Chapter XLI: Section VI: Myths

INTRODUCTORY

_What myths are._ It seems that every race of people in the period of barbarism and early civilization has created fanciful, childlike stories to explain such things as the origin of earth, sun, stars, clouds, life, death, fire, man, lower animals, and plants, and the characteristics of particular plants and animals. In most cases, if not all, they have accounted for the origin of such things by the theory that they were created by gods and super-human heroes. Among such peoples as the Greek and Norse folk, many stories also grew up regarding the gods and super-human heroes and their relations with one another and with men. All of these old stories about the creation of things and about the gods and super-human heroes are called myths. As time went on and the peoples became civilized, the original myths were regarded merely as fanciful tales, and were used to furnish characters and plots for many stories told chiefly for entertainment. Often, as in the story of Ulysses, legends of national heroes were combined with them. Even in our time such writers as Hawthorne and Kingsley and Lowell have used these old characters and plots as the basis of stories, many of which differ greatly from the original myths.

_Myths and other folk stories._ Myths were pretty largely matters of faith to begin with. They were the basis of old-time religious beliefs, explaining to the mind of primitive man how things came to be as they are. This tendency to adopt what are to educated minds fanciful explanations of all that is beyond their understanding is easily observable in the way children explain the unknown. It seems fairly clear, on the other hand, that fairy stories were told by the folk as matter of entertainment. They did not believe that pigs actually talked, that a princess could sleep a hundred years, that a bean-stalk could grow as fast and as far as Jack's did, or that toads and diamonds could actually come out of one's mouth. It may be, as some theorists insist, that remains of myth survive in some of these fairy stories. On the whole, however, the folk believed these tales only in the sense in which we believe in a fine story such as "The Vision of Sir Launfal" or "Enoch Arden." They express the pleasing imaginings and longings of the human spirit, its ideals of character and conduct, its sense of the wonder and mystery of the universe. The fairy tale, in general, is nearer the surface of life; the myth was concerned with the most fundamental problems of the _whence_ and the _why_ of things.

Such distinctions, however, belong to the realm of scientific scholarship. The teacher is concerned with myths simply as splendid stories that have come down to us from a time when human beings seemed to feel themselves bound into a unity with nature and all mysterious powers around them; stories that through constant repetition were rounded and perfected, and finally, through use by the poets, have reached us in a fairly systematic form. The so-called "poetic mythology" is the one of special value for our purposes. It comes to us through Ovid in the South, and does not distinguish between the gods of Greece and Rome. It comes through the Eddas of the North. It is this poetic mythology that furnishes the basis of allusion in literature and in art, and which is retold for us in the various versions for modern readers. If we hold fast to this correct idea that as teachers in elementary schools our interest in myths is exactly like our interest in other folk products, an interest in them as stories tested by the ages, an interest in them as presenting familiar and suggestive types of character and conduct, an interest in them as stimulating our sense of wonder and mystery, we shall not be disturbed by the violent discussions that sometimes rage over the advisability of using myths with children.

_Values of myth._ To make the above proposition as clear as possible, let us first tabulate briefly the values of myth, borrowing a suggestion from Jeremiah Curtin:

1. A wonderful story told in most effective
fashion. To realize this value, one needs to
recall only the efforts of Prometheus in
bringing down fire for man and his heroic
endurance of vengeful tyranny as a result. The
work of Hercules in slaying the many-headed
serpent or in cleansing the Augean stables, the
adventures of Theseus culminating in the
labyrinth of the horrible Minotaur, the
beautiful hospitality of Baucis and Philemon,
the equally beautiful sadness of the death of
Balder--all these simply hint the riches of the
myth as story. This story interest is the one
that appeals to all human beings as human
beings and is therefore fundamental.

2. Myth preserves much material of social and
antiquarian interest. It helps us understand
the institutions and customs of primitive
stages in human development, and as such has
great value for scientific students of human
society.

3. Myth preserves evidences of how the mind of
man looked out upon his surroundings and what
it did in the way of interpreting them. It
makes most valuable contributions, therefore,
to the history of the human mind, and must be
taken into account in the science of
anthropology.

It must be evident that the second and third values are only in the slightest degree within the range of the child in his early years of school work.

_Objections to myth._ The objections to the use of myths in school may also be brought under three heads:

1. They come from a plane of ethics much lower
than our own. This is the one strong argument
against all folk material, and it has a
validity that must be frankly recognized. There
are the miscellaneous love affairs of Jupiter,
and certain stories that have elements of
horror and brutality. Such stories we cannot
use, "though an error on that side is better
than effeminancy." Occasional defects cannot
outweigh the great positive ethical worth of
myth. We must simply make intelligent choice.
The situation is not different from what it is
in choosing from modern poetry and story. It
would be poor evidence of our sanity if we
ruled out all poetry because some of it is not
fit. Let us, however, omit entirely those myths
that are not suitable rather than attempt
making them over to suit modern conceptions. We
may properly allow liberties to a literary
artist like Hawthorne that a mere artisan
should not take.

