Roman and European Mythologies

Description

Compiled by Yves Bonnefoy. Translated under the direction of Wendy Doniger by Gerald Honigsblum, Danielle Beauvais, Teresa Lavender Fagan, Dorothy Figuiera, Barry Friedman, Louise Guiney, John Leavitt, Louise Root, Bruce Sullivan, and David White. That work was originally published as "Dictionnaire des mythologies et des religions des sociétés traditionnelles et du monde antique", sous la direction de Yves Bonnefoy, publié avec le concours du Centre National des Lettres, 1981, Flammarion, Paris. This volume begins with Roman myths and traces their influence in early Christian and later European literature. Ninety-five entries by leading scholars cover subjects such as sacrificial cults and rites in pre-Roman Italy, Roman religion and its origins, the mythologies of paganism, the survival of the ancient gods in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, gypsy myths and rituals, romanticism and myth in Blake, Nerval, and Balzac, and myth in twentieth-century English literature. Mythologies offers illuminating examples of the workings of myth in the structure of societies past and present — how we create, use, and are guided by systems of myth to answer fundamental questions about ourselves and our world. Preface to the Paperback Edition, by Wendy Doniger Preface to the English Edition of the Complete Work, by Wendy Doniger Preface to the French Edition of the Complete Work, by Yves Bonnefoy Contributors Part 1 - Introduction: The Interpretation of Mythology Toward a Definition of Myth The Interpretation of Myths: Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Theories Myth and Writing: The Mythographers Prehistoric Religion "Nomadic Thought" and Religious Action Part 2 - Rome Italy Religion in Pre-Roman Italy: The Historical Framework Sacrificial Cults and Rites in Pre-Roman Italy Conceptions of the Afterlife among the Peoples of Pre-Roman Italy Etruscan Religion Etruscan Daemonology Etruscan and Italic Divination The Doctrine and Sacred Books of the Disciplina Etrusca The Religion of the Sabellians and Umbrians, Italics of Central and Southern Italy The Beliefs and Rites of the Apulians, an Indigenous People of Southeastern Italy Myths and Cults of the Ancient Veneti, an Indo-European People of Northern Italy Ver Sacrum: The Italic Rite of the "Sacred Springtime" The Latins and the Origins of Roman Religion Greco-Italic Traditions and Legends, from the Bronze Age to Virgil Roman Religion Roman Gods Roman Sacrifice The Religion of the Roman Republic: A Review of Recent Studies Roman Festivities Roman Divination Roman Religion and Greek Philosophy The Decline and Survival of Roman Religion Anna Perenna Apollo in Rome The Arval Brethren Augurs and Augury The Religious Policies of Augustus Ceres Cicero as Theologian Diana Faunus Genius Hercules Janus Juno Jupiter The Lares The Manes Mars Mercury Minerva Neptune The Penates Priapus: The Last of the Gods Psyche Quirinus Silvanus Venus Vesta Virgil’s Religious Vision Vulcan Part 3 - Western Civilization in the Christian Era The Survival of Myths in Early Christianity Christian Judgments on the Analogies between Christianity and Pagan Mythology The Euhemerism of the Christian Authors Christianity and Mythology in the Greek Church The Naassenes’ Use of Pagan Mythologies The Gnostics and the Mythologies of Paganism The Perates and Their Gnostic Interpretation of Paganism Eros among the Gnostics Hecate in Greek Esotericism Justin the Gnostic: A Syncretistic Mythology The Medieval West and "Mythic Thought" The Survival of the Ancient Gods in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance Alchemy and Mythology Cabala and Mythology Pan among the Cabalists and Alchemists of the Renaissance Fables and Symbols from Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Hermeticism Hercules in Alchemy Orpheus in the Renaissance King Arthur, the Romances of the Round Table, and the Legend of the Grail Tristan and Isolde Gypsy Myths and Rituals Fable and Mythology in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Literature and Theoretical Reflection The Mythology of Ancient Switzerland Mythic Elements in French Folklore French Fairy Tales, Folktales, and Myths Folk Beliefs and Legends about Fairies in France Popular Customs and Rituals in France Romanticism and Mythology: The Use of Myths in Literary Works Romanticism and Myth in Blake, Nerval, and Balzac The Mythology of European Decadent and Symbolist Literature The Androgyne The Androgyne, the Double, and the Reflection: A Few Myths of Romanticism Romantic Myths of the Rebel and the Victim: Satan, Prometheus, Cain, Job, Faust, Ahasuerus, Don Juan, and Empedocles Spirits of the Elements in the Romantic Period: Sylphs, Water Sprites, Salamanders, Gnomes, and Elves Orpheus and the Poetic and Spiritual Quest of Romanticism The Isis of Romanticism: The Myth of the Wife-Mother—Helen, Sophia, Mary Julian the Apostate in Romantic Literature Napoleon as Myth Modernity’s Challenge to Myth, in the Poetry of Hölderlin, Heine, Baudelaire, Mallarmé, T. S. Eliot, and Rilke Hölderlin’s Dionysus Myth in Twentieth-Century English Literature The Survival of Ancient Myths in Modern Greek Poetic Consciousness Imagination and Mythology in Contemporary Literature (Tolkien, Lovecraft) and Science Fiction Myth and Political Theory: Nationalisms and Socialisms Epilogue: The Contemporary Need for Myths—a Testimonial Index