Inspired by Vladimir Nabokov’s metafiction novel Pale Fire and with Joseph Campbell’s research in comparative mythology and religion in mind, I explore the act of mythmaking and the composition of metafictional text in this work of fiction. The myth aspect combines elements of Classical, biblical, medieval, Romantic, and original materials to form a product that should strike readers as both familiar and alien, demonstrating Campbell’s notion of the monomyth as well as the ongoing tradition of mythmaking that continues to captivate both readers and writers. The metafictional portion of the text emphasizes a reader’s relationship to a work of fiction, a scholar’s relationship to his or her scholarly work, and a subtext’s relationship to its primary text. Combining the texts encourages the reader to read critically and reevaluate his or her conceptions of genre in order to piece together the greater story of tyranny and rebellion.

Background: This thesis aims to show that the narratives of the Nag Hammadi Apocalypse of Pauland First Apocalypse of James are written for a Valentinian audience. The purpose is to broaden the field of research on Valentinianism by showing how the authors and their implied readers composed and perceived the texts in question. Method: Comparing the mythological language of the two narratives and their description of a hero’s journey in a transcendent reality it is possible to disentangle the Valentinian material from the imaginative world of the reader, a world consisted of ancient Egyptian and Greek mythology as well as Jewish apocalypticism and early Christian legends and traditions. The texts are also compared with new research in the field, other related Valentinian scriptures, the New Testament, and Christian Apocrypha. Results: The texts are pseudepigraphic and written within a Jewish apocalyptic genre sometime during the late second or early third century. The symbolism and the diverse metaphors of the narratives indicate that the texts incorporate a specific soteriological message through embedded Valentinian mythology. The implied reader is to understand that the material world is an illusion and that the purpose of the initiate is to awaken the mind and acquire knowledge about the truth. By doing so the redemption of the believer’s spirit from its human body and soul leads to the spirits reunion with God. Conclusion: The analysis of the texts points toward the fact that the narratives could very well have been used for catechetical or other educational purposes within a Valentinian community. The language and form of the two narratives fit to serve this purpose. In many ways, the reader has to be initiated within a Valentinian context in order to grasp the intended message. / <p>Godkännande datum 2019-06-10</p>

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-17T15:01:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1786722 bytes, checksum: 1f37882f48cc5060cd22a94e02c312c2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-02-05 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This dissertation has the purpose of analysing the mythical-symbolic meaning of the Grail in its correlation with the myth of the hero, here represented by the ideal of medieval cavalry. Work with the hyphotesis that between the lines of Grail myth lies virtue as the path which leads to acquaintance of self and transcendence, being the Grail an immaterial good symbolised by many objects. Between two axes, history and myth, I bring some reflections to analyse the meaning of the Grail. Regarding methodological procedures, I made use of bibliographical research based on seminal romances from twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Perceval or the Story of the Grail by Chrétien de Troyes and Parzival by Wolfram Von Eschenbach. Such romances were examined from referential theory of the Antrophological Structures of Imaginary by Gilbert Durand and of comparative mythology by Joseph Campbell. / Esta dissertação tem por objetivo analisar o significado mítico-simbólico do Graal em sua conexão com o mito do herói, aqui representado pelo cavaleiro medieval. Trabalho com a hipótese que nas entrelinhas do mito do Graal está a virtude como o caminho que leva para o encontro de si mesmo e da transcendência, sendo o Graal um bem imaterial simbolizado por vários objetos. Entre os dois pólos, história e mito, trago algumas reflexões para analisar o significado do Graal. Em relação aos procedimentos metodológicos, utilizei a pesquisa bibliográfica, com base nos romances seminais dos séculos XII e XIII, Perceval ou o Romance do Graal, de Chrétien de Troyes e Parsifal, de Wolfram Von Eschenbach. Tais romances foram analisados a partir do referencial teórico das Estruturas Antropológicas do Imaginário de Gilbert Durand e da mitologia comparada de Joseph Campbell.

This thesis aims to provide a critique of the conclusions of Gershom Scholem regarding the potential for ‘Gnostic’-Kabbalistic filiation, and to establish whether, in light of the available evidence, Scholem’s arguments (which have yet, to my mind, to be sufficiently challenged) can be reasonably supported. I strive to offer an arguably clearer definition of the relevant taxonomic terms than is often presented in scholarly analyses of this question, whilst also arguing for the applicability to this debate of certain pertinent methodological approaches drawn from the wider school of comparative mythology. As such, I also attempt to establish a clear methodology for judging the probability of the genetic descent of one ‘system’ from another, viz. that perhaps the most logical method for assessing potential similarities between different ‘systems’ is to assume in the first instance that all correspondences identified are essentially coincidental, dismissing this assumption only if one can identify a high level of exactness in these comparisons (such as would render pure coincidence relatively improbable) and/or establish a secure chain of transmission between two sources, a chain which renders the transmission of ideas not only possible but indeed probable. Applying this methodology to certain potential routes by which second century ‘Gnostic’ thought might have been transmitted to the origin point of the medieval Kabbalah, I attempt both to demonstrate the wider applicability of such a methodology beyond the narrow question of ‘Gnostic’-Kabbalistic relationships, and to illustrate the serious difficulties with advancing any of these potential routes as a reliable source for the transmission of ‘Gnostic’ ideas to the Kabbalah. Rather, I argue that it may be more logically defensible, in the absence of clear source evidence, to ascribe such correspondences as are located purely to coincidence, albeit a coincidence perhaps somewhat tempered by certain observations regarding the relative ubiquity of certain concepts and modes of thought.

