Orality Newsletter # 7: An Achilles Heel

of Sharing the Good News

I‟ve been convinced through my research that all societies have myths, legends and folktales that help
them explain a whole range of phenomena and concepts and aid in passing on societal knowledge. (See
the endnotes for definitions of the three types of stories.) Literate cultures have other forms of explanation
available to them as well, such as history, ethics, theology, psychology, philosophy and science. Dr.
Elizabeth Vandiver, a professor of Classical Mythology at the University of Maryland defines myth as
“traditional stories a society tells itself that encode or represent the world-view, beliefs, principles, and
often fears of that society.” (See endnotes, Vandiver) So we should expect that every society we
encounter has a collection of stories that all members have access to and most likely refer to in
conversation and in ritual events to bind themselves together as a community.

For outsiders hearing these stories for the first or second time, it is easy to dismiss them as implausible or
not particularly compelling. However, for the insider, the stories are appealing enough to listen to over
and over again and they will help shape their behavior and communication. Many of us have heard
people dismiss the Bible stories as unsubstantiated tales that are too difficult to believe. Yet I find I can
reread or listen to Paul‟s conversion story or Joseph‟s life story over and over again and be inspired or
discover something new each time. And while I find it fascinating to reread the Grimm Brothers‟ or Hans
Christian Anderson‟s folktales, I find it much more difficult to stay interested in and make any sense out
of Pacific Islander‟s traditional tales.

I have recently been asking myself how realistic it is for us to think that societies will allow the Bible
stories to supplant their own stories that explain the world around them. I‟ve wondered about the process
that occurs when a community of believers first chooses to learn more about the stories of God and the
incarnate Jesus and decides to let the Bible influence their lives. My life is a picture of the process
thousands of years after it was initiated and so I have no personal experience to draw on when relating to
communities of new believers and the stories they tell to identify themselves. So I‟ve been exploring our
cultural and religious history to see the progression and transformation of stories as Christianity took
root.

Paul talks about the „mystery‟ of the Gospel as a way to appeal to his audience who were familiar with the
mystery cults that were popular during the time of the early church. I recently heard the story of Hades,
the Greek god of the underworld, kidnapping Persephone, the only daughter of Demeter, the Greek
goddess of grain and agriculture. In an act of revenge, Demeter disguises herself as an old woman and is
hired as nanny to look after the only son of the king and queen of Eleusis. Her plan was to feed the child
ambrosia, the food of the gods and pass him through fire so that he might become immortal, thus robbing
Hades of one of the souls that should end up in the underworld. However, the queen catches Demeter
placing the boy on hot coals and disrupts the process. Demeter reacts in anger and demands that a temple
be built in which people were to worship her. This was the myth of the Demeter mystery cult, the
initiates of which supposedly gained immortality through the secret knowledge revealed to them in the
secret rituals.
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By Janet Stahl

I suppose that if you had a classical education, you would have learned this myth, but I did not grow up
hearing this story. However, the myth has not been lost. Interestingly records of this and other classical 2
myths were preserved in the monasteries, convents and cathedral libraries, in other words, by the
Christian institutions. And in the 12th century, when cathedral schools opened and education was
available for more children, people were exposed to those stories again. It became popular to interpret the
stories as allegories with Christian morals. So for example the story of Icaros, whose father made him
wings of wax and feathers and taught him to fly, was a representation of the soul‟s flight toward God.
Daphne, the nymph in the Roman tale who chose to be chaste and was turned into a laurel tree rather than
become Apollo‟s lover, was interpreted as representing the Virgin Mary. These medieval authors must
have believed that God planted his truths in the hearts of the Greeks and Romans before they heard the
Torah and Jesus stories.

William Shakespeare drew heavily on classical mythology for his story lines and images. His story of
Romeo and Juliet neatly parallels Ovid‟s myth of Pyramis and Thisbe and was more recently retold in the
musical, Westside Story. We have the psychologists to thank for creating character types from the myths
of Narcissus and Oedipus. And as archeologists uncover historical links to the Trojan Wars and Egyptian
Pharaohs, Disney and Hollywood have reworked the stories of heroes such as Achilles, Paris and
Cleopatra, rationalizing the more fabulous elements of the traditional myths and presenting them more or
less as history. The great epic myth of the Odyssey is frequently recast as more contemporary stories with
all the fabulous events and set in the States as in the movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the novel,
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. C. S. Lewis‟s book Till We Have Faces is a retelling of the classical
myth of Eros and Psyche, greatly influenced by his Christian beliefs.

