., Epiphany of Dionysus in myth and ritual, "Uch. zap. Leningrad State University Ser. Philological Sciences", 1939, No. 33, issue. 2; Frantsov Yu. P., Fetishism and the problem of the origin of religions, M., 1940; Freidenberg O. M., Oresteia in the Odyssey, in: Scientific. bulletin Leningrad State University, No. 6, 1946; Radzig S.I., The myth of the daughters of Danae and related myths in the light of modern times. science, in: Reports and communications of philological. Faculty of Moscow State University, vol. 1, M., 1946; Nikolsky N. M., Sketches on the history of Phoenician communities and farmers. cults, Minsk, 1947]; Kazmenko K.I., Caucasian legends about chained heroes and the myth of Prometheus in the early Greeks. authors, in collection: Tr. Stavropolsk ped. Institute, vol. 6, Caucasian collection, book. 1, 1949, pp. 57–76; Shtaerman E.M., Reflection of class contradictions of the 2nd–3rd centuries. in the cult of Hercules, "Bulletin of Ancient History", 1949, No. 2(28); Shengelia I., Hesiod and the problem of Prometheus, in the book: Sat. scientific works of graduate students Tbilis. University, book. 1, Tb., 1950; his, The Ancient Myth of Prometheus, Tbilisi, 1950 (diss.); Kosven M. O., Essays on the history of primitive culture, M., 1953, p. 129–66; Enshlen Sh., The Origin of Religion, trans. from French, M., 1954; Losev A. Φ., Olympic M. in its socio-historical. development, in collection: Uch. zap. [Moscow ped. Institute], t. 72, Dept. classic philology, vol. 3, M., 1953, his own, Hesiod and M., ibid., vol. 83, no. 4, M., 1954, pp. 263–301; his, Introduction to ancient M., in the collection: Uch. zap. ped. Institute of Philology ser., vol. 5, [Dushanbe], 1954; Amashukeli E.V., The myth of the Argonauts in cargo. literature, Tb., 1954 (diss.); Mathieu M. E., Ancient Egyptian myths, M.–L., 1956; Pichkhadze M.I., On the history of the Prometheus problem, in: Communications of Acad. Sciences Cargo. SSR, vol. 19, No. 1, Tb., 1957, p. 121–127; Kublanov M. M., The legend of the lists of Achilles and Olbian agonistic. festivities (On the history of the formation of cults of the ancient polis), in the collection: Yearbook of the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism, [vol. ] 1, M.–L., 1957, Losev A.F., Antique M. in its historical. development, M., 1957; his, Sovr. problems of studying ancient M., "Bulletin of the History of World Culture", 1957, No. 3; by him, Chaos antyczny, "Meander", 1957, No. 9; Tokarev S. A., Relig. beliefs of the East Slavic peoples of the 19th – early 20th centuries, M.–L., 1957; Kinzhalov P. V., Pandora (On the myth of Hesiod), in the collection: Yearbook of the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism, [vol. ] 2, M.–L., 1958; Meletinsky E. M., Ancestors of Prometheus (Cultural hero in myth and epic), "Bulletin of the History of World Culture", 1958, No. 3(9); Trencheni-Waldapfel I., M., trans. from Hungary, M., 1959; Frantsev Yu. P., At the origins of religion and free thought, M.–L., 1959; Losev A.F., Homer, M., 1960, p. 237–341 (the doctrine of historical strata in M. Homer); Spirkin A., The Origin of Consciousness, M., 1960, ch. 9; Shtaerman E.M., Morality and religion of the oppressed classes, Rome. Empire, M., 1961; Tokarev S. A., What is M.?, in: Art. Questions of the history of religion and atheism, [vol. ] 10, M., 1962; Donini A., People, idols and gods, trans. from Italian, M., 1962.

General review of the literature on M.

The mythology of all races, ed. J. A. MacCulloch [a. O. ], v. 1–13, Boston, 1916–32; v. 1, Fox W. S., Greek and Roman, 1916, v. 2, MacCulloch J. A., Eddic, 1930; v. 3, his own, Celtic; Machal J., Slavic, 1918, v. 4, Holmberg U., Finno-Ugric, Siberian, 1927; v. 5, Langdon S. H., Semitic, 1931; v. 6, Keith A. V., Indian; Carnay A. J., Iranian, 1917; v. 7, Ananikian M. N., Armenian; Werner A., ​​African, 1925; v. 8, Ferguson J. C., Chinese; Anesaki M., Japanese, 1928; v. 9, Dixon R. B., Oceanic, 1916; v. 10, Alexander N. B., North American, 1916; v. 11, same, Latin-American, 1920; v. 12, Müller W. M., Egyptian; Scott J. G., Indo-Chinese, 1928; v. 13, Complete Index to v. 1–12, 1932.

Reviews of the history of mythological. theories

Cocchiara J., History of folkloristics in Europe, trans. from Italian, M., 1960; Vries J. de, Forschungsgeschichte der Mythologie, Münch.–Freiburg, 1961; Katarov E., On the issue of modern classification. mythological theories, "Hermes", 1910, No. 13 (59), p. 337–341; his, Essay on modern times. states of mythological science, in: Questions of theory and psychology of creativity, vol. 5, X., 1913, p. 293–372; Lavrov P. L., Collection. op., series 5, no. 1. Articles on the history of religion, P., 1917 (the most important pp. 6–124); Gruppe Q., Geschichte der klassischen Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte während des Mittelalters im Abendland und während der Neuzeit, Lpz., 1921; Kern O., Die Religion der Griechen, Bd 1–3, V., 1926–1938 (the entire third volume is devoted to the history of mythological theories from Aristotle to Wilamowitz); Frantsev Yu. P., At the origins of religion and free thought, M.–L., 1959.

