Myth

Summary

Dominique Pagani defines myth as the "poem of the people": an oral and collective work, signed by no one, that existed for several millennia before it was written down1. More broadly, he sees it as the poem of all peoples. For him, myth is not opposed to truth: it expresses deep truths, but in its own way2. He also reads in it the memory of political acts. The Minotaur thus recalls the emancipation of the Greeks from Crete3. In an approach close to Lévi-Strauss, he shows that myths think one another: Babel and Prometheus both punish man for wanting to equal the gods, and Theseus and Tristan share the same structure4. Again with Lévi-Strauss, he draws myth and music together, as both enter time in order to leave it5. He adds that myth is not reactionary in itself, since Marx reads the struggle of the Titans against the gods as that of slaves against citizens. Finally, he distinguishes the archaic mythologies, which are cyclical, from the passage to history.

1. 1Education: can beauty be learned?20 Jul 2018 · 1:22:09
2. 2Mythology and truth8 Aug 2015 · 28:02
3. 3#7 The Greeks, myth and music17 Dec 2020 · 21:31
4. 4The essence of evil: innocence of nature, horror of naturalism!17 Dec 2024 · 43:35
5. 5#7 The Greeks, myth and music17 Dec 2020 · 1:01:17

Summary produced automatically from 26 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.