The Roman festival of the Lupercalia is one of the most discussed issues in the field of pre-Christian Roman religion. Hardly a year goes by without an article on the subject appearing in a major Classics journal. But the festival presents a range of issues that individual articles cannot address. This thesis is an attempt to present a modern analysis of the phenomenon of the Lupercalia as a whole, including literary, archaeological and historical evidence on the subject. The first section presents the ancient sources on the Lupercalia, and is divided into five chapters, each analysing a particular aspect of the festival: fertility, purification, the importance of the wolf and the foundation myth, the mythology of Arcadian origins, and Caesar's involvement with the Lupercalia of 44 BC. The second section places the Lupercalia in a wider context, discussing the festival's topography and the course of the running Luperci, its relationship to other lustration rituals, and its position in the Roman calendar, ending with an appraisal of the changes it underwent in late Antiquity. The third section employs methods from linguistics, anthropology and comparative religion to show that the Lupercalia involved a ritual of initiation, which was also reflected in the Roman foundation myth. The central chapter of this section discusses the methodology used in comparative Indo-European mythology, and offers a case study that parallels the god of the festival (Faunus) with Rudra of Vedic Hinduism. The last chapter considers other parallels with Indian religion, especially the relationship between flamen and brahmin. The thesis challenges a number of established theories on the subject and offers new evidence to show that the festival has Indo-European origins, but also that it played an important role throughout Roman history.

Jiří Dynda Byliny of bogatyr Svyatogor: Structural and Comparative Analysis of Narrative (MA Thesis) Abstract This thesis is an analysis and interpretation of the thirty seven textual variants of the byliny of bogatyr Svyatogor. After the general introduction to the Russian folk epics and after the presentation of issues concerning the study of oral epic literature, author's own structural concept of myth and cultural representations is presented. In the central part the thesis attempts to apply these principles to the narrative of the byliny of Svyatogor and by means of a thorough analysis it indicates, which motives and their relations were fundamental for this narrative to make sense in the local context of bylinaic tradition. The thesis claims that these narratives primarily deal with the themes of the initiation of a young hero, the generation conflict and the transmission of a mentor's position to his apprentice (or, metaphorically, a father's position to his son). This hypothesis is subsequently tested via a two phased comparative analysis of the central motives and their clusters: Firstly, the comparison is made in the context of the bylinaic traditions per se and in the context of the ethnographic situation at the Russian North (internal comparison), and secondly, in the wider scope of the Eurasian...

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-21T19:26:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pedro Jeferson Miranda.pdf: 3220140 bytes, checksum: a557a7dc630657c2bc53d73eb4fd7f48 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-09-03 / Fundação Araucária de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico do Paraná / The emergence is a phenomenon that gives sense to the qualitative unity of any substance, consisting the reflex in the ontological act of perception. It is the conceptual key that justifies the use of complex network models to describe systems, which also are complex in nature. Given this key concept, it was desired to apply it on real objects in order to create new analysis methodologies. For this, graph’s theory and random walk’s theory were used as fundamentals for two study cases. One of them consists on an analysis of the mythological social network of Odyssey of Homer. It was found that this network displays structural characteristic of real social network mixed with fictional aspects associated to mythological characters. Another study was the oral tolerance phenomenon modeled as a complex network associated with stochastic dynamics. We applied the random walk as a way to understand the relative importance of each immunological component. Finally, it becomes evidenced that the key concept of emergence allows new forms of analysis using complex network theory as a model which comprises the complexity inherent on the conception of real systems. / A emergência é fenômeno que dá unidade qualitativa a qualquer substância, constituindo o reflexo no ato ontológico da percepção. É a chave conceitual que justifica o uso do modelo em redes complexas para descrever sistemas, que também são complexos naturalmente. Dada essa chave conceitual, buscou-se utilizá-la na geração de novas análises. Para tanto é empregado a teoria de grafos e a caminhada aleatória em dois estudo de caso. Um deles constitui a análise de uma rede mitológica referente à Odisseia de Homero. Foi verificado que a rede mitológica apresenta padrões de redes sociais reais quando excetuados da rede as personagens mitológicas. Em segundo lugar, foi realizado um estudo da tolerância oral como um fenômeno de rede complexa, foi utilizada a caminhada aleatória como modelo estocástico de difusão de estímulos numa rede complexa. Com isso, foi possível conhecer a importância relativa de cada componente imunológica. Por fim, fica evidenciado que o conceito chave de emergência permite a concepção de novas formas de análise, fundamentalmente no uso de redes complexas como modelos que albergam a complexidade inerente na concepção de sistemas reais.

