Extra Credit Reading Notes

For the extra reading assignment I chose to watch the videos about mythology. I love learning about different culture's mythology stories so I though this assignment would be appropriate for me to complete. I watched three Crash Course videos with Mike Rugnetta. I included links to each video throughout the blog.

While watching the first video one thing stuck out to me in the beginning. I liked that as a person who's religious stories come from the Bible, the host said that they were neither denying or confirming them. I thought it was an important piece of information to point out early on, because people may get offended by this. I also liked that they mentioned that the myths being told are not facts, and can be questioned. The first story they talked about was the story of Persephone. I learned what an etiological narrative is which is also called a narrative story.

This next video went into depth of the theories behind mythology. Plato was one of the first people to claim that myths were lies because of the irrational nature to them. There was also a theory explained that Zeus was an early king whose stories were retold until he was transformed into a god. There is also the idea introduced that all languages are derived from a single language, which I thought was pretty cool and can relate to a Biblical story I've read called the Tower of Babel. Then it incorporates anthropology and the relation to theories behind mythology have come about.

 The last video went into detail about the hero's journey. It starts with talking about Joseph Campbell's series of events that appear in multiple different stories. Called the the hero's journey or the Monomyth. The monomyth has 3 main parts to it, 1. separation, 2. trials & victories of initiation, 3. return. The monomyth is then tested against the story of the Seven Sisters.

(Caption: Grecian and Roman mythology image by Flicker)