Antiquity and cf. century

Nestle W., Griechische Geistesgeschichte von Homer bis Lukian, Stuttg., , 2 Aufl., Stuttg., ; his, Die griechische Religiosität in ihren Grundzügen und Hauptvertretern von Homer bis Prokies, Bd 1–3, Lpz.–V., 1930–34 (Sammlung Göschen, No. 1032, 1066, 1080); Cornford F. M., From religion to philosophy, L., 1912; Nestle W., Vom Mythos zum Logos. Die Selbstentfaltung des griechischen Denkens von Homer bis auf die Sophistik und Sokrates, 2 Aufl., Stuttg., 1942; Вuffière F., Les mythes d "Homère et la pensée grecque, P., 1956; Stöcklein P., Über die philosophische Bedeutung von Piatons Mythen, Lpz., 1937; Hildebrandt K., Platon, Logos und Mythos, 2 Aufl., V., 1959; Hunger H., Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie mit Hinweisen auf das Fortwirken antiker Stoffe und Motive in der bildenden Kunst, Literatur und Musik des Abendlandes bis zur Gegenwart, 5 Aufl., W., 1959; von, Das Fortlebender antiken Götter im mittelalterlichen Humanismus, Bonn, 1922.

From the Renaissance to Romanticism (14th–18th centuries)

Boccaccio G., De genealogiis deorum, Venezia, 1472; nuova ed., v. 1–2 (Opera, v. 10–11), Bari, 1951; English trans., Princeton, 1930; Conti N., Mythologiae, siue Explicationum fabularum libri X, Venetiis, 1568; Vossius G., De theologia gentili, et physiologie Christiana, sive de origine ac progressu idololatriae..., liber 1–4, Amst., 1641, 2 ed., libri 1–9, Amst., 1668, 3 ed., Amst., 1675–79; Bason F., De dignitate et augmentis scientiarum libros, Opera, t. 1, L., 1623; Part 2 – De dignitate et augmentis soientiarum, avec une introduction et des notes par M. Mauxion, P., 1897; Bacon F., On the dignity and improvement of the sciences, Collection. cit., trans. P. A. Bibikova, part 1, St. Petersburg, 1874; Vico G. V., Principj di una Scienza nuova intorno alla natura della nazioni, Nap, 1725; Vico J., Foundations of a new science of the general nature of nations, trans. and comm. A. A. Gubera, under the general direction. ed. M. A. Lifshitz, Leningrad, 1940; Lafitau J. F., Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquaines, comparées aux moeurs des premiers temps, t. 1–2, P., 1724; Fontenelle B. de, Histoire des oracles, P., 1686, P., 1934; his, Discours sur l'origine des fables, in his book: Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes, P., 1724, P., 1932; Brosses C. de, Du culte des dieux fétiches, ou Parallèle de l'ancienne religion de l "Egypte avec la religion actuelle de Nigritie, P., 1760; Words: Dieu, Mythologie and several articles on the words Religion, in the edition: Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonnée des sciences, des arts et des métiers, V . 1–35, P., 1751–80.

Pre-Romanticism and Romanticism (late 18th – early 19th centuries)

[Macherson J.], The poems of Ossian, ed. by A. Clerk, v. 1–2, Edinburgh, 1870; Macpherson J., The Poems of Ossian, trans. and approx. E. V. Balabanova, St. Petersburg, 1890; Herder J. G. von, Über Ossian und die Lieder der alten Völker, Werke, Bd 2, Weimar, 1957; Herder I. G., Izbr. soch., M.–L., 1959; Heyne Ch. G., De causis fabularum seu mythorum physicis, Opuscula Academica collecta..., v. 1, Gott., 1785; Wieland S. M., Über den freien Gebrauch der Vernunft in Glaubenssachen, Sämtliche Werke, 1794–1805, Bd 30, Lpz., 1840; Dupuis Ch. F., Origine de tous les cultes, ou religion universelle, t. 1–7, P., 1795–96; v. 1–10, 1834; abbreviated ed., R., ; Moritz K. Ph., Götterlehre oder mythologische Dichtungen der Alten, V., 1791; 8 Aufl., V., 1843; Böttiger S. A., Ideen zur Kunst-Mythologie, Bd –2, Dresd.–Lpz., 1826–36; Schlegel Fr., Geschichte der alten und neuen Literatur, Tl 1–2, W., 1813; 2 Aufl., Bd 1–2, Regensburg, 1911; Schlegel F., History of ancient and modern literature, parts 1–2, St. Petersburg, 1829–30; Schlegel A. W., Über dramatische Kunst und Literatur. Vorlesungen, Tl 1–2, Hdlb., 1809–11; Bd 1–2, Bonn–Lpz., 1923; Arnim L. A. von und Brentano C., Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Alte deutsche Lieder. , Münch., ; Grimm J. L. K., Deutsche Mythologie, Gött., 1835, W.–Lpz., ; Grimm J. und Grimm W. K., Kinder- und Haus-Märchen, Bd 1–2, V., 1812–14, Bd 1–3, , Marburg, , B.; 1957; Сreuzer G. F., Symbolik und Mythologie der alten Völker, Bd 1–3, Lpz.–Darmstadt, 1810–12, 3 Aufl., Bd 1–4, Lpz.–Darmstadt, 1836–1843; Schelling F. W. J. von, Einleitung in die Philosophie der Mythologie, Sämtliche Werke, 2 Abt., Bd 1, Stuttg.–Ausburg, 1856; his, Philosophie der Mythologie, ibid., 2 Abt., Bd 2, Stuttg., 1857; compare: Allwohn A., Der Mythos bei Schelling, Charlottenburg, 1927; Görres J. von, Mythengeschichte der asiatischen Welt, Bd 1–2, Hdlb., 1810; Buttmann Ph., Mythologie oder gesammelte Abhandlungen über die Sagen des Alterthums, Bd 1–2, V., 1828–29; Hermann G., Opuscula, v. 1–8, Lpz., 1827–77: De mythologia Graecorum antiquissima, v. 2, Lpz., 1827, p. 167–95; De Atlante, v. 7, Lpz., 1839, p. 241–259; De Graeca minerva, in the same place, r. 260–84; De Apolline et Diana, pt 1–2, ibid., p. 285–315; his, Über das Wesen und die Behandlung der Mythologie. Ein Brief an Herrn H. Creuzer, Lpz., 1819; Voß J. H., Antisymbolik, T. 1–2, Stuttg., 1824–26; his, Mythologische Briefe, Bd 1–2, Königsberg, 1794; 2 Aufl., Bd 1–3, Stuttg., 1827, Bd 4–5, Lpz., 1834; Müller K. O., Prolegomena zu einer wissenschaftlichen Mythologie, Gött. , 1825; Leontyev P. M., On the worship of Zeus in ancient Greece, M., 1850; Lobesk Ch. A., Aglaophamus, t. 1–2, Königsberg, 1829.

