International Journal of Research ISSN NO:2236-6124

THE INFLUENCE OF MYTHOLOGY ON LITERATURE: A STUDY

Mrs. Prija Nair, Assistant Professor of English Teachers‟ Academy Degree College (Affiliated to Bangalore University) Bangalore 560043 Mob: +91 72592 44443, Email: mailto:[email protected] ------Abstract A is 'a story handed down through history, often through oral tradition, that explains or gives value to the unknown'. It is an attempt to explain a certain custom or practice of a human society. were used to teach humans behaviour that helped people live in concert with one another. Myths can show us the marvels that existed long before scientific reasoning shed its progressive light on our perceptions. Many classical civilizations, including Greek, Egyptian and Hindu, developed rich mythologies centred on the actions of gods and goddesses. Literary forms such as the epic have frequently served as vehicles for transmitting myths. The Homeric epics were both an example and an exploration of heroic values, and the poems became the basis of education in classical Greece. The great epics of India (Mahabharata and Ramayana) came to function as encyclopaedias of knowledge and provided models for all human existence. Writers from Chaucer to Robert Graves have been steeped in these old myths and hence their works can scarcely be appreciated without some knowledge of them. ------Key words: Etymology, Mythic Fiction, Functions, , Modern Mythology, Re- Interpretation, Greek, Roman and Indian mythology. ------

1.1. Introduction

The definition of mythology is derived from the word 'myth'. The word itself comes from the Greek word 'mythos', which means , or sagas. The word "myth" is a story that seeks to rationalize the universe and the world around us, passed down orally from generation to generation explaining religious origin, natural phenomena or supernatural event. The study of myth must not and cannot be separated from the study of religion, religious beliefs, or religious rituals. A classical myth is a story that, through its classical form, has attained a kind of immortality because its inherent archetypal beauty, profundity, and power have inspired rewarding renewal and transformation by successive generations.

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1.2. Mythic Fiction

Coined by authors and to describe their own work, the term "mythic fiction" has become more widely recognized in recent years, though its exact definition is somewhat difficult to elucidate. The simplest and best definition of mythic fiction is fiction that draws essential substance from myth, , tale, and legend. These stories also use a real world setting for some portion of the story. This subgenre can overlap with magical realism, but mythic fiction does not always treat magic as mundane or expected. Mythic fiction can also overlap with urban , but the stories are not necessarily tied to an urban setting.

1.3. Functions

―It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestations.‖

~ Joseph Campbell.

Joseph Campbell, an American mythologist, described mythology as having four basic functions: The mystical, the cosmological, the sociological, and the pedagogical.

 Mystical Function

This function is about experiencing the awe of the universe. It‘s telling stories that touch the cornerstone of what it means to be a human being engaged with the unexplainable. We‘ve tasted the fruit from the Tree of Good and Evil over and over again throughout the history of the human leitmotif. We‘ve told countless stories of this sacred tasting through art, poetry and music. The mystical function is a sacred reconciliation because it helps us to honour fundamental change and insurmountable impermanence, while helping us to make sense of being or not being in a universe that has no meaning other than the meaning we are able to bring to it.

 Cosmological Function

This function is about formulating and rendering an image of the universe. The universe we live in is unfathomably huge, inexplicably scary, and perplexingly mysterious. It is so awe-inspiringly enormous that we cannot even wrap our minds

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around its immense structure. From Hesiod‘s Theogony to Genesis in the Old Testament, from Brahma merging with Vishnu and Shiva to the current scientific- based Big Bang theory, cosmological myths are at the heart of each culture.

 Sociological Function

This function is about supporting and validating a certain social order. These stories help to bind people to a certain tribe or social group. Sociological myths are the essential building blocks behind all codes of moral conduct. It maintains the meaning of culture while shaping the meaning of our lives. Even when we‘re not aware of it, cultural mythos is working behind the scenes. The Greek myth of Pandora is another good example of a myth that upholds a misbalanced culture. The Greeks were a patriarchal society that subjugated women, and the myth helped to uphold and justify that belief.

 Pedagogical Function

According to Joseph Campbell, this is the most important of the four functions. This is the psychological function of myth, which lies at the heart of the other three functions. Pedagogical myths help to shape individuals to the aims and ideals of a particular social group or tribe, guiding them from birth to death through the course of a human life. These are myths that show by good and/or bad example how to live a human life. They provide patterns of thought that bring meaning to life. Such powerful guidance stories as the Jewish Ten Commandments, Buddha‘s Eight- fold Noble Path, Lord Krishna‘s Bhagavad Gita, and Joseph Campbell‘s The ‘s Journey, for example.