La thèse entend proposer un commentaire de la Chanson de Roland, fondé sur l'analyse minutieuse de toutes les variantes qui nous soient parvenues. Cette prise en considération de l'ensemble des versions françaises, rompant avec le dogme de la précellence du manuscrit d'Oxford, s'explique logiquement par la nature mouvante des œuvres médiévales, mais s'enracine aussi dans la conviction d'une texture mythique du poème de Roncevaux. Aussi le recours à la mythologie comparée constitue-t-il une ligne de force majeure du présent travail : s'inscrivant dans la tradition des études indo-européennes telles que Georges Dumézil a contribué à les fonder, la thèse propose une comparaison morphologique entre les mythes de Baldr et de Roland. Cet essai de mythologie comparée forme un premier temps dans l'analyse de la texture mythique du poème et peut être considéré comme autonome. Il s'articule cependant avec le travail de comparaison typologique qui lui succède. La thèse se propose en effet d'étudier la Chanson de Roland à la lumière de l'hypothèse victimaire élaborée par René Girard, qui permet de penser sous un jour nouveau l'esthétique et l'idéologie de la chanson de geste. De fait, la poétique de la répétition et l'art de la symétrie sont justiciables de la théorie du désir mimétique, tout comme la crise épique entretient des analogies étroites avec le modèle de la crise sacrificielle. C'est autour de la question anthropologique de la violence et de l'ambiguïté de la figure du guerrier mythique que ce travail réconcilie deux méthodes réputées incompatibles et pourtant complémentaires dans l'analyse qu'elles proposent de l'ambivalence des héros épiques. / This doctoral thesis intends to propose a commentary of the Chanson de Roland, based on a meticulous analysis of all the variants which have reached posterity. By paying close attention to the whole of French versions and by refusing to comment the sole manuscript of Oxford, as most of scholars do, we comply with the unsettled nature of medieval poetry and furthermore support the idea that the Chanson de Roland should be considered as a myth. The comparative mythology thus constitutes a main thrust of this work : in the tradition on Indo-european studies as founded by Georges Dumézil, we compare the myth of Roland to the myth of Balder, on a morphological level. The essay of comparative mythology is the first part of our commentary and could be regarded as self-reliant. However, it forms a single entity with the essay of typological comparison which follows. The thesis actually intends to interpret the poem in the light of the theory developed by René Girard, which allows to analyze the aesthetics and the ideology of the chanson de geste in a new light. The poetic of repetition and the art of symmetry are closely linked to the hypothesis of mimetic desire, just like the epic crisis is closely linked to the model of the sacrificial crisis. By studying the anthropological question of violence and the ambiguous figure of mythical warrior, this work combines two approaches, deemed to be irreconcilable and nevertheless complementary, in the sense that they interpret in the same way the ambivalence of epic heroes.

This thesis charts divine assembly scenes in ancient Mesopotamian narrative poetry and the early Greek hexameter corpus, and aims to contribute to a cross-cultural comparison in terms of literary systems. The recurrent scene of the divine gathering is shown to underpin the construction of small- and large-scale compositions in both the Sumero-Akkadian and early Greek traditions. Parts 1 and 2 treat each corpus in turn, reflecting a methodological concern to assess the comparanda within their own context first. Part 1 (Chapters 1-4) examines Sumerian narrative poems, and the Akkadian narratives Atra-hsīs, Anzû, Enûma eliš, Erra and Išum and the Epic of Gilgameš. Part 2 (Chapters 5-8) considers Homer's Iliad, the Odyssey, the Homeric Hymns and Hesiod's Theogony. The comparative approaches in Part 3 are developed in two chapters (9-10). Chapter 9 offers a detailed comparison of this typical scene's poetic morphology and compositional purpose. Relevant techniques and effects, a function of the aural reception of literature, are shown to overlap to a considerable degree. Although the Greeks are unlikely to have taken over the feature from the Near East, it is suggested that the Greek divine assembly is not to be detached form a Near Eastern context. Because the shared elements are profoundly embedded in the Greek orally-derived poetic tradition, it is possible to envisage a long-term process of oral contact and communication fostered by common structures. Chapter 10 turns to a comparison of the literary pantheon: a focus on the organisation of divine prerogatives and the chief god figures illuminates culture-specific differences which can be related to historical socio-political conditions. Thus, this thesis seeks to enhance our understanding of the representation of the gods in Mesopotamian poetry and early Greek epic, and develops a systemic approach to questions of transmission and cultural appreciation.

Cette thèse a pour objectif d'analyser les origines de la pseudo-histoire mythique des invasions d'Irlande : les sources classiques antiques ou judéo-chrétiennes de ce cycle légendaire, les survivances indigènes, le processus d'élaboration et sa signification socio-politique. La méthodologie utilisée a été de comparer les éléments dont la source pouvait être indigène à d'autres traditions celtiques ou indo-européennes. / The object of this thesis is an analysis of the origins of the mythic pseudo-history of the invasions of Ireland: the classical or judeo-christian sources of this legendary cycle, its native remnants, the elaboration process and its socio-political significance. The methodology we used was to compare the native elements with other Celtic or Indo-European traditions.