1、天 津 师 范 大 学英 语 选 课结 课 论 文课程名称：中西神话比较课程性质： 选修上课学期： 20092010 年度第 2 学期院 系：文学院 汉语言文学姓 名： 李颖 学 号： 07501047 The common features of mythologies in different nations07501047 李颖 文学院 08 辅修一班Abstract: Myth was born in childhood of human being.It is a culture phenomenon in civilized society. Myth potentially in
2、fluences modern peoples life via deities and mens stories from background ,custom and some other aspects.Key words: flood story founding myth hero stoyyMyth was born in childhood of human being.It is a culture phenomenon in civilized society.Today, as the cultural origin of civilized nation,myth has
3、 been a natural wide accumulation after several thousand years change.It is a produce of ancient sages imaginations,which can conquer nature,dominate nature and make the power of nature have its own image.Myth potentially influences modern peoples life via deities and mens stories from background ,c
4、ustom and some other aspects.Comparative mythology has uncovered a number of parallels between the myths of different cultures, including some very widespread recurring themes and plot elements. Here are some examples.The Flood story-Noahs Ark and Yu The Great Subdues The FloodCultures around the wo
5、rld tell stories about a great flood.In many cases, the flood leaves only one survivor or group of survivors. For example, both the Hebrew Bible and the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh tell of a global flood that wiped out humanity and of a man who saved the Earths species by taking them aboard a boat.
6、Similar stories of a single flood survivor appear in Hindu mythology,Aztec mythology,and the Greek myth of Deucalion.Noah was a righteous man, the one blameless man of his time; he walked with God. He had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. Now God saw that the whole world was corrupt and full of vio
7、lence. In his sight the world had become corrupted, for all men had lived corrupt lives on earth. God said to Noah, The loathsomeness of all mankind has become plain to me, for through them the earth is full of violence. I intend to destroy them, and the earth with them. Make yourself an ark with ri
8、bs of cypress; cover it with reeds and coat it inside and out with pitch. I intend to bring the waters of the flood over the earth to destroy every human being under heaven that has the spirit of life; everything on earth shall perish. But with you I will make a covenant, and you shall go into the a
9、rk, you and your sons, your wife and your sons wives with you. And you shall bring living creatures of every kind into the ark to keep them alive with you. Two of each kind, a male and a female; two of every kind of bird, beast, and reptile, shall come to you to be kept alive. See that you take and
10、store every kind of food that can be eaten; this shall be food for you and for them. Exactly as God had commanded him, so Noah did.A superman by the name of Gun, in commiseration with the sufferings of the people, tried to contain the flood. He stole Gods “inexhaustible earth“ with which to block th
11、e water and dam it up. Not only did he fail, but for his offence, he was executed by Gods order. After his death, Yu, our hero, was born out of his abdomen. When Yu grew up, he carried on his fathers unfulfilled task, fighting against the Great Flood in the face of untold difficulties. For thirteen
12、arduous years he traveled everywhere, devoting himself so conscientiously to his work that “wind was his hair - comb and rainfall his bath“ and “three times he passed the door of his house without going in.“ Drawing a lesson from his fathers failure, he used methods of channeling and dredging and fi
13、nally succeeded in subduing the Great Flood. He did so much for the people that the reigning Emperor Shun asked him to take over the throne. Yu the Great is the personification of wisdom, perseverance and selfless devotion and, as such, he makes a popular theme for artistic creations.Founding myths-
14、 Pangu and GodMany cultures have myths describing the origin of their customs, rituals, and identity. In fact, ancient and traditional societies have often justified their customs by claiming that their gods or mythical heroes established those customs.For example, according to the myths of the Aust
15、ralian Karadjeri, the mythical Bagadjimbiri brothers established all of the Karadjeris customs, including the position in which they stand while urinating.According to legend, in the beginning, there was only darkness and chaos, and the sky and earth were one blurred entity. This vast “egg,“ as the
16、Chinese call it, was subjected to two opposing forces or principles. The interaction between the two forces the yin (passive or negative female principle) and yang (active or positive male principle) gave birth to Pangu, causing the eggs shell to crack. The separation of the sky and earth took 18,00
17、0 years to complete: the yang, which was light and pure, rose to become the sky; the yin , which was heavy and murky, sank to form the earth. Between the sky and earth was Pangu, who underwent nine changes every day: His wisdom greater than that of the sky and his ability greater than that of the ea
