The Mything Link

[geo]

Here is what Ron Hogan has to say about Frazer's The Golden Bough on Amazon.com review.

"While highly influential in its day, The Golden Bough has come under harsh critical scrutiny in subsequent decades, with many of its descriptions of regional folklore and legends deemed less than reliable. Furthermore, much of its tone is rooted in a philosophy of social Darwinism--sheer cultural imperialism, really--that finds its most explicit form in Frazer's rhetorical question: "If in the most backward state of human society now known to us we find magic thus conspicuously present and religion conspicuously absent, may we not reasonably conjecture that the civilised races of the world have also at some period of their history passed through a similar intellectual phase?"

You would expect a book written in 1890 to have a few idiosyncrasies and other cultural artifacts. But as pointed out by Vishnu, it remains an important scholarly work.

I wonder, Stahrwe, why you don't apply some of that hard-fought skepticism to the Bible itself. Indeed, Ron Hogan's (whoever he is) criticisms towards Frazer's The Golden Bough would apply a thousand times over to the Bible which, after all, is very much a product of its time.

[geo]

It is the Dead Dodo edition for the Kindle. One of the things which struck me is that for a scholarly work, it lacks supporting reference material. It might as well be Frazer's own opinions.

No, this work was very thoroughly referenced. It sounds like what you saw was the drawback of Kindle, something they seem to be dragging their heels about improving. Even Murdock has complained about things that are left out of her books when being stripped down for Kindle. Plus if it was the slimmed down abridged version Geo mentioned, then you might even have whittling upon whittling.. . .

The physical book version of The Golden Bough that I bought (see link in previous post) does not contain any footnotes of any kind, or even an index. So the Dead Dodo Kindle version seems to be the same as the printed book that I own. This is supposedly the final version abridged by Frazer himself. So is there a (final) abridged version that does have footnotes?

This appears to be the full version here (sans Frazer's preface):

http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/frazer/

[Vishnu]

The physical book version of The Golden Bough that I bought (see link in previous post) does not contain any footnotes of any kind, or even an index. So the Dead Dodo Kindle version seems to be the same as the printed book that I own. This is supposedly the final version abridged by Frazer himself.

Ah, okay, thanks for clarifying that. So it seems the stripping is mostly on Frazer's part there rather than Kindle. I would apologize to Kindle if this weren't still a frequent occurrence for them.

So is there a (final) abridged version that does have footnotes?

That I wouldn't know, I've never bothered looking tbh. But I guess I'll start keeping an eye out for one.

In the mean time, here's the 12 volume version, full with footnotes. So many in fact that volume 12 is nothing but the bibliography. Over 500 pages of nothing but sources cited (plus index).

Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4
Volume 5
Volume 6
Volume 7
Volume 8
Volume 9
Volume 10
Volume 11
Volume 12

[Interbane]

Lewis wasn't the only one to rationalize away the myths that preceded christianity. Justin Martyr had done the same thing a long time before.

"Where C. S. Lewis explained the similarities as imperfect reflections of the true myth, Justin Martyr explained them as “diabolical mimicry,” i.e. that demons, knowing what God was planning to do in the future planted these myths so as to make it seem that the story of Jesus was the copy instead of the original."

Source: http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/11-07-20/#feature

[youkrst]

Justin Martyr explained them as “diabolical mimicry,” i.e. that demons, knowing what God was planning to do in the future planted these myths so as to make it seem that the story of Jesus was the copy instead of the original."

have mercy! i still get a laugh out of that one every time

[grizzlyman]

Anyone else care to comment?

My question was intended to be more generic than a specific mythology. I meant mythology as a genre, a type of literature,

JRR Tolkien wrote what some have called the greatest book of the 20th century and others have called the greatest book of the 2nd millenia.

Western society remains predisposed to discussing the meaning of miracle stories literally, and the habit formed of even considering that supernatural events have taken place has overwhelmed common sense and adds to our ‘spiritual’ confusion. Rational interpretation is virtually impossible if one does not recognise the symbolic connection with nature.

Joseph Campbell (1904-1987), a prolific interpreter of mythology, perhaps influenced by the writings of Freud and Jung, wrote that “The symbols of mythology are not manufactured – they cannot be ordered, invented, or permanently suppressed”. He implied, and perhaps believed, that they were spontaneous productions of the psyche. Other writers have expressed a similar view; Campbell however, underlines the confusion and conflict that supernatural belief has introduced into the Western psyche. He asks in his book 'The Hero with a Thousand Faces' “Why is mythology everywhere the same, beneath its varieties of costume? And what does it teach?”

The answers to his questions flow easily from the eBook 'Miraclescam'. To the question ‘why is mythology everywhere the same, beneath its varieties of costume’ – the answer is simply that Nature is everywhere the same beneath its varieties of culture. The costumes may vary with each culture and with each particular natural environment, however the message and method of presentation is rooted in allegory – symbolically comparing social interaction with Natural phenomena. In response to the second question: ‘And what does it teach?’ – prior to the invention of writing, this form of communication taught all that a society knew or needed to know about its culture and social record.

Joseph Campbell also stated (Hero) “There is no common method for interpreting mythology and there will never be any such thing”. Again the answer flows naturally from the same source – Miraclescam outlines the prehistoric method in which both mythological and miracle stories are rooted.