Classical Mythology

INTERPRETATION AND DEFINITION OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY 17

layers in the development of Greek and Roman myths before their crystalliza-

tion in literary form. The Homeric poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, no doubt

had oral antecedents.^36 Often, and especially in structural interpretations, the

earlier stages of a myth are discovered to have been rooted in another culture,

or at least show the influence of other mythologies. For example, there are ob-

vious parallels between the Greek creation and succession myths and myths of

Near Eastern cultures (we explore these in the Additional Reading at the end of

Chapter 4); such structural and thematic similarities do at least show how Greek

myths are to be studied in conjunction with those of other cultures.

It is gratifying to report that comparative studies in the classics are becom-

ing more and more abundant (made evident in our bibliographies), the focus

being the identification of structures and motifs in Greek and Roman literature

that are common to mythologies of the world.

Joseph Campbell. Joseph Campbell is the comparative mythologist who is the best
known among the general public, and his body of work embraces mythologies of
every sort—oral, literary, whatever—in the world throughout the centuries. In his
vast all-embracing scheme of things, classical mythology is not of major signifi-
cance, but it easily could be. He has done much that is worthwhile to popularize
the study of comparative mythology, and for this we are grateful, even though we
wish that, in his popularizations at least, he had paid more serious attention to the
Greeks and the Romans. Perhaps he will appeal most of all to those who seek to
recognize the kindred spiritual values that may be found through a comparison of
the myths and legends of various peoples over the centuries. It is difficult to know
how Campbell should be classified under our previous headings: with those who
link mythology and society or religion or psychology?^37 His inspiring influence
upon Martha Graham and her powerful re-creations of mythology in dance is dis-
cussed in Chapter 28. A clear and comprehensive introduction to his numerous
works is offered by Robert A. Segal in Joseph Campbell: An Introduction.^38

FEMINISM, HOMOSEXUALITY, AND MYTHOLOGY

Feminism. Feminist critical theories have led to many new, and often contro-

versial, interpretations of classical myths. They approach mythology from the

perspective of women and interpret the myths by focusing especially on the psy-

chological and social situation of their female characters. These theories share

with structuralism a focus on the binary nature of human society and the hu-

man mind, especially in the opposition (or complementary relationship) of fe-

male and male. Social criticism of the male-centered world of Greek mythology

goes back at least to Sappho, who, in her Hymn to Aphrodite (see pp. 197-198)

used the image of Homeric warfare to describe her emotions, and in her poem

on Anaktoria contrasts what she loves, another human being, with what con-

ventional men love, the panoply of war.^39 In 1942 the French philosopher Si-

mone Weil took basically the same approach in her essay on the Iliad (translated