E. D. Hirsch, the main editor of The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy; What Every American Needs to
Know, writes in the introduction;

“For purposes of communication and solidarity in a CULTURE, myths are just as important as history.
And unless history achieves the vividness and memorableness of myth, it will not be useful to shared
culture. We should indeed try to discriminate between history and myth; but true or false, the stories
that we share provide us with our values, goals and traditions. The tales we tell our children define what
kind of people we shall be.” (See endnotes, Hirsch)

Some of the common points of reference that he says Americans share are: Aphrodite, Cinderella, The
Fountain of Youth, the Holy Grail, Hercules, the Grim Reaper, magic carpets, nymphs, and the ugly
duckling, to name only a few. We understand the implications of the words and phrases best when we
know the myth behind them.

Cognitive linguists enjoy describing a culture by analyzing the metaphors and conceptual blends of the
language and their role in traditional and modern myths. (See Kóvecses in the endnotes.) The still
popular Jack Tales of the Appalachian Mountains, and the ballads of country music can all be traced back
to their Scots-Irish roots often through the turns of phrases or metaphors of the rich oral cultural of the
Scots-Irish who brought them to America. Some of the metaphors attributed to these folks such as
“having an axe to grind”, “sitting on the fence” and “going whole hog” apparently reflect the fierce,
clannish and unruly temperament of these pioneers. (See McCrum, Cran and MacNeil in the Endnotes.)
Zane Gray‟s stories of the cowboy life as well as the legendary Bill Cody, “Buffalo Bill” who took his
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By Janet Stahl

traveling show as far as Europe, helped to spread not only the images of the Wild West but the phrases
such as “bite the dust” and “hot under the collar” that were commonly used in English. 3
The English names for the planets are Roman gods and goddesses and some of the days of the week draw
their names from the sun, moon and Saturn. And while many quickly dismiss astrology as superstition,
C.S. Lewis took pleasure in the beauty of the ideas and used the symbolism in his stories. In his book, Out
of the Silent Planet, Lewis refers to the Book of Judges 5:20 that reads, “They fought from the heaven;
the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.” In The Miracles, Lewis wrote; “God is supposed to have
had a „Son‟, just as if God were a mythological deity like Jupiter.” He seemed to have taken pleasure in
the comparison. Frank Peretti used the same heavenly battle motif in his novel This Present Darkness.

So it seems to me that we cannot ignore the ancient and contemporary myths; the Christian and the non-
Christian stories. These myths help to define who we are as a cultural group. Our interpretations of the
myths may change with time and the focus or main point of the myth may change as our situation and
collective experiences change; however a core aspect of these myths are maintained and repeated, as
complete stories or as implied background material in our symbols, our metaphors and in reworking of
the stories. For a society so influenced by science and facts, facts, and more facts, we have not lost the
archetypes, images and symbols of our traditional myths. How much more so is this true or will this be
true for societies who think in more categories than what is true and false but also in categories of beauty,
traditions and symbols.

So what connection have you discovered between the Bible stories and the traditional myths? Have you
experienced folks working through the intersection and divergence of their traditional stories and the
Christian stories? Have you seen folks reinterpret their traditional stories in light of the Christian stories
or allowed the Christian stories to influence the performance of their traditional stories? We look forward
to hearing from you.

Myths, Legends and Folktales

Myths are the stories with a connection to gods, religion and the rites and rituals related to the religion.
Legends are the traditional stories that have some historical fact but the details, descriptions and events
have been aggrandized over the years. For example; George Washington never chopped down the cherry
tree and confess later but this story has a symbolic role in our American society that values honesty and
accepting responsibility for our actions. Folktales are stories that are entertaining and often involve
clever people and animals with human characteristics. They are not meant to be considered as historical
truths but can have an implied or stated morale.

References:
E. D Hirsch Jr., Joseph F. Kett and James Trefil; eds., The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What
Every American Needs to Know, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, 2002, p. 27

Kóvecses, Zoltán, Metaphor in Culture, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2005, p173

McCrum, Robert, Cran William, MacNeil, Robert, The Story of English, Elisabeth Sifton Books, New
York, 1986, p 151-2, p254-5
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Vandiver, Elizabeth Dr., Classical Mythology, The Teaching Company Limited Partnership, Chantilly,
Virginia, 2000 4
Ward, Michael, Planet Narnia; The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis, Oxford University
Press, 2008