Ancient Myths Research Articles

Lilith, Inanna, and God Images in Myth: Working with Relational Trauma in Jungian Analysis

This paper explores and defines trauma and several patterns of adaptive responses within a self-care system partially using the framework of Donald Kalsched. It examines two ancient myths: one, the myth of Lilith and Inanna; and two, the myth of Lilith, Adam, and God. The first myth is set within a matriarchal culture and the second myth within a patriarchal culture. These stories are analyzed through the lens of trauma, the emotional textures of affect, and the development of consciousness. Analyzing these myths facilitates the contextualization of irrational behavioral responses as trauma responses and identifies several typical patterns of traumatic response. This can reveal the personal context of traumatization and relevant archetypal energies. This can help bridge one’s personal psychology to a mythic or transpersonal reality, which, in turn, helps the development of the ego in relation to the Self, and connects one to a more transpersonal dimension of reality. This can lead—within the safety of the analytical relationship—toward possible paths of psychic reintegration and the healing of split-off psychic parts.

Teacher and student in ancient pedagogy: the dialectic of love and death

Introduction. This article aims to compare two seemingly different patterns of attitude towards such a significant figure as a teacher. Considering it was the Greeks who have established the entire prototype for such a relationship in our culture it seems interesting to look at the development and meaning of such a relationship within their context.Materials and Methods. Based on the texts from The Library of Greek Mythology by Apollodorus and other sources that draw attention to some aspects of upbringing described already in the ancient myths, as well as on the basis of Plato's dialogues dedicated to the character of Socrates, this study compares two lines of such relationship, one derived from the story of the mythological hero Heracles and his relationship with his teachers, and that of the teacher of all Athens – Socrates and his students. This study is based on such methods as comparison, juxtaposition, interpretation, and generalization, as well as the psychoanalytic approach developed by Z. Freud and J. Lacan.Results. Acknowledging certain parallels in how the relationships mentioned earlier end, this study draws attention to the fact that a person must take the path of self-transformation with a considerable degree of necessity to learn something new. A noteworthy aspect in this process is the role of what is commonly referred to as “love”.Discussion and Conclusions. The figure of Socrates is central to this study in two ways. He is interesting to us not only as a philosopher who is in love with wisdom and discussion but also as one who educates, with all the dynamics of relationships that follow. As the author of the dialogues about Socrates, Plato reveals his views on love deriving from his grief about the loss of his teacher. His reflections represent the work of sorrow, and the dialogues that immortalize him in history seem to be its natural fruits.

EUROPE, RELIGIONS AND STATE MODERNITY: MENDELSSOHN’S VISION

Religious ideas and beliefs not only suggest spiritual life, but inspire everyday life, the collective psyche. As for the elites, they can be better understood by the acknowledgement of both discontinuity (due to time and vocabulary) and continuity of their spiritual and cultural preoccupations. Moses Mendelssohn asserted a side of modernity without distancing from community culture limited to its own set of values. He was not free in relation to the traditions and history of his own community, and especially to religious dogma. In fact, Mendelssohn, in his own philosophy, associated the principles of the Old World to those of the new reality. On one hand, he was enticed by emancipation, civism and modernity, and on the other by the preservation of Jewish identity according to the ancient myths. Even if he was an enlightened spirit in the way he regarded the integration of Jews or social emancipation in general, Mendelssohn was not an advocate of interferences (of inter-culturality). He was not a successor of those free, open and creative Marranos of the fifteenth century – Spanish Jews converted to Christianity, preserving a part of old Judaic practices – and neither a follower of Spinoza’s new philosophy. Not incidentally, Voltaire better understood human nature, being a humanist in all aspects. The freedom of conscience could not and still cannot ignore the diversity of people and human groups, and neither can the associations or interferences among them who, in modernity, needed to cohabitate and cooperate, not only in order to survive, but to generate universal values.

Comparative Study of Symbolic Motifs of Peacock and Simurgh in Selected Historical Monuments of the Safavid Period in Ardabil and Isfahan Cities (Iran)