Positivism (2nd half of the 19th – early 20th centuries)

Borrowing theory

Gruppe O., Die griechischen Culte und Mythen in ihren Beziehungen zu den orientalischen Religionen, Bd 1, Lpz., 1887; his, Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte, Bd 1–2, Münch., 1906; Сurtius E., Die Griechische Götterlehre vom geschichtlichen Standpunkt, in the book: Preussische Jahrbücher, Bd 36, H. 1, V., 1875; his, Studien zur Geschichte des griechischen Olymps, "Sitzungsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss.", 1890, S. 1141–56; Bérard V., De l'origine des cultes arcadiens, P., 1894; his, Les phéniciens et l'Odyssée, t. 1–2, P., 1902–1903; , P., 1927–29 (last 4 volumes under the title: Les navigations d "Ulysse); Stasov V.V., The origin of Russian epics, "Vesti. Europe", 1868, No. 1–4, 6–7 and in the book: Stasov V.V., Collected works, vol. 3, St. Petersburg, 1894; Potanin G.N., Eastern motifs in medieval Europe. epic, M., 1899; Veselovsky A. N., Slav. legends about Morolf and Merlin, St. Petersburg, 1872; Miller V. F., Ossetian etudes, parts 1–3, M. , 1881–87; Kuhn A., Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertranks, V., 1859.

"N iz sh a i M."

Schwartz F. L. W., Der Ursprung der Mythologie, V., 1860; his, Die poetischen Naturanschauungen der Griechen, Römer und Deutschen in ihrer Beziehung zur Mythologie, Bd 1–2, V., 1864–1879; by him, Indogermanischer Volksglaube, V., 1885; Mannhardt W., Die Korndämonen, V., 1868; his, Wald- und Feldkulte, Bd 1–2, V., 1875–1877; 2 Aufl., Bd 1–2, V., 1904–15; by him, Mythologische Forschungen, Stras., 1884.

Psychological theories

Lazarus M., Steinthal H., Einleitende Gedanken über Völkerpsychologie, "Z. Völkerpsychol. Sprachwiss.", 1860, Bd 1, H. 1; Welcker F. G., Griechische Götterlehre, Bd 1–3, Gött., 1857–63.

Animistic theories

Taylor E., Primitive culture, trans. from English, M., 1939; Lippert J., Die Religionen der europäischen Culturvölker, V., 1881; his, Der Seelencult in seinen Beziehungen zur althebräischen Religion, V., 1881; Lang A., Myth, ritual and religion, v. 1–2, L.–N. Y., 1887; new ed., v. 1–2, L.–N. Υ., 1899, , v. 1–2, L., 1913; Lang E., M., M., 1901; Spencer H., Principles of psvchology, L., 1855; him, Principles of sociology, v. 1–3, L., 1877–96, v. 1–3, N.Y.–L., 1925–29; Jevons F. V., An introduction to the history of religion, L., 1896, 2 ed., L., 1902; Frobenius L., Das Zeitalter des Sonnengottes, V., 1904; his, Die Weltanschauung der Naturvölker, Weimar, 1898; Ehrenreich P., Die allgemeine Mythologie und ihre ethnologischen Grundlagen, Lpz., 1910; Klinger V.P., Animals in ancient and modern times. superstitions, K., 1911; Marett R. R., The threshold of religion, L., , 2 ed., L., 1914

Sociological theories

Bachofen J. J., Das Mutterrecht Eine Untersuchung über die Gynaikokratie der alten Welt nach ihrer religiösen und rechtlichen Natur, Stuttg., 1861; compare: Kosven M. Ο., I. Ya. Bachofen and rus. science, "Soviet ethnography", 1946, No. 3; by him, Matriarchy, M.–L., 1948, p. 106–146; Huber H. et Mauss M., Etude sommaire de la représentation du temps dans la magie et la religion, in the book: Huber H. et Mauss M., Mélanges d'histoire des religions, P., 1909.

