LECTURE 1. INTRODUCTION.

MYTHOLOGY AND
LITERATURE OF ANTIQUITY
Plan:
1. Definition of literature.
2. Modern concept of the World Literature.
3. General types of literature.
4. The role of mythology in the history of world literature.
5. Literature of the Antiquity: Epic, Lyric, Drama and Prose.
6. Literature of Rome.

Key words and phrases: world literature, Weltliteratur, globalisation, cosmopolitanism,

comparative literature, Goethe, selective canon, myth, history, Greek myths, Roman myths,
Homer, Virgil, Sappho, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Plato, Catullus.

1. Definition of Literature
Brother Azurin defined literature as an expression of people’s feelings toward the society,
government, surroundings, fellowmen and Divine Creator. The expression of one’s feeling may
be through love, sorrow, happiness, hatred, anger, pity, contempt, or revenge.
According to Webster, literature is anything that is printed, as long as it is related to the
ideas and feelings of people whether it is true or just a product of one’s imagination.
Atienza, Naval, Ramos, and Salazar said that literature is a piece of written work which is
undying. It expresses the feelings and emotions of man. In response to his everyday effort to live,
to be happy in his environment and after struggles, to reach his Creator.
Literature is derived from the Latin word literatum meaning writing that is
characteristically written in noble language depicting deep emotion, passion, and inspires thinking.
It is:
• Characterized by timeless sense of endurance;
• Universal because it transcends race and climate, goes beyond a particular locality;
• Oral in tradition passed on from one generation to another by word of mouth;
• A reflection of the human condition and mirrors the experience we observe every day in
our life;
• Placed side by side with some major disciplines like Physics, Medicine, etc.;
• Like a mirror walking on the road of life.
Though the term “world literature” has been around for some two centuries now, and
though reflection on the meaning and reach of the term has never really stopped within the field
of comparative literature, it is only with the recent turn toward globalization, cosmopolitanism,
and transnationalism that it has become one of the focal points for reflection within all of literary
studies. Scholars around the world are now exploring world literature as a phenomenon and are
debating its uses and limitations as a subject of study. These ongoing debates have major
implications for the study of individual national literatures as well as for broader regional
configurations, and they affect our understanding of earlier periods as well as the literature of our
globalizing present. Translation studies, literary theory, postcolonial and area studies, and
comparative literature as a whole are all subject to rethinking and reframing in light of these
debates.
Ambiguities and uncertainties have attended the conception of world literature from its
early formation in the heyday of European nationalism to its current global reformulation. The first
person to give “Weltliteratur” general currency, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, never really
defined the term, which he used in quite varied ways in his voluminous writings. His viewpoint
oscillated between an essentially European focus and a much more global perspective, and he was
ambivalent as well about the social and aesthetic implications of the literary commerce of his day.
Goethe championed Weltliteratur as entailing the intimate commerce or exchange of ideas between
like-minded writers around Europe, and yet on the other hand, he saw that the worldly circulation
of literature was bound up with a transformation that he viewed far less favorably, the ever-
increasing commercialization of popular literature and the spread of mass culture.

2. Modern concept of the World Literature.

After Goethe, the interpretations put upon Weltliteratur have mostly tended to vacillate
between the aesthetic and the archival, between a selective canon of masterpieces and a
comprehensive coverage of “all” literature – “littérature universelle”, as it came to be known in
France, “universal” or “general” literature in England and North America. These versions of
Weltliterature volved in a somewhat uneasy coexistence with the new term of “Comparative
Literature” and its Continental cousins such as “Littérature comparée,” “Vergleichende
Literaturwissenschaft,” or “Letteratura comparata.” World literature almost inevitably became the
province of this new discipline. This, however, was usually not Goethe’s transnational intellectual
and artistic commerce but rather a more circumscribed comparison of major works from proudly
independent national traditions. Moreover, this canon was largely restricted to literatures in
European languages, and even primarily in a few major European languages, foremost among
them French, English and German, often connected to Latin and to classical Greek. Italian,
Spanish, and Russian typically came in as distant runners-up, and then the occasional other,
smaller, European literature, often depending upon the provenance or linguistic skill of a particular
practitioner.
The shape of world literature has been transformed since then, as a result of the cultural
and other changes.
Literature is the springboard of almost everything. Talk about Philosophy, Religion,
Psychology, Sociology, Politics, Culture and etc. name them and Literature has them.
The novels of almost all nations all over the globe initiated the revolt leading the nations
to become free from the hands of the colonizers. Philippines gained its freedom through Rizal’s
two novels: Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo and so with the rest of the countries.
Another role played by Literature is the integration of values. Literature does not only mold
the intellectual faculties of every individual but also his total faculties- the emotional, moral, social,
and spiritual faculties thus, developing him into a holistic individual.