The symbolic motifs of birds in historical monuments are an embodiment of religious concepts and ancient myths and express the rich mystical content, human aspirations and desires through its historical period. Therefore, this study seeks to examine the commonalities or differences between the location, number and interpretations of bird motifs (Simurgh and Peacock) at the beginning and the end of the Safavid dynasty, in selected monuments of the cities of Ardabil (Sheikh Safi al-Din Ardabili’s Khānegāh and the tomb of Sheikh Amin al-Din Jabrail) and Isfahan (Shah Mosque, Hasht Behesht Palace, Chahār Bāgh school and Emamzadeh Haroun-e-Velayat). In this study, field method and content and historical analysis of information sources and documents were used. The analysis showed that most of the Peacock and Simurgh motifs are found in the monuments of Ardabil, in the interior and exterior spaces, and in the selected monuments of Isfahan, mostly in the exterior spaces, facaded and entrance gates. The Peacock bird motifs in the monuments of Ardabil city, probably refers more to deep mysticism, perishing in God, spirituality and inner purity, but in the monuments of Isfahan city, the Peacock motifs often serves as a gatekeeper and guiding people toward heaven and repelling the devil. Also, Simurgh's motifs in the historical monuments of Ardabil city seem to be somewhat reminiscent of unity in plurality, a symbol of the essence of transcendence, perfect man and divinity; However, in the historical monuments of Isfahan, it often refers to the conflicting concepts of the human soul, which includes Ahura Mazda and Ahriman, and indicates man's attempt to overcome his own soul.

THE IMAGE OF PYGMALION IN THE CREATION OF ARCADIE SUCEVEANU

Admirer of troubadour poetry, Arcadie Suceveanu (b. November 16, 1952, Suceveni, Chernivtsi region, Ukraine) pays close attention to the image of the woman. The feminine includes admiration and fear, desire and meaning. The woman is delicate in his creation, a beauty without body in which the realities of imagination and the everyday are transparent. The lyrical self takes on the role of Pygmalion with a few differences: it does not turn the statue into a woman, but turns Galatea into poetry; love does not perfect, but constitutes the game of acceptance without external transformations, it has the power to give essence to creation itself. Respectively, the transformations are supported by the artist. In this article we have analyzed the aesthetic concepts that also have tangents with ancient myths.

Fragmentation and the Tendency to Hybridize the Myth in The Artistic Literature

Abstract The phenomenon of globalization becomes a component of the artistic literature. Writers felt the need to create their own universe based on recognizable symbols. This launch from inside an asteroid of ancient myth offers opportunities to climb Mount Olympus in his personal dissection. Thus, the authors are tempted to extract from myths fragments in which they can mirror their reality. The fragment holds in the work the part of the whole, similar to a starfish that reconstructs its body after a fragment. In the same way, the writer of our century creates his hybrid from the myth he cuts out in order to involve him in the situations of multiculturalism. Thus the ancient spirit is selected in the virtual test tube with all the perspectives of the dream game proper to the hologram of the intellectual character.

Honi the Circle-Maker: an ancient narrative for creating temenos in challenging times

Our current world pandemic and the ensuing turmoil have challenged us to find new narratives of radical change. Poet Antonio Machado speaks of ‘listening on the vast rim of silence’. The author opens with reflections on the importance of soul-work that is grounded in the ephemeral, reverie and other non-verbal experiences in creating new narratives. She invites the reader to engage in active imagination with an ancient myth from the Jewish Talmud dealing with death and destruction. Honi the Circle-Maker, a known miracle-worker draws a circle around himself and with chutzpah (daring) challenges God to send the right type of rain to end a devastating drought. Using the theoretical concepts of Carl Jung, Erich Neumann and other contemporary Jungian analysts (Hillman, Kalsched, Winborn, Stein and Tuley), the author discusses the power of archetypal imagery of circle-making and the Great Round. To the background of the myth, she emphasizes the power of the individual to make a difference in the world. Finally, she concludes with reflections on the importance of the other in the face of a pandemic.

Tales of the Narts: Ancient Myths and Legends of the Ossetians

Tales of the Narts: Ancient Myths and Legends of the Ossetians

Наратив вини в „Кассандрі” Лесі Українки

The article is dedicated to the guilt narrative in Lesya Ukrainka’s “Cassandra” (1907). The purpose of the research is to trace how this narrative gets actualized and how it functions on different textual levels and from different optic standpoints: linguistic, mythological, social, and philosophical. The core principle of analysis is a holistic approach that makes a versatile, multi-level and multi-vector interpretation of the text possible, so, this is attracting it within a wider European cultural and philosophical context and changing the horizons for its interpretation. It is pointed out that guilt narrative is a through one, and it gets specific cultural contexts, intertextual connections, sense models and linguistic embodiments at each of the researched levels. Hence, it may be said that different aspects of this narrative are relatively autonomous and can be viewed as absolutely different and self-sufficient linguistic and semantic fields. The linguistic level of guilt brings you into the problem field of the spoken and unspeakable, a cognitive dissonance between the said/unsaid and perceived. The mythological aspect of guilt introduces the context of ancient (hence, all Western European) literature, shows the procedural nature of the mythological and literary image of Cassandra. The social aspect of guilt makes indubitable the antinomy of individual and social, victim and self-sacrifice, the problem of Other and Otherness, as the reverse side of self-identification. The philosophical dimension of guilt is disclosed in the background of re-interpreted myth phenomenon, anthropological dimension of mythological and literary connections. It is emphasized that the researched aspects complement and deepen each other at the same time. It is directing the through narrative of guilt from classical ancient literary interpretations of the myth about Cassandra towards the modern European re-interpretation of the very concept of the myth, from the ancient myth history to the universal human code. And Lesya Ukrainka’s “Cassandra” is not just exemplifying an attempt of making a literary search, the researcher’s and writer’s interest in the ancient materials, and also constitutes a way of personal myth manifestation and the search of Ukrainian national identity via the European context.