General history theories

Morgan G., Ancient society..., [L. ], 1934; Vinnikov I. N., From the archives of L. E. Morgana, M.–L., 1935; compare: Kosven M., L. G. Morgan, 2nd ed., Leningrad, 1935; Usener H., Die Sintfluthsagen, Bonn, 1899; his, Götternamen Versuch einer Lehre von der religiösen Begriffsbildung, Bonn, 1895, 2 Aufl., Bonn, 1929; Trubetskoy S.N., New theory of religious education. concepts, in the book: Χαριστήρια. Sat. Art. in philology and linguistics in Φ. E. Korsha, M., 1896, p. 299–332 (Usenera); Preller L., Griechische Mythologie, 4 Aufl., Bd 1–3, B., 1894–1926, Wilamowitz-Moellendorff U. von, Hephaistos, "Nachrichten Gött Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften", 1895; H. 1; his, Apollo, "Hermes", 1903, Bd 38; same, Der Glaube der Hellenen, Bd 1–2, V., 1931–32; , B., 1955; Nilsson M. P., Griechische Feste von religiöser Bedeutung mit Ausschluß der attischen, Lpz., 1906; his, The Mycenaean origin of Greek mythology, Berkeley (California), 1932; his, The minoan-mycenaean religion and its survival in Greek religion, 2 ed., Lund, 1950; his, Geschichte der griechischen Religion, 2 Aufl., Münch., Bd 1, 1955, Bd 2, 1950; Kern Ο., Die Religion der Griechen, Bd 1–3, V., 1926–38; Otto W. F., Die Götter Griechenlands, , Fr./M., 1947; Goock A., Zeus. A study in ancient religion, v. 1–3, Camb., 1914–40; Kerényi K., Die antike Religion, neue Ausg., Düsseldorf–Köln, 1952; Merzhinsky A., Study on Perseus among the ancient epics..., Warsaw, 1872; Vlastov G., Theogony of Hesiod and Prometheus, St. Petersburg, 1897; Zelinsky Φ. Φ., From the life of ideas, vol. 1–4, St. Petersburg, –22; 3rd ed., St. Petersburg, vol. 1, 1916, vol. 2, 1911; his, Introduction and will enter. essay in the book: Sophocles, Drama, vol. 1–3, M., 1914–15; his, Commentaries, in the book: Theater of Euripides [Plays], vol. 1–3, M., 1916–1921; his, Ancient Greek religion, Π., 1918; his, Religion of Hellenism, Π., 1922; Novosadsky N. I., Eleusinian Mysteries, St. Petersburg, 1887; his, The Cult of Kavirs in Ancient Greece, Warsaw, 1891; him, Orfich. hymns, Warsaw, 1900; Zhebelov S. A., On the religious antiquities of the island of Kosa, "J. Museum of Public Education", 1892, Department of Classics. Philology, part 284, Dec., p. 117–20; his, The Cult of Dimos and Charit in Athens, in the collection: Commentationes philologicae. Sat. Art. in honor of I.V. Pomyalovsky, St. Petersburg, 1897, p. 109–18; his, Parthenon in "Parthenon" (On the history of the cult of Athena the Virgin), "Bulletin of Ancient History", 1939, No. 2; him, Titan Iapetus, in the collection: Language and Literature, vol. 5, 1930, pp. 19–28; Kagarov E. Γ., Cult of fetishes, plants and animals in ancient Greece, St. Petersburg, 1913; Bogaevsky B. L., Zemdelch. religion of Athens, vol. 1, Π., 1916; Tolstoy I.I., Bely Island and Taurica on the Euxine Pontus, P., 1918; his, The Ancient World and the Modern. fairy tale, in the book: S. Φ. Oldenburg. To the 50th anniversary of scientific societies. activities, L., 1934, p. 523–34; his, Myth in Alexandrian Poetry, "Uch. zap. Leningrad. Pedagogical Institute", 1948, v. 67, p. 17–22.

Modern mythological theories (20th century)

Structural theories

Bogoraz (Tan) V. G., Einstein and religion, M.–P., 1923, Lévi-Strauss S., The structural study of myth, "J. Amer. Folklore", 1955, v. 68, oct.–dec., p. 428–444; his, Anthropologie structurale, P., , ch. 9–12, Symposium on the Structural Study of Sign Systems. Abstracts of reports, M., 1962.

Psychological and psychoanalyst. theories

Wundt W., Völkerpsychologie, Bd 4–6, Mythus und Religion, 3 Aufl., Lpz., 1920–23; 1 hour of this work has been translated into Russian. language: Myth and religion, St. Petersburg, ; compare: Lange N. N., W. Wundt’s theory of the beginning of myth, O., 1912; Freud Z., Lectures on introduction to, trans. [with German ] M.V. Vulfa, vol. 1–2, M.–P., ; 2nd ed., M.–P., 1923; his, Totem and Taboo, trans. [with German ] M. V. Vulfa, M.–P., [b. G. ]; his, Psychopathology of everyday life, 2nd ed., M., 1923; him, I and it, trans. from German, L., 1924; his, Psychology of the masses and analysis of the human “I”, trans. from German, M., 1925; him, The Future of One Illusion, trans. from German, M.–L., 1930; him, Interpretation of Dreams, trans. from German, M., 1913; Abraham K., Dream and Myth, trans. from German, M., 1912; Wittels F., Freud His, teaching and school, trans. from German, L., 1925; Wells G., Pavlov and Freud, trans. from English, M., 1959; Kosov M. B., Marxist criticism of psychoanalysis, "Problems of Philosophy", 1959, No. 11; Wells G., Freudianism and its modern times. "reformers", "Questions of Philosophy", 1959, No. 12, 1960, No. 1; Mikhailov Φ. T., Tsaregorodtsev G.I., Beyond the threshold of consciousness, M., 1961; Mansurov N. S., Sovrem. bourgeois , M., 1962; Jung S. G., Wandlungen und Symbole der, Lpz.–W., 1912; Jung S. G., Kerényi K., Einführung in das Wesen der Mythologie. Das gottliche Kind. Das göttliche Mädchen, , Z., , S. 105–148, 230–50; Lévy-Bruhl L., Primitive thinking, trans. from French, M., 1930; his, The Supernatural in Primitive Thinking, trans. from French, M., 1937, compare: Tiander K., On the principles of mysticism. worldview, in: Questions of theory and psychology of creativity, vol. 5, X., 1914, p. 417–78. sacerdotales de l"épopée grecque t 1–3, P., 1943; his, L"épopée indoue Etude de l"arrière-fonds ethnographique et religieux P., 1946; compare: Anglo-American ethnography in the service of imperialism. Sat. . Art., M., 1951; Mireaux È., Les poéms homériques et l "histoire grecque, v. 1–2, P., 1948–49; Carpenter R., Folk tall, fiction and saga in the Homeric epics, Berkley–Los Ang., 1949, Vries J. de, Betrachtungen zum Märchen, besonders in seinem Verhältnis zu Heldensage und Mythos, Hels., 1954; Baudouin Ch., Le triomphe de héros. Étude psychoanalytique sur le mythe du héros et les grandes épopées P., 1952; Hyman S. E., The ritual view of myth and the mythic, "J. Amer. Folklore" 1955, v. 68, No. 270; Bogatyrev P., Actes magiques, rites croyances en Russie subcarpathique (Travaux publiés par l "Institut d"études slaves, 9) P., 1929; Propp V. Ya., Morphology of a fairy tale, L., 1928; him, Historic. roots of a fairy tale, L., 1946; him, Rus. heroic epic, 2nd ed., M., 1958; Zhirmunsky V. M., Nar. heroic epic Comparative-historical essays, M.–L., 1962; Nart epic. Materials of the meeting, Ordzhonikidze, 1957; Meletinsky E. M., The origin of the heroic epic. Early forms and archaic. monuments, M., 1963. "Questions of Life", 1905, No. 6, 7; him, Nietzsche and Dionysus, in the book: Ivanov Vyach., By the Stars, St. Petersburg, 1909, p. 1–20; his, Dionysus and Proto-Dionysianism, Baku, 1923; Lezin B., From the draft notes of A. A. Potebnya on myth, in: Questions of theory and psychology of creativity, vol. 5, X., 1914, p. 494–509; Cassirer E., Philosophie der symbolischen Formen, Bd 2, Das mythische Denken, B., 1925; his, Sprache und Mythos, Lpz., 1925; Losev A.F., Dialectics of Myth, M., 1930, Jolies A, Einfache Formen, 2 Aufl., Halle, 1956; Buess E., Die Geschichte des mythischen Erkennens, Münch., 1953; Weigl L., Kosmos und Arche. Eine philosophische Untersuchung vom Anfang der griechischen Philosophie bis Platon. Mit einem Nachwort über die Beziehungen dieses Themas zur Existentialphilosophie M. Heideggers, Würzburg, (Diss.); Dienelt K., Existentialismus bei Homer, in the book: Festschrift zur 250-Jahr-Feier des Bundesrealgymnasiums in Wien, Tl 1, W., 1951, S. 151–59; Vсinas V., Earth and gods. An introduction to the philosophy of M. Heidegger, The Hague, 1961, ch. 5.

