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Mythological Spackling
Jul. 13th, 2004 10:43 pmBack during my undergraduate studies, One of the core courses all freshmen had to take was "Great Ideas in Western Culture". It was a general purpose literature and writing course, given to be sure we could all read, and write papers in complete sentences. The course had a wide and varied list of works each teacher could choose to include. I had one teacher wise enough to choose to use the Bible, and approached it as mythology and literature.
Now, I'd absorbed many of the standard stories through cultural exposure, but this was the first time I had actually sat down to read any of them. It was good to give my knowledge of Christian mythology a more solid basis. One of the first things I learned was that much of the mythology doesn't actually appear in the Bible, as evidenced by the holes. The Bible doesn't explain where Cain's wife comes from. It mentions giants and other figures, but doesn't explain much about them, or where they came from. I was curious, but didn't have time to delve into it at the time...
A few days ago, I had occasion to watch a program on the History Channel, about the religious documents that didn't make the cut into the original Bible compiled for Constantine, upon which all modern ones are based. Now, I can put names to the books I need to look at to fill some of the glaring gaps the Bible leaves. All of these books were very popular in their day, and the had influence on the mythology, even if they aren't read by many modern Americans.
The Lives of Adam and Eve - goes into much more depth about exactly how Eve is seduced by the serpent. The program suggests it makes her look a darned sight more innocent than the Bible does, which is good.
Jubilees (aka "Little Genesis")- mostly covers the same thing period and events as Genesis, but enriched with more stories and legends..
The Book of Enoch - apparently, much of Dante's Inferno is drawn from here.
The whole thing has also given me a bit of a kick in the pants to see if I can get hold of a decent translation of the Quran, as it has a different take on many of the same legendary events as the Bible and a host of stuff all it's own. And I'm sure there are other Judaic texts that would make for interesting reading on the mythology.
So many books, so little time.
Now, I'd absorbed many of the standard stories through cultural exposure, but this was the first time I had actually sat down to read any of them. It was good to give my knowledge of Christian mythology a more solid basis. One of the first things I learned was that much of the mythology doesn't actually appear in the Bible, as evidenced by the holes. The Bible doesn't explain where Cain's wife comes from. It mentions giants and other figures, but doesn't explain much about them, or where they came from. I was curious, but didn't have time to delve into it at the time...
A few days ago, I had occasion to watch a program on the History Channel, about the religious documents that didn't make the cut into the original Bible compiled for Constantine, upon which all modern ones are based. Now, I can put names to the books I need to look at to fill some of the glaring gaps the Bible leaves. All of these books were very popular in their day, and the had influence on the mythology, even if they aren't read by many modern Americans.
The Lives of Adam and Eve - goes into much more depth about exactly how Eve is seduced by the serpent. The program suggests it makes her look a darned sight more innocent than the Bible does, which is good.
Jubilees (aka "Little Genesis")- mostly covers the same thing period and events as Genesis, but enriched with more stories and legends..
The Book of Enoch - apparently, much of Dante's Inferno is drawn from here.
The whole thing has also given me a bit of a kick in the pants to see if I can get hold of a decent translation of the Quran, as it has a different take on many of the same legendary events as the Bible and a host of stuff all it's own. And I'm sure there are other Judaic texts that would make for interesting reading on the mythology.
So many books, so little time.
