Myth and Ritual.

As I have discussed beforehand a number of myths are etiological, crafted from different cultural teachings, and essentially grounded in faith. Religious practices across many cultures use both myth and ritual as fundamental components, and although the two are commonly seen paired at the core of religion, the exact relationship has been a matter of controversy hotly debated among scholars alike for a number of years.

According to the ‘Myth and Ritual’, or ‘Myth-Ritualist’ theory, myth does not stand by itself but is in fact tied to ritual, and it is not just a statement but also an action. The Scottish Biblicist William Robertson Smith, who argued that belief is central to modern religion but not to ancient religion, where instead ritual was central, pioneered the myth-ritualist theory.[i] Hesiod’s Theogony provides a good example of myth and ritual in the ancient world.

[‘..For when the gods and mortal men had a dispute at Mekone, even then Prometheus was audacious to cut up a great ox and set portions before them, trying to fool the mind of Zeus. Before the rest he set flesh and inner parts thick with fat upon the hide, covering them with an ox paunch; but for Zeus he put the white bones dressed up with cunning art and covered with shining fat…With both hands he took up the white fat and was angry at heart, and wrath came to his spirit when he saw the white ox-bones craftily tricked out: and because of this the tribes of men upon earth burn white bones to the deathless gods upon fragrant altars.’][ii]


This passage from the text illustrates the myth of Prometheus, and both the gods and mortal men are present, having a dispute at Mekone whilst attending a sacrifice. This event shows how Prometheus hides the white bones of the slaughtered ox and covers them with glistening fat. It is the sight of these bones that causes Zeus’s spirit to become wrathful and he banishes mortal men from the tables of the gods, and orders them to burn white bones to the deathless gods upon fragrant altars. For the Ritualists, sacrifice was seen as possibly the most important ritual there was, and it was valued highly above all others.

We are able to understand from this passage that sacrificial rituals were a feast for both gods and humans alike. Freeing the bones from the meat, wrapping them in fat and burning them were essential parts of Greek sacrifice, and bones formed the core of a ritual.[iii] Hesiod explains that the more valuable cooked meat was kept as nourishment for the mortals, yet the inedible bones were burnt for the gods so that the smell could rise up to the heavens.

Today we understand the ritual burning of bones at an altar to have enabled communication with the gods, tying together the concepts of ritual and mythical figures within religion. This ritual practice of burning bones became a recollection of the sacrifice at Mekone and also signified the separation between gods and men. Once again the idea of etiology is brought back into mythology, this myth explains why the Greeks had animal sacrifices and why it was the bones of the animal offered up to the gods, not the meat.

The peninsula, which constitutes modern day Greece, was never politically united in antiquity. Whenever a Greek wanted to assert their ‘Greekness’ they did so, not with reference to territory but to gods, language, blood and customs. Essentially Greece was where those who were Greek lived.[iv]

Myths, rituals, beliefs, or even ‘religion’ would have been a comforting constant in the lives of the ancient Greeks. Whilst explaining their alien world and giving order to society, they would also have been something that the people could cling to in troubled times, something familiar that had been passed down from one generation to the next.

While Christians and Jews believe that there is one God whose characteristics are that of love and forgiveness, the Greeks believed in many gods. Each of these gods had separate personalities and characteristics parallel to those of humans. It is these beliefs, or religion, that became a means of shared identity for the ancient Greeks, a nation divided by extremes in social classes and differences between each city-state, otherwise known as the polis. This religion was embedded in society as a social and public concept which, when shared throughout the land, made the Greeks less foreign to one another.

Although the Myth-Ritualists see myth and ritual as united, this is not always the case. One could argue that even though myths and rituals often appear together, not all myths have, or had, a corresponding ritual, or vice versa. Walter Burkert, a modern classicist, believes that myths and rituals were originally independent and when the two do come together, they do so to reinforce each other.[v]

There are many arguments discussing the exact relationship between myth and ritual, and to an extent, nothing is really definitive. However I consider Burkert’s theory to be a rational approach to the study of myth and ritual and I believe this idea seems plausible, given the range and diversity of myths we know about today.

References
[i] ‘Myth and Ritual’, Internet WWW site at URL:http://science.jrank.org/pages/10367/Myth-Myth-Ritual.html (Accessed 05.10.10).

[ii] Hesiod, Translation by M. L. West, (2008). ‘Theogony’. United Kingdom: Oxford World's Classics. P. 19.

[iii] Gunnel Ekroth, ‘Bare bones: osteology and Greek sacrifice’. Internet WWW page at URL: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/classics/staff/animalsacrifice/ekroth.pdf (Accessed 05.10.10).

[iv] Osborne, R. (2008), ‘Environment and Settlement in Athens and Attike’, in ‘The World of Athens, An Introduction to classical Athenian Culture’, New York: Cambridge Unversity Press, P. 58.

[v] Burkurt, W. (2004), ‘Ritual and sanctuary, Function and methods’ in ‘Greek Religion’, United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishing, P.75.