Mythography
A
mythographer, according to a strict dictionary definition, is a compiler of
myths.
Mythography is then the rendering of myths in the arts. These are rather restrictive definitions, which can be said to fail to take into account the large body of
twentieth century work on myth from many angles. The compilation of myths assumes some
field work; and the aim may be to produce something of value to
cultural anthropology,
religious studies, or a
myth theory, rather than simply as raw material for transformation into artistic productions.
Already in the
nineteenth century there was a tendency to produce large-scale myth theories, such as those of
Georges Dumézil,
Max Müller, or
James Frazer. It has been a consistent strand of
Romanticism, to insist on a level of validity of myth. Theories with an academic basis which support this thinking have been popular, in the sense of receiving much attention; without ever being able to support claims of reliability.
Mythography is the study of the study of myths (the study of myths being mythology), as well, and so in examining how mythology has been studied, one can see the differences and similarities readily, as evidenced by Dr. William Doty's MYTHOGRAPHY: THE STUDY OF MYTHS AND RITUALS.
Besides the anthropologist's reason — better understanding of a particular culture in its own terms, that is, for the purposes of
cultural anthropology — there are very varied reasons behind the interest of the mythographer. The origins of
Greek drama were the immediate cause of the rise of the
myth-ritual school, of
Jane Harrison,
Gilbert Murray and others.
Karl Kerenyi, also involved in
Greek mythology, was an associate of
Carl Jung, who adopted mythological material in his psychological theories.
In general
literary criticism, myth criticism was put forward by
Maud Bodkin,
Philip Wheelwright, and others such as
Francis Fergusson,
Leslie Fiedler, and
G. Wilson Knight. The critic
Northrop Frye, working from
Blake and the
Bible as fundamental, always wished to distinguish himself from the myth-ritual school, but is often seen as in some sense having summed up the whole tendency.
Robert Graves was interested in
poetic theory, and supported his celebrated
White Goddess with analysis harking back to Müller and Frazer, as well as the myth-ritual tendency.
There were numerous other mythographic 'schools' in the first half of the twentieth century.
Ernst Cassirer's approach was through
philosophy, specifically the so-called
Marburg School of
Kantian thought; it had a direct influence on
Susanne Langer, and has been traced as an influence on
Mikhail Bakhtin.
The direction of
comparative religion is represented by
Mircea Eliade, and also to some extent by the literary critic
René Girard. The French sociological school has argued in terms of myths having social function.
The old idea of a
universal myth theory, derided by
Voltaire, is in modern times most famously represented by
Joseph Campbell. There were many books written in the
seventeenth century purporting to explain all myths. But Voltaire was deriding a Christian myth theory, while Campbell proposes a psychological one.
The
philosophes, such as Voltaire, were interested in dispelling myths, not explaining their existence. While the basic understandings of the Western world were informed by
Christianity in all areas of study, the term
mythographer referred to someone who attempted to explain
pagan myths in terms of misremembering the events of the
Old Testament or wilfully altering them. Some of the theories of explanation from classical times were also used, such as the
apotheosis of a local hero. This was before the
Enlightenment, or, speaking more precisely, before the arrival of
historicism.
With the arrival of
social science, and the understanding that the thought patterns of human beings can change over historical time, this interest faded. It is still possible to think such thoughts; and believers might elaborate them somewhat. They could not expect to be taken seriously, in today's marketplace of ideas.
Perhaps the last work which employed this earlier use of the term
mythography was
George Eliot's novel
Middlemarch. Its character Casaubon was involved in such a project in the mid-
nineteenth century. The story tells of a woman who proved unable to finish the project after his death and abandoned it.
*
Religion and mythology*
Comparative mythology*
Allegory in the Middle Ages