1.4. Allegory

Some theories propose that myths began as for natural phenomena: Apollo represents the sun; Poseidon represents water, and so on. According to another theory, myths began as allegories for philosophical or spiritual concepts: Athena represents wise judgment, Aphrodite desire, and so on. Müller supported an allegorical theory of myth. He believed myths began as allegorical descriptions of nature and gradually came to be interpreted literally. For example, a poetic description of the sea as "raging" was eventually taken literally and the sea was then thought of as a raging god.

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1.5. Re interpretation of mythology

Though Hindu mythology continues to remain a favoured genre, contemporary interest in Hindu mythology adopts a different approach and is consumed in different ways unique to the times.

 ‗Randamoozham‘ - This is a translation of the Malayalam book ‗Randamoozham‘. ‗Randamoozham‘ is one of the finest pieces of literature written by one of India‘s literary – MT Vasudevan Nair, fondly called as MT. The English translation from Gita Krishnankutty, ‗Bhima – Lone Warrior‘, is an attempt to bring this masterpiece to a larger audience.

 ‗Bhima – Lone Warrior‟ is the story of Mahabharata from the perspective of the second Pandava – the mighty Bhima. How he sees the sequence of events that led to the Great War? The book strips the characters of their immortality and godly statuses. It is devoid of any superficiality, a believable one, presenting a logical viewpoint. Through this book we discover a hero in the powerful Bhima who has been portrayed time and again as the gluttony and blockhead Pandava who was always hidden between the righteous Yudhishtira who time and again stood for Dharma and the skilful warrior Arjuna who was unbeatable. The Bhima that MT brings out is a warrior unparalleled in strength and valour, a human being who had a soft and tender heart, who savoured and nurtured emotions as any other being, who had sexual longings, who loved his family and could go any lengths for them, who silently watched over them while they slept peacefully, who yearned for Draupadi‘s love knowing that she always loved Arjuna the most.

 Yuganta studies the principal, mythical-heroic figures of the Mahabharata from historical, anthropological and secular perspectives. The usually venerated characters of this ancient Indian epic are here subjected to a rational enquiry that places them in context, unravels their hopes and fears, and imbues them with wholly human motives, thereby making their stories relevant and astonishing to contemporary readers. Irawati Karve, thus, presents a delightful collection of essays, scientific in , yet appreciative of the literary tradition of the Mahabharata. She challenges the and formulates refreshingly new interpretations, all the while refusing to judge harshly or venerate blindly. The

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essay also questions the sincerity of Bhishma‘s commitment to the throne of Hastinapura because of which he stood by it through thick and thin, eventually leading its army against the Pandavas whom he believed to be virtuous, competent and the rightful heirs to the throne of Hastinapura. She uses Bhishma‘s refusal to break his vow and occupy the throne and beget children to question the sincerity of his commitment.  ―After Kurukshetra‖ is a collection of three stories, each of which centres around women in the aftermath of the Kurukshetra war from the Mahabharata. The original, written by Mahasweta Devi, is in Bengali. The translation by Anjum Katyal flows smoothly; the first story, ―The Five Women‖ tells of five lower-caste war widows who are brought in as companions for the pregnant widow of Abhimanyu, the dead Pandava hero. ―Kunti and the Nishadin‖ deals with a conveniently forgotten shameful act from the Pandavas‘ past, drowned out by the cheers surrounding their battlefield victory. And ‗Souvali‘ is the story of the woman employed to service Dhritarashtra, patriarch of the Kauravas and father of her son, and her reaction to his death.

 “Yajnaseni” by Pratibha Ray (in Oriya) and translated by Pradip Bhattacharya is a retelling of the Mahabharata from the viewpoint of Draupadi. In the original epic she is the wife of the five Pandava brothers, the protagonists. This book makes Draupadi into the protagonist, similar to ―The Palace of Illusions‖. It would be one thing if the story were written for us to read this and say ―What a tragic character! She had to endure all of this abuse because of the faulty moral beliefs of her day. If only she could have broken out of that paradigm and seen her own enslavement.‖ But it isn‘t written that way at all. It is written for us to admire her for her submission, and willingness to live entirely for her husbands‘ sake and for Krishna. Her obedience and submission, i.e. her adherence to her wifely Dharma regardless of any consequences is supposed to be admired. Draupadi: ―I have made an offering of my life to keep the five Pandavas bound together‖

―Removing pride from within me, I pour out my femininity like an offering of flowers before my husbands, made fragrant by the water of desire less action. I try not to be envious under any circumstances…. I never eat or lie down before my husbands eat or lie down. I am up before they get up. I am never lazy in their