18、rth. Every day the sky rose ten feet, the earth became ten feet thicker and Pangu grew ten feet taller. Another 18,000 years passed and the sky was very high; the earth, dense and Pangu, extremely tall. His body then dissolved and his head became the mountains; his breath, the wind and clouds; his v
19、oice, the thunder; his left eye, the sun and his right eye, the moon. Pangus beard became the stars; his four limbs, the four quadrants of the globe; his blood, the rivers and his veins and muscles, the layers of the earth. His flesh became the soil; his skin and hair, the trees and plants; his seme
20、n, pearls; his marrow, precious stones and his sweat turned into rain. All in all, Pangu and the universe became one.In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face
21、of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a
22、 firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning w
23、ere the second day. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bri
24、ng forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God s
25、aw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven t
26、o give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and
27、 to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created gr
28、eat whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the e
29、arth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and
30、 every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creep
31、ing thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the se
32、a, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to eve
33、ry beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth
34、day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from al
35、l his work which God created and made. The structure of hero stories-Houyi and HerculeA number of scholars have suggested that hero stories from various cultures have the same underlying structure. Otto Rank, a follower of Sigmund Freud, argued that the stories of heroes births have a common Oedipal
36、 structure. Other scholars, including Lord Raglan and, more recently, Joseph Campbell, have also suggested that hero stories share a common structure.Some comparative mythologists look for similarites only among hero stories within a specific geographical or ethnic range. For example, the Austrian s
37、cholar Johann Georg van Hahn tried to identify a common structure underlying “Aryan“ hero stories.Others, such as Campbell, propose theories about hero stories in general. According to Campbells “monomyth“ theory, hero stories from around the world share a common plot structure Because of its extrem
38、ely comparative nature, the monomyth theory is currently out of favor with the mainstream study of mythology.Far back, in the time of Yao, ten suns rose into the sky. They burned the crops and scorched the bushes and trees, leaving the ordinary people with nothing to eat. Monsters began to roam abou
39、t and cause suffering for the people, including ya yu,zao chi,jiu ying,feng xi and python.Yao sent Hou Yi (an archer in ancient Chinese mythology) to kill chisel-tooth in the wilderness by the Chou Hua lake (a lake in the south) and the nine-headed monster by the Inauspicious River (a river in the n
40、orth), and shoot the great bird near the marshland by Qing Qiu lake (a lake in the east). Hou Yi then shot down nine suns with his arrow. He killed ya yu, beheaded the python by Dong Ting lake, and caught the boar at White Mulberry Wood. Hundreds of thousands of commoners were overjoyed by this and
41、so elected Yao as their “Son of Heaven“ (a title for ancient Chinese emperors). There were many heroes who could claim Zeus, the king of the gods, as their father, but few were immortal. Hercules and his half-brother Dionysus (Bacchus) claimed immortality as an accident at birth. Dionysus was immort
42、al because, although conceived by the mortal Semele, he was actually born from the thigh of Zeus. Dionysus is therefore referred to as twice-born. Hercules was born in a more normal manner, from a human woman. His final dose of immortality sprang from the Queen of the gods, Hera, whose milk he drank
43、 at birth.Futher Reading1Khan, Sharif (2004). Psychology of the Hero Soul.2 Carlyle, Thomas (1985). On Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-250062-7. 3 Campbell, Joseph (1949). The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton: Princeton University Press
44、. 4Rohde, Erwin (1924). Psyche. 5Burkert, Walter (1985). “The dead, heroes and chthonic gods“. Greek Religion. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 6 Hein, David. “The Death of Heroes, the Recovery of the Heroic.“ Christian Century 110 (1993): 1298-1303.7 Kerenyi, Karl (1959). The Heroes of the Greeks. London: Thames & Hudson. 8 Lord Raglan (1936/2003). The Hero: A Study in Tradition, Myth and Drama. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications.