АРХЕТИП «ДИКОГО ЧЕЛОВЕКА» В ВОСПРИЯТИИ ЕВРОПЕЙЦАМИ КОРЕННЫХ АМЕРИКАНЦЕВ: ОТ СРЕДНЕВЕКОВЬЯ К РАННЕМУ НОВОМУ ВРЕМЕНИ

The discovery and exploration of the Americas in the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries "archaised" the consciousness of Europeans, awakening ancient myths and archetypes associated with them, which in turn influenced their perception and understanding of the indigenous inhabitants of the New World. The image of the "savage" was based on the ancient archetype of the " wild man", which became the "alter ego" of civilized and cultured Europeans. The image of the "savage" was based on the ancient archetype of the "savage man", which became the "alter ego" of the civilised and cultural European. The activation of this archetype as a result of the exploration of America finally constructed a coordinate system whose dichotomies still largely determine the Western worldview: civilization and barbarism, progress and regress, true faith/ideology/science and paganism/ignorance. From this point of view, it is interesting to examine the forms that the "savage" archetype took at different times of contact between Europeans and American Indians, in this case comparing the perception of the natives of North East North America (Woodland) by Vikings in the 10th to 11th centuries and by French colonists and missionaries in the 16th to 18th centuries. Stereotypes of "barbarism", "rudeness", "lust" and other anti-social qualities were the basis on which Europeans began to have direct contact with the Native Americans. At the same time, as relations developed and native cultures and ways of life were understood, a new perception of the "savage" was born, combining both the initial negativism and the positive traits that emerged. The result was the emergence of peculiar "hybrid" images.

THE REVISIONS OF ANCIENT MYTHOLOGY IN TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES

Although the critics have traditionally observed the novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles as the disapproval of Victorian morals and double standards, the aim of this work is to point out the fact that this novel also has a general, universal meaning. Using Lukacs’ concept of realistic fiction as a synthesis of particular and universal as a starting point, the author of this research claims that this novel is a story of the tragic destiny of a particular character, but that at the same time Tess Durbeyfield functions as an embodiment of the Archetypal Feminine. Myths are symbolic expressions of archetypes, and, apart from numerous parallels with the ancient myth of Demeter and Persephone, the novel contains allusions to the myth of Genesis and to classical gods like Artemis and Apollo. The character of Tess Durbeyfield is closely related to earth and natural laws. Tough she has a great mythic potential, nobody (with the exception of Alec D’Urberville), not even Tess herself, realises it. Tis leads to a tragic outcome. Contrary to Persephone, who, even though Hades carries her to the Underworld and pronounces her his wife, succeeds to return to Earth and to begin a new life, Tess never regains stability after she loses her virginity to Alec. She does not recognise Alec’s function in terms of initiation into the world of maturity. Her sole reaction is neglect of the sensual part of her nature and her turning to the spiritual. There is no projection of the archetype, which inevitably leads Tess to failure and death.

MYTHOLOGY IN THE MIRROR: THE NON-FICTIONAL APPROACH IN DEVDUTT PATTANAIK’S MYTHOLOGICAL RETELLINGS

Mythology is formed by the set of stories and beliefs, relatively cohesive, to which people have traditionally attributed their origin and the cause of everything that happens around them. Therefore, we can affirm that mythology has the power to influence culture's worldview and belief system. For a better understanding of a region's socio-cultural condition, it becomes crucial to examine popular mythological texts. Among contemporary mythologists, there has been an increase in retelling ancient myths from a new perspective. The paper examines Devdutt Pattanaik's non-fictional attempt to revise classical Indian epics. In process, it reveals to the reader the challenges associated with paradigms that have dominated Indian thought for centuries. Two well-known retellings of Devdutt Pattanaik: Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of Mahabharata (2010) and Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of Ramayana (2013) have been analyzed to explore the new feminine perspective in mythological retellings of the two great epics of India: TheRamayana and TheMahabharata. It is a qualitative research which follows the exploratory research design. MLA seventh edition style has been used for referencing and citation.