A. Losev. Moscow.

Philosophical Encyclopedia. In 5 volumes - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Edited by F. V. Konstantinov. 1960-1970 .

MYTHOLOGY

MYTHOLOGY (from the Greek μΰΰος - tradition, legend and λόγος - word, concept, teaching) - a form of social consciousness; a way of understanding natural and social reality, characteristic of the early stages of the development of society. Mythology is focused on overcoming the fundamental antinomies of human existence, on the harmonization of society, personality and nature. In the consciousness of the primitive collective, mythology dominates. A consequence of man’s inability to isolate himself from the surrounding world and the syncretism of primitive thinking, its fusion with the emotional, affective sphere, became a metaphysical comparison of natural and cultural (social) objects, the humanization of the environment natural environment, including the animation of fragments of space. Mythological thinking is characterized by a vague separation of subject and object, object and sign, being and its name, spatial and temporal relations, origin and essence, indifference to contradiction, etc. Objects came closer in secondary sensory qualities, contiguity in space and time, appeared in as signs of other objects. The rational principle of explaining things and the world as a whole was replaced in mythology by a story about origin and creation. Within the myth, the diachronic (story of the past) and synchronic (explanation of the present or future) aspects were usually combined, but at the same time, mythological time, i.e. early (sacred), and current, subsequent (profane) time were sharply demarcated. A mythological event is separated from the present moment by a large time interval and embodies not just the past, but a special time of first creation, first objects and first actions. Everything that happened in mythical time acquires the meaning of a paradigm and a precedent, that is, a model for subsequent reproduction. Thus, modeling turns out to be a specific function of myth. If a scientific generalization is built on the basis of logical procedures, movement from the concrete to the abstract and from causes to consequences, then the mythological generalization operates with the concrete and personal, taken as a sign. The hierarchy of causes and consequences corresponds to hypostatization, a hierarchy of mythological creatures that has semantic and value significance. What's in scientific analysis acts as another type of relationship, in mythology it looks like identity, division into parts. The content of the myth seemed real to the primitive consciousness in the highest sense, since it embodied the collective, “reliable” experience of understanding life by many previous generations, which served as a subject of faith, not criticism. Myths approved the system of values ​​​​accepted in a given society, sanctioned and supported certain norms of behavior.

The mythological attitude to the world was expressed not only in stories, but also in actions (rites, dances, etc.). Myth and ritual in archaic cultures constituted a known (worldview, functional, structural), representing, as it were, two aspects of primitive culture - verbal and effective, “theoretical” and “practical”. Even in the early stages of development, mythology is combined with religious and mystical rituals and becomes an essential part of religious beliefs. Being an undivided, synthetic unity, mythology included the beginnings of not only religion, but also philosophy, political theories, various forms of art, which complicates the task of delimiting mythology and forms of verbal creativity close to it in genre and time of origin: fairy tales, heroic epics, legends , historical legend. The mythological basis can also be traced in the later, “classical” epic. Literature is connected with mythology through fairy tales and heroic epics.

After the final separation from mythology, various forms of social consciousness continued to use myth as their “language,” expanding and reinterpreting mythological symbols. In the 20th century, for example, there was a conscious appeal to mytholoshi by writers of various directions: in the works of J. Joyce, F. Kafka, T. Mann, G. Marquez, J. Giraudoux, J. Cocteau, J. Anouilh and others. both rethinking of various mythological traditions and direct “mythologizing”.

Some features of mythological thinking are preserved in the mass consciousness along with elements of philosophical and scientific knowledge, strict scientific logic. Under certain conditions, mass consciousness can serve as a basis for the spread of “social” (“political”) myth. Thus, German Nazism revived and used ancient German pagan mythology and at the same time itself created various myths - racial, etc. In general, however, mythology as a stage of social consciousness has historically outlived its usefulness.

STUDYING MYTHOLOGY. Attempts at a rational approach to mythology were made back in Antiquity, and the allegorical interpretation of myths predominated (among the Sophists, Stoics, Pythagoreans). Plato contrasted mythology in the popular understanding with its philosophical and symbolic interpretation. Euhemerus (4th-3rd centuries BC) saw in mythical images the deification of real historical figures, laying the foundation for the “euhemeric” interpretation of myths, which was widespread later. Medieval Christian theologians discredited ancient mythology; interest in it was revived among the humanists of the Renaissance, who saw in myths the expression of the feelings and passions of a liberated and self-aware individual.

The emergence of comparative mythology was associated with the discovery of America and acquaintance with the culture of the American Indians (J. F. Lafiteau). In Vico’s philosophy, which potentially contained almost all subsequent directions in the study of mythology, the originality of the “divine poetry” of myth is associated with special forms of thinking (comparable to the psychology of a child), which are characterized by concreteness, corporeality, emotionality, and anthropomorphization of the world and its constituent elements. Figures of the French Enlightenment (B. Fontenelle, Voltaire, Diderot, Montesquieu, etc.) viewed mythology as superstition, a product of ignorance and deception. The transitional stage from the Enlightenment view to the romantic one was formed by the concept of Herder, who interpreted mythology as the poetic wealth and wisdom of the people. Romanticism, completed by Schelling, interpreted mythology as a phenomenon occupying an intermediate position between nature and art. The main meaning of the romantic philosophy of myth was to replace the allegorical interpretation with a symbolic one.