2. Myth deals with the worn-out and obsolete
ideas of the past, and will give children false
religious and scientific notions. But one does
not rule out _Paradise Lost_ because Milton's
cosmogony is so purely fanciful, nor Dante
because of his equally fantastic structure of
the Inferno. Neither children nor older readers
are ever led astray by these purely incidental
backgrounds against which and by means of which
the human interest is powerfully projected.

3. Myth is too deeply symbolical. But readers
of different ages and abilities find results up
to their stature. We do not demand that the
children shall be able to understand all that
is back of _Gulliver's Travels_, or _Pilgrim's
Progress_, before we give them those books.
What is worth while in literature has an
increasing message as the powers of the reader
increase.

_How to use myths._ We may sum up the conclusions thus: Select those myths that tell stories of dramatic force and that have sound ethical worth. So far as possible let these be the ones most familiar in literary allusion and in common speech. Present the myth as you would any other folk story. Since myth naturally comes along a little later than fairy stories, probably beginning not earlier than the third grade, the discussion of its meanings may take a wider range. Keep the poetic elements of the story prominent, as in most of the examples following.

SUGGESTIONS

For the soundest and most illuminating
discussion of the values and proper use of
myths in education see Edward Howard Griggs,
_Moral Education_, chap, xxi, "The Ethical
Value of Mythology and Folk-Lore." For some
good suggestions and lists consult Ezra Allen,
"The Pedagogy of Myth in the Grades,"
_Pedagogical Seminary_, Vol. VIII, p. 258. A
very interesting plan for the use of myths may
be found in two articles by O. O. Norris,
"Myths and the Teaching of Myths," _The
American Schoolmaster_, Vol. IX, p. 96 and p.
145. Consult also MacClintock, _Literature in
the Elementary School_, chap, vii, and McMurry,
_Special Method in Reading_, pp. 92-105.

The first nine myths in this section came
originally from Greek mythology. The Romans
adopted the mythology of the Greeks, but
changed the names of the gods. English-speaking
peoples have usually used these Latin versions.
Hence in the following Greek myths the Roman
names of the gods are used. In this note the
Greek name is usually given in parenthesis
after the Roman.

According to mythology, Saturn once ruled the
universe. After a great war he was overthrown
and the universe was divided into three
kingdoms, each governed by one of his sons.
Jupiter (Zeus) ruled the heavens and the earth;
Neptune (Poseidon) ruled the sea; and Pluto
(Dis) ruled Hades, or Tartarus, the gloomy
region of the dead in a cavern far under the
surface of the earth. The home of Jupiter and
the many other gods of heaven was represented
as being the top of Mount Olympus, in Thessaly.
Here each of the gods of heaven had a separate
dwelling, but all assembled at times in the
palace of Jupiter. Sometimes these gods went to
earth, through a gate of clouds kept by
goddesses called the Seasons.

The relations between these divinities were
much like those between people on earth. Some
had greater power than others, and rivalries
and quarrels frequently arose. Jupiter, the
supreme ruler, governed by wisdom as well as by
the power of his thunderbolt. He had three
sisters: Juno, Vesta, and Ceres. Juno (Hera)
was the wife of Jupiter and the noblest of the
goddesses. Vesta (Hestia), the goddess of
health, was not married. Ceres (Demeter), the
goddess of agriculture, was the mother of
Proserpine, who became wife of Pluto and queen
of Hades. Minerva (Athena), goddess of wisdom
and Jupiter's favorite daughter, had no mother,
as she sprang fully armed from Jupiter's head.
Venus (Aphrodite) was goddess of beauty and
mother of Cupid, god of love. Two other
goddesses were Diana (Artemis), modest virgin
goddess of the moon, who protects brute
creation, and Hebe, cup-bearer to the gods.
Among the greatest of the gods were three sons
of Jupiter: Apollo, Mars, and Vulcan. Apollo,
or Phoebus, was god of the sun and patron of
music, archery, and prophecy. Mars (Ares) was
god of war, and Vulcan (Hephaestus), the lame
god of fire, was the blacksmith of the gods.

255

This version of the myth of Ceres and
Proserpine is taken by permission of the author
and the publishers from _Stories of Long Ago_,
by Grace H. Kupfer. (Copyright. D. C. Heath &
Co., Boston.) "Of all the beautiful fictions of
Greek mythology," said Aubrey DeVere, "there
are few more exquisite than the story of
Proserpine, and none deeper in symbolical
meaning." That portion of its meaning fitted to
the understanding of children is indicated in
the final paragraphs of Miss Kupfer's version.
Teachers should realize that "the fable has,
however, its moral significance also, being
connected with that great mystery of Joy and
Grief, of Life and of Death, which pressed so
heavily on the mind of Pagan Greece, and
imparts to the whole of her mythology a
profound interest, spiritual as well as
philosophical. It was the restoration of Man,
not of flowers, the victory over Death, not
over Winter, with which that high Intelligence
felt itself to be really concerned."
Hawthorne's version of this story appears in
_Tanglewood Tales_ as "The Pomegranate Seeds."

A STORY OF THE SPRINGTIME

GRACE H. KUPFER