An Analytical Study of the Mesopotamian Civilization

One of the most ancient myths is that the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the abomination of civilization and nature, numerous wars, the number of love stories and legends that carry the world which is the holiest sea are among the places where it is located. Like the other contemporary civilizations i.e. Egypt in west and Indus in east the Mesopotamian civilization is also considered one of the important ancient civilizations of the world Tigris and Euphrates. The civilization remained as center of socio-political activities. Egypt is a safe haven for little to no war?The Egyptians deny that, contrary to a lush interest, the attack will take center stage. Different ethnic groups often experience key combat battles. Thousands of years ago, the two rivers opened to show that people who are interested in the history of fertility are a sign of life on the other side of the rivers. There are two different seas of origin, the center of which is the genus Alma, Assyria, Babylon, Samir, Akkad, and other notable tribes of Egypt. Tigris and Euphrates

АВТОРСЬКІ ЛЕКСИЧНІ НОВОТВОРИ ВІДФРАЗЕМНОГО ПОХОДЖЕННЯ В УКРАЇНСЬКІЙ ПОЕЗІЇ

The study of innovative processes and phenomena in language is always relevant. A peculiar group of innovations consists of author’s neologisms of phraseological derivation origin, which demonstrate the close relationship between lexical and phraseological levels of language. The proposed article analyzes the ways of appearance, methods of creation, semantic features of the author’s neologisms of phraseological derivation origin, clarifies the features of their use and functioning in the poetic text. The terms “author’s neologisms of phraseological derivation”, and “author’s phraseological derivations” are used as synonyms. The main ways of creating author’s phraseological derivations are described: prefix-suffix, basic compounding, juxtaposition, merging. The most productive way to create author’s neologisms of phraseological derivation origin is compounding in combination with a suffixation. It has been found that poetic speech most often uses phraseological derivations neologisms with the following semes: ‘character trait’, ‘mind’, ‘emotional state’, ‘space’, ‘time’. It is observed that most of the author’s phraseological derivations are created based on phrasemes of folk origin. Some author’s neologisms, which arose because of structural modification of established expressions from the Old and New Testaments and from ancient myths, were also revealed. It is stated that the main reason for the emergence of phraseological derivation neologisms in artistic speech is the desire to influence the emotions of readers.

중국 SF소설의 과학기술과 문학적 상상 연구

This article analyzes the relationship between scientific technology and literary imagination in Chinese Science Fictions and attempts to understand the social significance of these novels at the time. This Science Fictions reflects the science and social reality of China and shows the world of literary imagination. China's Science Fictions reflect the “Chinese dream” of realizing a space project for the moon and space by developing new science and technology amid the growth of politics and economy of the time. Not only can the prototype of Chinese Science Fiction be found in ancient myths and legends, but it was also developed by intellectuals who wanted to discover the future of modern 'New China'. In the early 20th century, Science Fictions also developed as modern writers such as Liang Qichao, Lu Xun, and La She promoted new literary enlightenment projects. In addition, Western science fiction works such as Mary W. Shelly, Jules Verne, and Herbert George Wells were translated and accepted in China, which had a great influence on the development of Science Fictions in China. To understand the development and meaning of Science Fictions of the time in China, this article analyzed the representative works of Liu Cixin, Hao Jingfang, and Wang Weilian. Chinese Science Fictions created literary works by exerting scientific imagination on dark social problems caused by urbanization and capitalization. In addition, it is looking for prospects and alternatives for the future society, reflecting the crises of mankind and the Earth. Thus, human life through scientific knowledge and imagination is reconstructed into literary imagination.

Feminist literary revisionism and the #MeToo movement

In the years since the #MeToo movement began, there has been a resurgence of feminist retellings of ancient myth. Novels such as Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls (2018), Madeline Miller’s Circe (2018), Natalie Haynes’s A Thousand Ships (2019) and Jennifer Saint’s Ariadne (2021) form a cohort of books regularly appearing on bestseller charts and award shortlists. This paper traces the rising popularity of contemporary feminist revisions of classical myth and explores the ways in which such works utilise myth to depict modern concerns. Revisionary mythmaking is defined against other retellings of traditional literature, such as biblical narratives and fairytales, locating the appeal of classical myth in the “origin-figure” of Penelope, Queen of Ithaca and wife to Odysseus. Identifying Barbara Clayton’s A Penelopean Poetics (2004) and Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad (2005) as two works – one theoretical, one creative – that expound the methodology of feminist revisionism, this paper demonstrates how the feminist revisionist mode presents writers with a rich and rewarding vehicle for engaging with the #MeToo conversation, particularly when mining the material of classical myth. This paper also argues for examining novels over short stories and poetry collections because of the form’s connections to and emergence from the epic.