In the 2nd half of the 19th century. Two main schools of mythological studies opposed each other. The first of them was based on the achievements of comparative historical linguistics and developed the linguistic concept of myth (A. Kuhn, V. Schwartz, W. Manhardt, M. Muller, F. I. Buslaev, A. N. Afanasyev, A. A. Potebnya and etc.). According to Müller’s views, primitive man designated abstract concepts through concrete signs using metaphorical epithets, and when the original meaning of the latter was forgotten or obscured, due to semantic shifts, a myth arose (interpretation of myth as a “disease of the language”). Subsequently

This concept was recognized as untenable, but the experience of using language to reconstruct myth itself was very productive. The second school - anthropological, or evolutionist - emerged in Great Britain as a result of the first scientific steps of comparative ethnography. Mythology was raised to animism, that is, to the idea of ​​the soul that arises in the “savage” from thoughts about death, dreams, illnesses, and was identified with a kind of primitive science; With the development of culture, mythology becomes nothing more than a relic, losing its independent meaning. A serious rethinking of this theory was proposed by J. Fraser, who interpreted the myth not as a conscious attempt to explain the surrounding world, but as a cast of a magical ritual. Fraser's ritualistic concept was developed by the Cambridge school of classical philology (D. Harrison, F. Cornford, A. Cook, G. Murray), and in the 1930s-40s. the ritualistic school took a dominant position (S. Hook, T. Hester, E. James, etc.), but its extremes caused fair criticism (K. Kluckhohn, W. Bascom, W. Greenway, J. Fontenrose, C. Levi-Strauss ). The English ethnographer B. Malinovsky laid the foundation for the functional school in ethnology, attributing to myth primarily the practical functions of maintaining tradition and the continuity of tribal culture. Representatives of the French sociological school (E. Durkheim, L. Lévy-Bruhl) paid attention to the modeling in mythology of the characteristics of the clan organization. Subsequently, the study of mythology shifted to the area of ​​specific mythological thinking. Lévy Bruhl considered primitive thinking to be “pre-logical,” that is, thinking in which collective ideas serve as an object of faith and are imperative in nature. He considered the “mechanisms” of mythological thinking to be non-compliance with the logical law of the excluded middle (objects can be both themselves and something else at the same time), the law of participation (mystical involvement of a totemic group and any object, phenomenon), heterogeneity of space, qualitative character ideas about time, etc.

The symbolic theory of myth, developed by E. Cassirer, deepened the understanding of the intellectual originality of myth as an autonomous symbolic form of culture that models the world in a special way. The works of W. Wundt emphasized the role of affective states and dreams in the genesis of myth. This line of interpretation was continued by Z. Freud and his followers, who saw in myth the expression of unconscious mental complexes. According to the point of view of C. G. Jung, various manifestations human fantasy (myth, poetry, dreams) are associated with collective subconscious myth-like symbols - the so-called. archetypes. These primary images of collective fantasy act as “categories” that organize external representations. Jung also showed a tendency towards excessive psychologization of myth and expansion of its understanding to a product of the imagination in general. Lévi-Strauss's structuralist theory of myth, without denying the concreteness and metaphorical nature of mythological thinking, at the same time affirmed its ability for generalization, classification and logical analysis; The structural method was used to clarify these procedures. Levi-Strauss saw in myth a tool for resolving fundamental contradictions through mediation - replacing the fundamental opposition with softer opposites.

In Russian science, the study of mythology proceeded mainly along two channels: the work of ethnographers and the research of philologists - mainly “classics”, as well as semiotic linguists who turned to mythology when developing problems of semantics. The main object of study by ethnographers (works by V. G. Bogoraz, L. Ya. Steinberg, A. M. Zolotarev, S. A. Tokarev, A. F. Anisimov, B. I. Sharevskaya, etc.) is the relationship between mythology and religion , as well as reflection in religious myths industrial practice And social organization. And F. Losev noted the coincidence in myth of the general idea and the sensory image, the inseparability of the ideal and the material. In the 1920-30s. in the works of I.M. Troysky, I.I. Tolstoy and others, the problems of ancient mythology in relation to folklore were developed. M. M. Bakhtin showed that folk carnival (ancient and medieval) culture served as an intermediate link between ritual primitive culture and fiction. The core of the research of structuralist linguists V.V. Ivanov and V.I. Toporov are experiments in the reconstruction of ancient Balto-Slavic and Indo-European mythological semantics using modern semiotics. Semiotics methods are used in the works of E. M. Meletinskoto general theory myth.

Lit.: LangE. Mythology, trans. from French M., 1903; Vuidt V. Myth and religion, trans. with him. St. Petersburg, 1913; Freud 3. Totem and taboo, trans. with him. M.-P., 1923; Lévy-BruhlL. Primitive thinking, trans. from French M., 1930; Losev A.F. Ancient mythology in its historical development. M., 1957; Tokarev S. A. What is mythology? - In the collection: Questions of the history of religion and atheism, vol. 10. M., 1962; Zolotarev A. M. Tribal system and primitive mythology. M., 1964; Cassidy F. X. From myth to logos. M., 1972; Ivanov V.V., Toporov V.N. Research in the field of Slavic antiquities. M., 1974; Meletinsky E. M. Poetics of myth. M., 1976; Station-Kamensky M. I. Myth. L., 1976; Freidenberg O. M. Myth and literature of antiquity. M., 1980; Myths of the peoples of the world, vol. 1-2. M., anthropology. M., 1985; Golosovker Ya.E. The logic of myth. M., 1987; Hubcher K. The Truth of Myth. M., 1996; CashierE. Philosophie der symbolischen Formen, Bd. 2 - Das mythische Denken. B., 1925; CampbeliJ. The Masks of God, v. 1-4. N.Y., 1959-68; EliadeM. Aspects du mythe. P., 1963; Lévi-Strauss S. Mythologiques, vol. 1-4. P., 1964-71; Kirk G. S. Myth, its meaning and functions in ancient and other cultures. Cambn-Berk.-Los Ang., 1970.

Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

On the one hand, this concept hides the first historically established form of culture. On the other hand, the myth traces the changes that took place in the mental life of a person. Moreover, we still see them today, when these ancient legends have long lost their dominance.

In scientific terms, the essence of myth is nothing more than the semantic unconscious kinship of people with the forces of existence of nature or society. But if we consider the everyday understanding of this concept, then it means biblical, ancient, and other ancient “tales” telling about the creation of man and the world, as well as stories about the adventures of ancient heroes and gods - Odysseus and Zeus, Dionysus and Apollo, etc. .d.

And it is not surprising that the word “myth” has its roots in Ancient Greece. Translated from the language of this people, it means “legend”, “tradition”. What does the word “mythology” mean?

Definition of the concept

The meaning of the words “myth” and “mythology” are close in meaning. And if we are already familiar with the first of them, then what does the second concept indicate? The meaning of the word “mythology” is “statement of legends.” This is its literal translation from Greek. At the same time, the origin of the word “mythology” becomes clear. It is closely related to ancient tales and legends and means their retelling from one person to another. This is the opinion of the majority of ordinary people. Based on the fact that legends are represented by ancient fairy tales and entertaining stories about heroes and gods who lived in ancient times, mythology is considered a collection of such stories that have nothing to do with reality.

However, scientists have a slightly different opinion on this matter. Their definition of the word “mythology” is an expression of a special type of social consciousness, a unique way of understanding the surrounding reality, which was inherent in people in the early stages of development. Ancient man considered himself one with nature. Such unity led to the understanding of the world as something living. For a person who lived in ancient times, space and stone, light and river, tree and stone were as alive as all people. At the same time, the main rule in that period was that the world relates to a person in the same way as he relates to every thing in it. That is why people began to animate nature, personify things and phenomena, and compare everything that surrounds them with society. They transferred either their properties to objects in the surrounding world, which is called anthropomorphism, or animals (that is, zoomorphism). Thanks to this, bizarre mythological fiction was born. An example of this is the ancient Greek centaur, as well as the East Slavic winged dog Simargl. People also transferred tribal relations to nature. We can also see this in myths, where between heroes, spirits and gods there are family and clan ties, similar to human ones.

Syncretism as a characteristic feature of ancient legends

What is mythology? This is a concept whose main features are syncretism and symbolism, geneticism and etiology. Let's take a closer look at them.

The word "syncretism" in translation means "connection". This is a concept that characterizes mythology as knowledge, which is undifferentiated due to its underdevelopment. If we consider modern ideas about the world, then it can be divided into a number of branches, each of which in its own way comprehends certain facts of reality. In ancient times, people tried to explain everything with myths alone. For example, why does it rain, how the world came into being, where people came from, and why they get sick from time to time and die at the end of their lives.

In myths we can see the beginnings of various forms of art, religion, as well as rational knowledge passed on to future generations. Already in the early stages of the development of human society, legends created by people were closely related to religious rituals and beliefs. Myths affirmed and transmitted the system of norms of behavior and values ​​accepted in human society. Our ancestors considered the content of such legends to be real, since they contained the collective experience of a number of generations, which was an object of faith and was not subject to critical rethinking.

Ancient man had undifferentiated thinking. And this clearly manifested itself in mythological consciousness, which did not distinguish between phenomenon and essence, word and thing, name and the named. In the narration of the ancient legend, all objects are brought together in their external sensory characteristics. An example of this is lightning with an arrow.

Symbolism

What is mythology? This is an attempt at explanation natural phenomena, when a person did not even try to go deeper into the search for the essence. That is why in ancient legends the externally similar was presented as nothing other than identical. This is the second important property of mythology, that is, symbolism. What happens when this happens? Certain objects, as well as phenomena, turn into signs of other objects and phenomena. In other words, they begin to symbolically replace them.

Genetism

Very often in ancient legends, people passed off the origin of an object as its essence. This property is called “geneticism”. Translated from Greek, this word means “origin”, “birth”.

In mythology, an explanation of a thing or phenomenon means a story about its occurrence.

Etiology

This property, inherent in mythology, has a direct connection with geneticism. Translated from Greek, this concept means cause. From myths, people learned why all natural phenomena, surrounding objects, as well as living beings are exactly the way they are. In all ancient legends, the story about the structure of the world looked like a story about the origin of certain of its elements. At the same time, we can familiarize ourselves with a number of actual etiological legends. These are myths that are short stories that explain the characteristics of a phenomenon or object.

Considering the geneticism and etiology of ancient legends, one significant detail becomes obvious. It refers to the moment of the origin of a thing or mythological time. It has sharp differences from the period of the story. Moreover, such mythological time has a sacred (sacred) character and serves as a model for the repetition of events at the present moment.

From all of the above, we can conclude that myths are far from legends, fairy tales or funny stories. This is a heritage that reflects ancient knowledge. Moreover, what is mythology? It is nothing more than the most ancient way by which people comprehended the world around them, while explaining not only natural phenomena and other existing order of things. With the help of mythology, man learned how he should act in this world.

Grouping of ancient tales

The myths of the various peoples inhabiting our planet are very diverse. However, if you study them, you will notice some similar motives, themes and features in these tales. Such properties made it possible to classify myths, uniting them into certain groups.

Most of the ancient legends were written about animals. Such myths often told about those representatives of the fauna world whom people considered their ancestors. These are the so-called totem animals. However, this group includes myths of a slightly different nature. They talk about how sometimes a person turned into an animal. An example of this is one of the ancient Greek myths about the weaver Arachne. This skilled craftswoman was turned into a spider by Athena. This group also includes the East Slavic myth, which talks about Volkh Vseslavovich, the werewolf prince.

Another type of ancient legends is astral. These are myths that tell us about the heavenly bodies. Sometimes they are divided into additional subgroups. Thus, legends about planets and stars are distinguished separately. There are also solar myths about the Sun and lunar myths about the Moon. The central group includes tales telling about the origin of the cosmos. They are called cosmogonic. Stories about the appearance of gods (theogony) are often woven into such legends, which leads to the emergence of complex mythological complexes - theocosmogonies.