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work. If they return from a long journey, I keep seat, water, food, resting place ready for them. Despite servants being available, I keep watch on household chores. I cook their favourite food myself and serve it with my own hands. I do not burden them with my own worried and anxieties. Rather, participating in their concerns, I offer my views. I do not spend too much time on toilet, bath and dressing. If my husbands are far away, I refrain from decorating myself. I do not make interest in matters which they dislike. Without their having to tell me I am able to sense their likes and dislikes. I am never interested in arguing fruitlessly or in rolling about in meaningless mirth. The most important thing is that I never doubt them, nor do I ever shower them with unnecessary compliments. Similarly I never keep anything secret from them… I anticipate their wishes, even their commands to servants. I never describe the wealth, prosperity, luxury of my father‘s house before my husbands… I do not mention any woman as more fortunate than myself. I do not feel it necessary to display my innumerable desires before my husbands. I do not spend time in private with another man. I avoid women who are of a cunning nature. In front of my husbands I try to appear fresh, beautiful, and ever youthful.‖

In my eyes, this retelling makes Karna into the greatest hero of the story. ―Mocking, Karna said, ‗Lady! I acknowledge that your husband [Arjuna] is brave. But I fail to understand what sort of man he is. If I were in Arjun‘s place and Ma [Queen Kunti] had ordered that the woman I had won in the svayamvar [contest to win a bride] was to be shared by other brothers, I would have left that kingdom…I do not consider blindly obeying improper directives as the sign of manhood. This is the only difference between Arjun and myself.‖

 Recasting the Indian epic Mahabharata from the perspective of Princess Draupadi, veteran novelist Divakaruni offers a vivid and inventive companion to the renowned poem in The Palace of Illusions (2008). Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni gives voice to Draupadi, the fire-born heroine of the Mahabharata, as she weaves a vibrant retelling of an ancient epic saga.

Draupadi emerges from the holy fire along with her brother Dhrishtadhyumna (Dhri) as a daughter of the Panchala King, Drupad. King Drupad wished only for a son and the appearance of a daughter shocked him. Her birth, in a sense, is unwelcome to her

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royal father, who accepts her duty-bound, but fails to shower her with the same paternal love and care which he bestows on his son, Dhristadyumna. Draupadi was a girl surrounded by riches but terribly lonely save for her brother and her rather upfront but caring Dhai Ma. Though Divakaruni gives women an equal status in society, showing them to be more than just daughters, mothers and wives of great heroes of the epic Mahabharata, the injustices borne by the female protagonists constantly remind the reader that no matter how much women assert their roles in society, if men believe that they are superior to women, equality will not prevail.

1.6. Influences of Greek and Roman mythology on Western literature

In Greek and Roman mythology people can read about the origins of the world, the stories about gods, goddesses and heroes, which to large extent the value and belief of Ancient Greek and Roman people. These accounts initially were disseminated in an oral- poetic tradition; and today people deify Greek and Roman mythology as Ancient Greek and Roman literature, which greatly influenced Western civilization and remains part of Western heritage and language. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in these mythological themes. It is widely accepted that Hellenic culture is the soil from which Western culture grows. As a most important part of Hellenic culture, Greek mythology has made Western culture what it is now. Roman mythology is often associated with Greek mythology by which it is greatly influenced. Greek and Roman mythology is just like the spring giving much vitality to Western civilization. That‘s to say, to study Western culture and language; we have to study Greek and Roman mythology first. The study of Roman religion and myth is complicated by the early influence of Greek religion on the Italian peninsula during Rome's protohistory, and by the later artistic imitation of Greek literary models by Roman authors. In matters of theology, the Romans were curiously eager to identify their own gods with those of the Greeks and to reinterpret stories about Greek under the names of their Roman counterparts. Rome's early myths and also have a dynamic relationship with Etruscan religion, less documented than that of the Greeks. The Greeks were the first major European civilization to create complex literature, and their works influence us today in many ways. The oldest surviving works of the great Greek epic poetry are the Iliad and the Odyssey, written by Homer around 800 BC.

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The Iliad and Odyssey tell stories that are part history, part fiction, and part mythology but represent how the Greeks remembered their past and understood their world.

It was from ancient Greek tragedies that many playwrights borrowed their plots and characters. Most of William Shakespeare‘s characters (Ariel, Umbriel, Miranda, Ophelia, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Cupid, etc) and the title of Shaw‘s play Pygmalion have borrowed Greek names. Plays such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, Troilus and Cressida, Macbeth abound in Greek themes and it is well known fact that the plot for Romeo and Juliet was picked up from the Greek myth of Pyramus and Thisbe. In Macbeth, Hecate appears as the queen of witches, uniquely placing the Anglo-Saxon witches under a Greek goddess's control. Hymen appears as a character name in his As You Like It.

