My blogs tend to be longer than many people are comfortable muddling through. I understand that, and expect that many of you will skim, or ignore me entirely. It’s okay, I enjoy digging into subjects and gleaning all I can from them. Even if nobody else profits from my work, I do!
But I’m going to try a new concept with this one. Occasional short articles to introduce ideas and definitions that I will use more than once in longer works. Perhaps to introduce authors or books that I like to quote.
In this case I want to pass on a partial summary of Lesson 3 from a 1999 video course by The Teaching Company® titled The History of Ancient Egypt. The course was taught by Egyptologist and Paleopathologist Dr. Bob Brier.
In this lesson Dr. Brier distinguished between three different pursuits, or systems of thought, used through the ages in order to find answers to non-empirical questions. That is, questions that can’t currently be definitively answered by actual observations or testing. These three systems are mythology, religion, and philosophy. I am primarily concerned with the first two of these.
Mythology
Brier contends that, “Mythology contains stories [set in the primordial past] that are not to be taken literally but answer basic questions about the nature of the universe.” In other words, it is folklore which you can believe or disbelieve, but which nevertheless influences your personal worldview.
The ancient Egyptians, for example, had an elaborate mythology about the death and resurrection of Osiris which may or may not have been widely believed, but which certainly explained their burial practices and their hope of an afterlife.
Merriam-Webster’s definition is, “a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon”, which is not exactly what Brier states. Webster goes on to add that a myth is “an unfounded or false notion.” “False” clearly means incorrect, or even deliberately deceptive. “Unfounded” can mean simply unsubstantiated, but additional synonyms include “baseless”, “foundationless”, “invalid”, “unreasonable” and “unwarranted”, all of which are pejorative.
Clearly, Webster’s view, which connotes false history and superstitious belief, is the way most of us think. From here on out, though, I’m going to opt for Brier’s more useful definition, because it equates “mythology” with less negative terms like legends, folklore, parables, and allegory.
Religion
According to Brier, “In religion, by contrast, the concept of belief is essential. Religion includes stories [set in the historical past (that is, at least potentially datable)] believed to be historical.“
Brier, I think, would agree that Judeo-Christian views of creation by Yahveh are a matter of religion, but the particulars related in Genesis 1 are mythological.
Philosophy
On this system, Brier states that, “Unlike religion … philosophy requires a proof based on logic. The answers to the great philosophical questions are not matters of opinion but facts that are unknown … [and] we don’t, given our limited perspective, have answers to them.” Philosophy was unknown in ancient Egypt.
The Back of My Mind 