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Writing Down the Myths PDF

336 Pages·2012·15.605 MB·English
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Writing Down the Myths CURSOR MUNDI Cursor Mundi is produced under the auspices of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, University of California, Los Angeles Executive Editor Blair Sullivan, University of California, Los Angeles Editorial Board Michael D. Bailey, Iowa State University Christopher Baswell, Columbia University and Barnard College Florin Curta, University of Florida Elizabeth Freeman, University of Tasmania Yitzhak Hen, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Lauren Kassell, Pembroke College, Cambridge David Lines, University of Warwick Cary Nederman, Texas A&M University Teofilo Ruiz, University of California, Los Angeles Previously published volumes in this series are listed at the back of the book. Volume 17 Writing Down the Myths Edited by Joseph Falaky Nagy British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Writing down the myths. -- (Cursor mundi ; 17) 1. Myth--History. 2. Mythologists--History. I. Series II. Nagy, Joseph Falaky editor of compilation. 809.9'15-dc23 ISBN-13: 9782503542188 © 2013, Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. D/2013/0095/79 ISBN: 978-2-503-54218-8 e-ISBN: 978-2-503-54259-1 Printed on acid-free paper Contents Illustrations vii Editor’s Preface ix Are Myths Inside the Text or Outside the Box? JOSEPH FALAKY NAgY 1 Packaging greek Mythology WILLIAM HANSEN 19 The ‘myth before the myth began’ RICHARD MARTIN 45 Starving the Slender Muse: Identity, Mythography, and Intertextuality in Ovid’s Ibis DARCY KRASNE 67 Medieval Latin Mythography as Death and Resurrection of Myth JAN ZIOLKOWSKI 87 Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid: Celtic Myth and Christian Creed in Medieval Irish Concepts of the Afterlife BERNHARD MAIER 107 Vessels of Myth KIMBERLY BALL 137 vi Contents ‘Venerable relics’? Re-visiting the Mabinogi SIONED DAVIES 157 Caesar’s Sword, Proud Britons, and galfridian Myths of Discontinuity KATHERINE McLOONE 181 Snorri Sturluson and the Construction of Norse Mythography MARgARET CLUNIES ROSS 201 Thor and the Midgard Serpent: Whom Should We Read, Snorri or Finnur? gíSLI SIgURðSSON 223 Some Thoughts on Saxo’s Euhemerism JOHN LINDOW 241 Motivations for Hittite Mythological Texts H. CRAIg MELCHERT 257 India and the graphy o’ Myth STEPHANIE W. JAMISON 265 Myth and Counter-Myth in Early Modern Japan WILLIAM M. BODIFORD 277 Index 311 Illustrations Figures Figure 1, p. 30. The author beside a pithos. Figure 2, p. 31. Pithoi in the Minoan palace at Knossos, Crete. Figure 3, p. 32. Dante gabriel Rossetti, Pandora (1869). Figure 4, p. 34. John William Waterhouse, Pandora (1896). Figure 5, p. 35. Pandora’s Planet, cover illustrated by Kelly Freas (Daw, 1972). Figure 6, p. 72. Lines 469–500 of Ovid’s Ibis in schematized form. Figure 7, p. 74. ‘Those destroyed by their teams of horses’ (Hyginus, Fabulae, 250) and ‘Those struck by lightning’ (Ovid, Ibis, ll. 468–76). Figure 8, p. 287. Nihon Shoki Jindai Kan (History of Japan: Books on the Div ine Age), printed by the royal command of go-Yōzei (1572–1617), movable- type edition, bk i, leaf 1r. 1599. Figure 9, p. 296. Kojiki (Ancient Accounts), 1644 edition, bk i, leaf 4v. 1644. Figure 10, p. 298. Kojiki-den (Ancient Accounts Conveyed), by Motoori Norinaga (1730–1801), undated reprint of 1790 edition, bk iii, leaf 1r. Figure 11, p. 300. Kojiki (Ancient Accounts), 1644 edition, bk i, leaf 6r. 1644. Figure 12, p. 302. Kojiki-den (Ancient Accounts Conveyed), by Motoori Norinaga (1730–1801), undated reprint of 1790 edition, bk iv, leaf 14v. Tables Table 1, p. 75. Variations on the parentage and death of Linus. Table 2, p. 78. Catalogue opening by theme. Editor’s Preface Joseph Falaky Nagy Contemporary scholarly definitions of and approaches to myth, though profoundly affected over the last two hundred centuries by the fieldwork and findings of anthropologists and folklorists who have worked with living oral traditions, are still to a great