CLAA06H3 Lecture 10: 10.0 Rationalizing Myth
23 Mar 2018
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Document Summary
Even in antiquity, many readers had problems with how myths went far beyond credibility. One of the early philosophers from asia minor; he was troubled by the anthropomorphic representations of the gods - he did not think it was appropriate to portray the gods as flawed like humans. Rationalized that if cows had hands, they would project their gods to be cows as well - humans are projecting their own humanity onto the gods. Ratner"s hercules (2014) was based on a comic rather than the actual ancient myth - there is a presentation of heracles as a man, not a god; it explains away all the fantastic of the myth. The opening of the film shows the labours of heracles with the various monsters, only to explain away each encounter as something rational. Wrote several books on heracles in an attempt to rationalize the myth - he often interpreted them as allegories (having a literal and symbolic meaning)
