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Myth A Very Short Introduction by Robert A. Segal

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Myth: A Very Short Introduction

This book by Robert A. Segal is a concise, elegant, erudite overview of the major nineteenth and twentieth century theories of myth, using the Adonis narrative as a litmus test case for various approaches.

Alan Dundes, Professor of Anthropology and Folklore,

University of California, Berkeley

A delightfully clear, engagingly organized, and remarkably comprehensive treatment of theories of myth.

Ivan Strenski, Holstein Family and Community Professor, Department of

Religious Studies, University of California at Riverside

This is the most helpful orientation to the field of mythological studies that I have ever encountered.

John Beebe, M.D., Past President, The C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco

Segal writes to be understood and to instruct . . . One learns from the book much that will encourage and ease further reading.

William M. Calder III, William Abbott Oldfather Professor of the Classics,

University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign

This remarkably clear book is probably the widest-ranging presentation ever written of the various contemporary approaches to myth.

Antoine Faivre, Professor Emeritus at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Religious Studies, Sorbonne

The whole discussion is a profound exploration of a subject that touches on human experience, hopes, and expectations in religion, philosophy, drama, literature, and psychology.

John Rogerson, Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies,

University of Sheffield

VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide.

The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes – a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology.

Very Short Introductions available now:

ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY

CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY

Julia Annas

 

 

Simon Critchley

THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE

COSMOLOGY Peter Coles

John Blair

 

 

CRYPTOGRAPHY

ANIMAL RIGHTS

David DeGrazia

Fred Piper and Sean Murphy

ARCHAEOLOGY

Paul Bahn

DADA AND SURREALISM

ARCHITECTURE

 

David Hopkins

Andrew Ballantyne

DARWIN Jonathan Howard

ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes

DEMOCRACY Bernard Crick

ART HISTORY

Dana Arnold

DESCARTES Tom Sorell

ART THEORY

Cynthia Freeland

DRUGS Leslie Iversen

THE HISTORY OF

 

THE EARTH Martin Redfern

ASTRONOMY

Michael Hoskin

EGYPTIAN MYTH

ATHEISM

Julian Baggini

Geraldine Pinch

AUGUSTINE

Henry Chadwick

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY

BARTHES

Jonathan Culler

BRITAIN Paul Langford

THE BIBLE

John Riches

THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball

BRITISH POLITICS

EMOTION Dylan Evans

Anthony Wright

 

EMPIRE

Stephen Howe

BUDDHA

Michael Carrithers

ENGELS

Terrell Carver

BUDDHISM

Damien Keown

ETHICS

Simon Blackburn

CAPITALISM

James Fulcher

THE EUROPEAN UNION

THE CELTS

Barry

Cunliffe

John Pinder

CHOICE THEORY

 

EVOLUTION

Michael Allingham

 

Brian and Deborah Charlesworth

CHRISTIAN ART

Beth Williamson

FASCISM

Kevin Passmore

CLASSICS

Mary Beard and

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

John Henderson

 

William Doyle

CLAUSEWITZ

Michael Howard

FREUD

Anthony Storr

THE COLD WAR

 

GALILEO

Stillman Drake

Robert McMahon

 

GANDHI Bhikhu Parekh

GLOBALIZATION Manfred Steger

PLATO Julia Annas

HEGEL

Peter Singer

POLITICS Kenneth Minogue

HEIDEGGER

Michael Inwood

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

HINDUISM

Kim Knott

David Miller

 

 

HISTORY

John H. Arnold

POSTCOLONIALISM

HOBBES

Richard Tuck

Robert Young

 

HUME

A. J. Ayer

POSTMODERNISM

IDEOLOGY

Michael Freeden

Christopher Butler

INDIAN PHILOSOPHY

POSTSTRUCTURALISM

Sue Hamilton

 

Catherine Belsey

INTELLIGENCE

Ian J. Deary

PREHISTORY Chris Gosden

ISLAM

Malise Ruthven

PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY

JUDAISM

Norman Solomon

Catherine Osborne

JUNG

Anthony Stevens

PSYCHOLOGY

Gillian Butler and

KANT

Roger Scruton

Freda McManus

 