The Italian poet Dante Alighieri used characters from the legend of Troy in his Divine Comedy, placing the Greek heroes in hell to show his contempt for their actions. Poets of the Renaissance began to widely write about Greek mythology, and "elicited as much praise for borrowing or reworking" such material as they did for truly original work. The poet John Milton used figures from classical mythology to "further Christianity: to teach a Christian moral or illustrate a Christian virtue." Euphrosyne, Hymen and Hebe appear in his L'Allegro. Alexander Pope's works, such as The Rape of the Lock parodied the classical works, even as the income from his translations of Homer allowed him to become "the first English writer to earn a living solely through his literature.

In Ode to a Nightingale John Keats rejects "charioted by Bacchus and his pards." In his poem Endymion, the "Song of the Indian Maid" recounts how "Bacchus and his crew" interrupted her in her solitude. He titled an 1898 narrative poem Lamia.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Oenone is her lament that Paris deserted her for Helen. In Greek mythology, Oenone was the first wife of Paris of Troy, whom he abandoned for the queen Helen of Sparta.

When poets of the German Romantic tradition, such as Friedrich Schiller, wrote about the Greek gods, their works were frequently "erotically charged", "openly sensual and hedonistic".

In his poem The Waste Land, T. S. Eliot incorporates a range of elements and inspirations from Greek mythology to pop music to Elizabethan history to create a "tour-de-

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force exposition of Western culture, from the elite to the folk to the utterly primitive". Nina Kosman published a book of poems inspired by Greek myths created by poets of the twentieth century from around the world which she intended to show not only the "durability" of the stories but how they are interpreted by "modern sensibility".

In plays: The Fortunate Isles and Their Union is a Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones, which was first performed on January 9, 1625. The 2012 play The Architects, by the London-based Shunts, is based on the myth of the Minotaur and is about a "return to when Greece was the cradle of civilisation and not about riots on the streets".

In children's and young adult literature: In the 19th century, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote children's versions of the Greek myths, which he intended to "entirely revolutionize the whole system of juvenile literature." His works, along with the works of Bulfinch and Kingsley, have been credited with "recast[ing] Greek mythology into a genteel Victorian subject.

1.7. Modern Adaptations of Mythology

Madeline Miller is an American novelist, whose debut novel was The Song of Achilles. The novel, set in Greece, tells the story of the love between Achilles and Patroclus. The Song of Achilles won the Orange Prize for Fiction, making Miller the fourth debut novelist to win the prize. Miller was inspired by the account of the two men from Homer's Iliad and said she wanted to explore who Patroclus was and what he meant to Achilles. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. Achilles, ―best of all the Greeks,‖ is everything Patroclus is not—strong, beautiful, the child of a goddess—and by all rights their paths should never cross. Despite their difference, Achilles befriends the shamed prince, and as they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into something deeper - despite the displeasure of Achilles' mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess.

But when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, Achilles must go to war in distant Troy and fulfil his destiny. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus goes with him, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they hold dear.

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Rick Riordan is the multi-award winnings author of the Tres Navarre mystery series for adults and the #1 New York Times best-selling Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Kane Chronicles series for children. The novels draw on Riordan's experience teaching Greek mythology and his interaction with students who have learning difficulties.

Among the re inventions of Greek myths, one of the most popular is „The Lightening Thief‟ (2005), a teen choice award winner and the first of ‘s novels, about Percy Jackson, a modern day son of Poseidon, the Greek God of the sea. When Percy first discovers that the gods and goddesses are alive and living in United States, the , Chiron, reminds Percy that the symbol of the United States-the eagle- is the eagle of Zeus.

Harry Potter: Fluffy, the three-headed dog in Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone who guards the stone is an allusion to the mythological creature Cerberus in Greek mythology, which was a three-headed dog that guarded the Underworld. Also, the Greek hero Orpheus put Cerberus to sleep by playing music on his lyre, just like Lord Voldemort/Prof. Quirrel did for Fluffy in the book. Half-horse, half- eagle, the Hippogriff ,is a representation of the god Apollo and has often been depicted in art. Phoenixes can burst into flames and then rise up, regenerated, from the ashes. They are one of the most enduring and inspirational creatures in mythology. In the Harry Potter stories, the only known antidote to Basilisk venom is phoenix tears; which as Hermione tells us are ‗incredibly rare‘.

Works Cited

1. Sutra, Videshi .Book Review: Yajnaseni- The Story of Draupadi

2. Z, Mcgee, Gary Joseph Campbell‘s Four Basic Functions of Mythology

3. Nair Vasudevan , M.T. ,Krishnankutty, Gita. ‗Bhima – Lone Warrior‘

4. Nair Vasudevan , M.T. ‗Randamoozham‘ .Current Books. December 1984

5. Retrieved from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythology#Allegory]

6. Trikha, Poorva . Antiquity Revisited: Tracing the Influence of Greek Mythology on English Literature and Culture . Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies . November 2013.Volume1, Issue 4.

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