Modernist mythologism of Vladimir Nabokov’s creative work (based on the material of the novels “Mary”, “The Gift”, “Invitation to a Beheading”)

The subject of research in the article is the early prose of Vlaimir Nabokov, the writer of the Russian diaspora, from the point of view of the mythologising of the creative process, which was a characteristic feature of the art of modernism. The study notes that Nabokov builds his texts as artistic mythology, giving art a sacred meaning. Unlike the ontological function of the ancient myth, mythologism in modernist literature is aimed at the aesthetic perception of reality. The writer intentionally mythologises his texts, saturating them with mythological codes, revealed in such writing techniques as intertextuality, allusions, associations, including the work in a wide cultural context. It can be concluded that the mythological codes in Nabokov's modernism act as the literary work of the author who is the Creator of his texts, rather than as a formula for the world order or an explanation of reality. When studying Nabokov's works, one should keep in mind that the writer uses his codes pointwise to create new artistic structures instead of interpreting the traditional myth.

Et si les vaincus avaient leur mot à dire… Écritures alternatives des mythes indiens

As in other cultures, contemporary writers in India are retelling ancient myths from a new perspective. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Palace of Illusions (2008) and Pratibha Ray’s Yajnaseni: The Story of Draupadi (1995) thus relay one of the major works of Hindu culture, the Mahābhārata, through the eyes of Draupadi, wife to the five Pandava brothers, while in Asura: Tale of the Vanquished (2015), Anand Neelakantan reworks another major myth, the Rāmāyana, to give voice to an even more marginalized cast-out, the demon Rāvana, as does Arun Kukreja in his play Dashaanan (2004). The idealized male heroes of Indian mythology thus come under the scathing gaze of their wife or opponent, and the core values of ancient myth are radically questioned.

سه دیدار با هویت ایرانی

In encountering the question of Iranian identity form my early childhood years to the present, I have been drawn to, struggled with, and ultimately abandoned both the “romantic Achaemenid nationalist” and the “critical modernist” approaches to fundamental aspects of Iranian culture. Instead, I have proposed a “historicizing” perspective that makes a clear distinction between Iranian identity (iraniyat) as a historical entity, on the one hand, and, on the other, “Iranian national identity” as a modern construct that cannot not be applied retrospectively to the historical past. This approach acknowledges the rise of “civic nations” as a product of modernity, but rejects the disjuncture between a people’s history and their contemporary cultural identity. In the case of Iran, I have argued that, while modern conceptions of “Iranian national identity” were subjectively and retrospectively constructed from ancient myths, symbols, and collective memories, they are in fact re-constructions of historical identities that are based on verifiable ethnolinguistic and territorial ties.

ДРЕВНЕГРЕЧЕСКИЙ СЮЖЕТ И ЕГО ТВОРЧЕСКАЯ ИНТЕРПРЕТАЦИЯ (НА МАТЕРИАЛЕ ПРОИЗВЕДЕНИЙ СОВРЕМЕННОГО НЕМЕЦКОГО ПИСАТЕЛЯ ШТЕФФЕНА МАРЦИНЬЯКА)

The article analyzes the transcriptions of ancient myths in the work of the modern German writer Steffen Marciniak. The reasons for his appeal to ancient Greek mythology, its plots, motives and images are clarified, the author’s intentions and ways of their artistic embodiment (interpretation) in a specific text are fixed. The analysis is carried out with the involvement of the reception history of ancient myths in the German-speaking cultural space. Within the framework of historical-literary and historical-comparative analysis, the Russian language context is involved. The transcriptions-retellings-interpretations by Marciniak of original ancient mythological storylines are analyzed both from the point of view of the problem and thematic scope, and the plot, structural and compositional particulars of the writer’s texts. The connection of Marciniak’s works with the peculiarities of his biography, personal psychological and ideological, as well as artistic and aesthetic orientations is traced. It reveals that the main theme, that excites the writer and forms the basis of his plots, becomes the core of interpretation and refers to tradition. Based on the analysis, an attempt is made to determine the specifics of the individual poetics of the writer, to fit it into the general context of German literature of the XX-XXI century.