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Chapter 20

Chapter 20. The Structural Study of Myth — Claude Levi-Strauss. Two Kinds of Readings in This Chapter. Claude Levi-Strauss Edmund Leach on Levi-Strauss. Vocabulary. Chthonian — a creature that comes from or is related to the earth Autochthonous — springing from the earth

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Chapter 20

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  1. Chapter 20 The Structural Study of Myth— Claude Levi-Strauss

  2. Two Kinds of Readings in This Chapter • Claude Levi-Strauss • Edmund Leach on Levi-Strauss

  3. Vocabulary • Chthonian—a creature that comes from or is related to the earth • Autochthonous—springing from the earth • Synchronic—happening at the same moment of time • Diachronic—including a range of different times

  4. How to Study a Myth • Levi-Strauss believed that • in order to understand a myth, you need to assemble all the known versions of it • a myth is a kind of language that expresses the values found in a culture

  5. How to Read the Oedipus Table • Read left to right, row by row, the chart explains the story of Oedipus in chronological order. • Read from the top of each column to the bottom, from the first column to the last, the chart analyzes the story of Oedipus into the four most important relationships Levi-Strauss found in it, as listed at the tops of the columns.

  6. Extreme Overrating blood relationships Underrating blood relationships Monsters being slain Difficulty in walking straight and standing upright Example Incest Killing your father Death of the Sphinx Oedipus’ damaged feet The Structural Method

  7. Tricksters • Myth progresses from “the awareness of oppositions toward their resolution” (p. 288) • Tricksters act as mediators between oppositions. • Opposites with no mediator tend to be replaced by opposites with a mediator: that’s how we get from the life-death opposition to the trickster figures Raven and Coyote.

  8. Raven and Coyote • The first pair is life-death and has no intermediary (p. 288). • This pair is replaced by the related pair agriculture-warfare whose intermediary is hunting. • This pair is replaced by the related pair herbivorous animals-beasts of prey whose intermediary is carrion-eating animals like ravens and coyotes.

  9. Ash Boy and Cinderella • These figures are mediators between opposites in America (Ash Boy) and Europe (Cinderella). • They are what Victor Turner (Ch. 26) calls “liminal figures” which are on the threshold between two different worlds. They are outside the power structure looking in, and inside the values of the society, looking out at those who do not respect them.

  10. Edmund Leach’s Analysis of Levi-Strauss • Leach presents us with a discussion that shows how Levi-Strauss’ ideas work for other Greek stories related to that of Oedipus. • The pattern in these stories is the same as that found in the story of Oedipus by Levi-Strauss. • The stories we include of Leach’s examples are: • Cadmus—who founded Thebes, where Oedipus is king • Laius—Oedipus’ father • Oedipus himself • Oedipus’ children

  11. The Main Oppositions

  12. Cadmus, Europa, and the Dragon’s Teeth • Bull (Zeus) carries away Europa, who has a human child, Minos. – Mediation between divine and human • Europa has a human brother, Cadmus, who follows her. – Overvaluing kinship • Cadmus is required to sacrifice a cow, sent from the gods, and in the process, he kills a monster from whose remains come live humans. – Men kill monsters • nature : culture :: gods : men

  13. Laius, Chrysippus, and Jocasta • During the reign of Lycus, Amphion, and Zethus (an earlier, omitted story), Laius is banished and befriended by Pelops. He falls in love with Pelops’ son, Chrysippus, whom he teaches to drive a chariot. – Incest : Exogamy • After returning to the throne of Thebes, Laius marries Jocasta but avoids sleeping with her because of the prophecy that her son will kill him. The conception that results in the birth of Oedipus follows a bout of lust when Laius has got drunk at a religious feast.

  14. Oedipus • Oedipus is exposed on a mountaintop. – Undervaluing kinship • Oedipus kills Laius “at the crossroads.” – Undervaluing kinship • Oedipus kills the Sphinx. – Men kill monsters • Oedipus marries Jocasta. – Overvaluing kinship

  15. Argives – Antigone, Eteocles, and Polyneices • Oedipus has two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices, who are supposed to hold the throne alternately. Eteocles takes the throne first and refuses to give it up. – Undervaluing kinship • Polyneices is banished and leads an army of heroes from Argos against Thebes. The expedition fails. Eteocles and Polyneices kill each other. – Undervaluing kinship • Antigone, in defiance of Creon, performs funeral rites over Polyneices. – Overvaluing kinship • In punishment, she is walled up alive in a tomb, where she commits suicide. Later, the sons of the dead heroes lead another expedition against Thebes and are triumphant. – Overvaluing kinship

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