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Alternate Cosmologies Orphism and the Presocratic Philosophers
One of you asked a great question after class: were there other Theogonies or beliefs about the creation of the world than the “mainstream” version we get in Hesiod? Short answer: yes! Disappointing addition: They’re quite tough to wrap your head around. One alternate tradition can be pieced together from what survives on tablets and papyri of the Orphic cosmogony, in which it all starts with a cosmic egg (a trope found in other cultures too!) Many scholars find influence from the Ancient Near East in Orphism, whatever it actually was. Here is a relatively accessible, though sometimes hand-wavy, introduction to Orphism and its myths. In a VERY different vein…
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Extra: J.R.R. Tolkien, His Middle Earth and a Mythology “Native to England”
For anyone interested in the Lord of the Rings trilogy or intrigued by the mythology and strange languages of Tolkien’s elves, it’s worth learning about how Tolkien’s work as a scholar of Early English literature and the Old English language (one that we have to learn as a foreign one!) informed his fiction writing. The Wikipedia entries on England in Middle Earth and Philology and Middle Earth provide wide-ranging overviews of Tolkien’s interest in and use of linguistics and mythology in the world-building for Middle Earth and its stories. From there, choose your own adventure! The linked sources cover popular texts as well as more scholarly articles on specific aspects…
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Let’s Talk!
This is a space for questions and asynch discussions of each week’s material. Commenting on posts and responding to peers here is one way to show active participation, if you’re less comfortable discussing in class. This space is NOT for course announcements or logistics: these time-sensitive updates will be communicated through Brightspace.