KIERKEGAARD

Patrick Gardiner

QUANTUM THEORY

THE KORAN

Michael Cook

John Polkinghorne

LINGUISTICS

Peter Matthews

ROMAN BRITAIN Peter Salway

LITERARY THEORY

ROUSSEAU

Robert Wokler

Jonathan Culler

RUSSELL A. C. Grayling

LOCKE

John Dunn

RUSSIAN LITERATURE

LOGIC

Graham Priest

Catriona Kelly

 

MACHIAVELLI

Quentin Skinner

THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

MARX

Peter Singer

S. A. Smith

 

 

MATHEMATICS Timothy Gowers

SCHIZOPHRENIA

MEDIEVAL BRITAIN

Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone

John Gillingham and

SCHOPENHAUER

Ralph A. Griffiths

Christopher Janaway

MODERN IRELAND Senia Pasˇeta

SHAKESPEARE

Germaine Greer

MOLECULES

Philip Ball

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL

MUSIC

Nicholas Cook

ANTHROPOLOGY

MYTH

Robert A. Segal

John Monaghan and Peter Just

NIETZSCHE

Michael Tanner

SOCIOLOGY

Steve Bruce

NINETEENTH-CENTURY

SOCRATES C. C. W. Taylor

BRITAIN

Christopher Harvie and

SPINOZA Roger Scruton

H. C. G. Matthew

STUART BRITAIN John Morrill

NORTHERN IRELAND

TERRORISM

Charles Townshend

Marc Mulholland

THEOLOGY

David F. Ford

PARTICLE PHYSICS Frank Close

THE TUDORS

John Guy

PAUL

E. P. Sanders

TWENTIETH-CENTURY

PHILOSOPHY

Edward Craig

BRITAIN

Kenneth O. Morgan

PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

WITTGENSTEIN

A. C. Grayling

Samir Okasha

 

WORLD MUSIC

Philip Bohlman

Available soon:

AFRICAN HISTORY

HIEROGLYPHS

Penelope Wilson

John Parker and Richard Rathbone

HIROSHIMA

B. R. Tomlinson

ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw

HUMAN EVOLUTION

THE BRAIN

Michael O’Shea

Bernard Wood

 

BUDDHIST ETHICS

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Damien Keown

Paul Wilkinson

 

CHAOS

Leonard Smith

JAZZ Brian Morton

CHRISTIANITY

MANDELA Tom Lodge

Linda Woodhead

MEDICAL ETHICS

CITIZENSHIP

Richard Bellamy

Tony Hope

 

CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE

THE MIND Martin Davies

Robert Tavernor

NATIONALISM

CLONING Arlene Judith Klotzko

Steven Grosby

 

CONTEMPORARY ART

PERCEPTION

Richard Gregory

Julian Stallabrass

PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

THE CRUSADES

Jack Copeland and Diane Proudfoot

Christopher Tyerman

PHOTOGRAPHY

DERRIDA

Simon Glendinning

Steve Edwards

 

DESIGN

John Heskett

THE RAJ Denis Judd

DINOSAURS

David Norman

THE RENAISSANCE

DREAMING

J. Allan Hobson

Jerry Brotton

 

ECONOMICS

Partha Dasgupta

RENAISSANCE ART

EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn

Geraldine Johnson

THE FIRST WORLD WAR

SARTRE Christina Howells

Michael Howard

THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR

FREE WILL Thomas Pink

Helen Graham

 

FUNDAMENTALISM

TRAGEDY Adrian Poole

Malise Ruthven

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

HABERMAS

Gordon Finlayson

Martin Conway

For more information visit our web site

www.oup.co.uk/vsi

Robert A. Segal

MYTH

A Very Short Introduction

1

3

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.

It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in

Oxford New York

Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto

With offices in

Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan South Korea Poland Portugal Singapore Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam

Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries

Published in the United States

by Oxford University Press Inc., New York

© Robert A. Segal 2004

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

Database right Oxford University Press (maker)

First published as a Very Short Introduction 2004

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, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,

or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organizations. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above

You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Data available

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Data available

ISBN 0–19–280347–6

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk

Printed in Great Britain by

TJ International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall

In memory of Skip, a beloved cat

This page intentionally left blank

Contents

 

List of illustrations

x

 

Introduction: Theories of myth 1

1

Myth and science

11

 

2

Myth and philosophy

36

3

Myth and religion

46

4

Myth and ritual

61

 

5

Myth and literature

79

6

Myth and psychology

91

7

Myth and structure

113

8

Myth and society

126

Conclusion: The future of the study of myth 137

References 143

Index 159