extent indebted to classical greek and Roman, and medieval European masterpieces of mythography — literary compendia that purport to sum up ancient traditional stories about gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines, primal events, and/or the beginnings of the world. Such texts, which weave narrative materials from oral tradition and from earlier literature into mythologies, have in some cases become canonical formulations serving as sources, templates, and inspirations for other literary and scholarly works, both within their own literary-historical contexts and well beyond them. There are cases, however, where these codified mythologies served as epitaphs, seemingly marking the end of particular (oral) traditions instead of their (literary) revival. The essays in this volume examine the various agenda (literary, cultural, political) that led to the production of mythological collections in the classical and late antique world, and the extent to which the agenda that produced comparable works in certain medieval cultures of northwest Europe (Ireland, Wales, Iceland, Denmark) operated along similar or even historically related lines. Some of the essays, on the other hand, offer fascinating comparanda from non-European literary traditions: Hittite, Japanese, and Indic. As all of those know who participated in the 2009 UCLA conference on ‘Writing Down the Myths’ that gave birth to this publication, medievalists, clas- sicists, and scholars from a variety of disciplines can all learn a great deal from each other’s expertise in regard to the establishment of mythological canons in earlier times. The questions we invited those participants and the contributors to this volume to address include: How ‘authentic’ are classical and medieval x Editor’s Preface mythographies, and how do we determine that authenticity? To what uses were they put in the ancient and medieval worlds? What was the transmission his- tory of pre-medieval mythographic works in the Middle Ages, and to what extent and to whom were they available as models to the post-classical world? What and whence was the ‘mythographic urge’ behind medieval works such as the Welsh Mabinogi and Snorri’s Edda? Are such compositions attempts to negotiate received or developing concepts of history, or are they revivals of meta-historical poetics? What are the differences in function, approach, and subtext between these premodern ‘write-ups’ of myth and modern popular handbooks of mythol- ogy? And is mythography to be found in every culture that develops a written tradition, or is it a particular characteristic of greek, Roman, and classically influ- enced cultures? The above-mentioned conference, ‘Writing Down the Myths: The Construc- tion of Mythology in Classical and Medieval Traditions’ (16–18 April 2009) was sponsored by the Ahmanson Foundation and by the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. I wish to thank the Director of the CMRS, Brian Copenhaver, its staff, Karen Burgess, Benay Furtivo, and Brett Landenberger, and the co-organizer of the conference, Kendra Willson, for their unstinting support, as well as Dr Blair Sullivan, Publications Director of the CMRS, for her genial encouragement and sage advice. Thanks are also due to all the participants, who generously offered the essays contained herein and patiently tolerated the queries of their editor. I also note with gratitude the moral and logistical support given to the conference by the members of the teaching staff of the UCLA general Education Cluster Course ge 30, ‘Neverending Stories: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Myth’: Malcolm Harris, Stephanie Jamison, gregory Kendrick, Eric Kristensson, Katherine McLoone, Anna Pagé, Timothy Tangherlini, and Elizabeth Thornton. What we all learned from the conference served us in good stead indeed as we launched the course in the Fall of 2009, and the memory of the conference still inspires those of us involved in ge 30 as we prepare to teach the course once again in the upcoming year.

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