In a separate group are myths that explain the origin of man. They are called anthropogony. Very often they are included in cosmogony, although independent narratives can also be found.

Eschatological myths telling about the end of the world have a close connection with comogonies. These tales sometimes pointed to a time when the world would cease to exist.

Ancient peoples assigned an important place to myths that spoke about the origin of existing cultural goods. These are the skills and objects that heroes of legends and tales passed on to people. In some cases, this happened personally. An example of this is the Karelian-Finnish Väinämeänen. Sometimes the heroes of mythology stole cultural goods from the gods. For example, like the ancient Greek Prometheus.

The gods of Slavic mythology did not stand aside either. For example, there is a legend about how people learned blacksmithing. According to him, the god Svarog dropped pincers directly from the sky to the Slavs.

Calendar myths tell us about the culture of ancient peoples engaged in agriculture. They reflect the cyclical nature that is inherent in natural processes. The unchanging series of times and their repetition were reflected in the tales of dying and rising gods. In Egyptian mythology it was Osiris. In Phenicia - Adonis. In Thrace - Dionysus. Among the Slavs - Yarilo.

The groups of myths listed above are the largest. However, there are many other legends. They talk about fate and death, the afterlife.

As in many other areas, classification in mythology is rather arbitrary. But even this distinction above allows us to orient ourselves as best as possible in the endless and confusing labyrinths of this direction.

Tales and religion

What is mythology? These are narratives that have a close connection with human religious beliefs. After all, in both of them there are ritual actions and appeals to the gods, to spirits and to miraculous phenomena. But unlike religious beliefs, in myths supernatural forces are assigned a secondary role. Appeal to them is necessary only to explain natural phenomena.

As for religious ideas, the supernatural played a major role in them. In this case, all ongoing processes are made completely dependent on the wishes of the gods.

At a certain stage of development of human society, religious consciousness took a dominant position. At the same time, myths became part of a belief system. At the same time, they retreated into the background.

Thus, we can say that mythological consciousness is a certain stage in the development of human consciousness. And the path through it was passed by every nation.

Ancient mythology

It includes those legends that told people about the gods and goddesses, heroes and demons of Rome and Hellas. The word “antique” itself translated from Latin means “ancient”. Moreover, here you can include not only any Greek myth, but also Roman. Together they create a single community. That is why in some sources there is such a thing as “Greco-Roman mythology”.

Already the most ancient monuments of Greek creativity indicate the predominance of concrete ideas over abstract ones among this people. Moreover, the quantitative ratio of humanoid gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines clearly outweighs the number of deities with abstract meaning.

About whom, as a rule, were ancient myths composed? These are heroes born from the marriages of gods with mortals. In legends, such people were described as having enormous strength, as well as superhuman capabilities, without being endowed with immortality. The heroes of mythology carried out the will of the deities on earth and brought justice and order into ordinary life. They performed various feats, for which they were revered by people. The most famous heroes of ancient Roman-Greek mythology are:

1. Hercules. Being the son of Zeus and Alimene, he possessed remarkable strength. During his life, he performed twelve feats, about which myths were composed.
2. Achilles. This son of the sea goddess Thetis and King Pepeus was raised by the centaur Chiron. From myths we know about Achilles as a mighty young man, excellent with weapons, and also familiar with singing and musical instruments. Legends passed down from generation to generation tell of his exploits during the Trojan War.
3. Perseus. This is the son of Zeus and Danae, the daughter of the king of Argos. Many myths tell of his miraculous deeds. Some of them are the destruction of the gorgon Medusa, the salvation of the daughter of King Kepheus - the beautiful Andromeda, whom he later married, and many others.
4. Odysseus. Myths tell us about this king of the island of Ithaca as a clever and cunning man. While participating in the Trojan War, they were asked to build a wooden horse in which the best warriors hid, and leave it near the walls of the besieged city. The trick was a success. The Greeks took possession of Troy. And this is only one of the many exploits of Odysseus, about which ancient legends were formed.

Myths of China

The legends and tales of the people of this country had a special feature. The heroes of Chinese mythology were presented as real figures of ancient times. The main characters of the tales often turned into emperors and rulers, and the minor characters into officials, dignitaries, etc.

Totemistic ideas were of great importance in Chinese mythology. For example, the Yin Qi tribes had a swallow as a totem, and the Xia tribes had a snake. Somewhat later, the bird gradually transformed into fenghuang and became a symbol of the empress. The snake became the dragon (moon), which commanded water and rain, thunderstorms, and was associated with underground forces. This totem became a symbol of the sovereign.

The most famous heroes of Chinese myths:

Yeaxian is a group of eight immortal characters who bring good luck;

Rong-Cheng, who was a teacher and magician capable of achieving immortality, and who was credited with the invention of the calendar;

Hou Yi is the son of the supreme god, a remarkable shooter who received the elixir of immortality, and also subjugated the winds that devastated the country to his will;

Huangdi - this huge hero with the face of a dragon, a solar horn, four eyes and four faces in Chinese mythology is the personification of the magical powers of the earth itself.

Tales of the Slavs

Many mythological texts created by these people in pagan times have not reached us. The reason for this was the lack of writing, as well as the decisive struggle waged by the Christian Church against this belief. However, those mythological ideas that were characteristic of the Eastern Slavs were reflected in the works of some writers. Motifs of folk tales can be seen in the works of N.V. Gogol, A.S. Pushkin and others. Slavic mythology is also reflected in the poetry of S. Yesenin. His poems describe customs and traditions folk beliefs, which are far from the Orthodox canons.

In a unique work that has survived to this day ancient Rus'“The Tale of Igor’s Host” combines pagan symbols with Christian ones. This legend mentions many gods: Veles and Stribog, Khars and Div, Karona and Zhelya, Troyan and Dazhbog. Considering the mythology in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” one can point out the presence of many other images. Among them are Christian (icon) and poeticized (falcon, cuckoo, raven, swan), as well as unsolved ones (Virgin of Offense, Boyan, etc.).