3. General types of literature

Literature can generally be divided into two types, prose and poetry.
I. Prose consists of those writings within the common flow of conversation in sentences
and paragraphs.
There are many types of prose. These include the following:
a. Novel. This is a long narrative divided into chapters. The events are taken from true-
to-life stories. The novel spans long period of time. There are many characters
involved.
Example: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
b. Short Story. A narrative involving one or more characters, one plot and, one single
impression.
Example: The Chieftest Mourner by Gilda Cordero Fernando.
c. Play. A scripted story divided into acts and acts into scenes.
Example: Cadaver by Alberto S. Florentino.
d. Legend. Fictitious narrative usually about origion of a place, object, etc.
Example: The Legend of Mariang Makiling by Jose Rizal.
e. Fable. Fictitious narrative that deals with animals and inanimate objects who speak and
act like people and their purpose is to enlighten the minds of children to events that can
mould their ways to attitudes.
Example: The Monkey and the Tortoise.
f. Anecdote. A narrative which is a product of a writer’s imagination, aiming to bring out
lessons to readers.
Example: The Moth and the Lamp.
g. Essay. This is an attempt to express the viewpoint and opinion of the writer about a
particular problem or event.
Example: Where’s the Patis by Carmen Guerrero Nakpil.
h. Biography. A literary work about the life account of a person written by another
person.
Autobiography. The biography of a person written by himself.
i. News. A report of an extraordinary event in society, government, or any extraordinary
incidents in the fields of science, business, etc. a story of expected and unexpected
events.
j. Oration. A formal treatment of the subject and intended to be spoken in public
k. Parable. An allegorical story focusing on moral lessons.
Example: The Parable of the Good Samaritan.

II. POETRY is a literary work written in verse, with measures and rhyme, lines and
stanzas, and has a more melodious tone.
There are three types of poetry: narrative, lyric and dramatic.
a. Narrative poetry. A poem in narration that describes important events in life either
real or imaginary.
1. Epic. An extended narrative about heroic exploits often under supernatural control.
It may deal with heroes and gods.
Example. The Song of Roland (an Epic of France)
2. Metrical tales. A narrative which is written in verse and can be classified either as
a ballad or a metrical romance. This is also called Idyll.
Metrical romance – a narrative poem which deals about the knights and the ladies,
etc.
Idyll – (Greek – little picture) a descriptive poem which presents a simple and
pleasant scene or a picture of life in the countryside.
3. Ballad. The shortest and simplest. It tells a single incident. In the earlier times, this
referred to a song accompanying a dance.
b. Lyric Poetry. This is a kind of poetry meant to be sung to the accompaniment of the
lyre. It is also the type of poetry that expresses the emotions and feelings of the past.
 1. Folksong. (Awiting Bayan). Short poem intended to be sung. The common theme
is love, despair, grief, doubt, joy, hope and sorrow.
2. Sonnet. A lyric poem of 14 lines dealing with an emotion, feeling, or an idea.
a. Petrarchan or Italian
- with two parts: octave (first 8 lines)
sestet (the last 6 lines)
- with rhyme scheme abba, abba, cde, cde, or
abba, abba, cd, cd, cd
- usually the problem is presented in the octave
the solution is given in the sestet
b. Shakespearean or English
- has three quatrains and a couplet
- with rhyme scheme abab, cdcd, efef, gg
- the couplet provides a summary of the sonnet or a response to the three
quatrains
3. Elegy. A lyric poem which expresses feelings of grief and melancholy, and whose
theme is death.
4. Ode. A poem of noble feeling expressed with dignity, with no definite number of
syllables or definite of lines in a stanza.
5. Psalm. A song of praise to God using the philosophy of life.
6. Awit (Song). It measures twelve syllables (dodecasyllabic) and slowly sung to the
accompaniment of a guitar or bandurria.
7. Corridos. It measures eight syllables (octosyllabic) and recited to a martial beat.
c. Dramatic Poetry
1. Comedy. It comes from the Greek word komos meaning festivity or revelry. This
is light and written with the purpose of amusing people, and usually has a happy end.
2. Melodrama. This is usually used in musical plays with the opera. It arouses
immediate and intense emotion and is usually sad but there is a happy ending for the
principal character.
3. Tragedy. The hero struggles mightily against dynamic forces; he meets death or
ruin without success and satisfaction obtained by the protagonist in comedy.
4. Farce. An exaggerated comedy. It seeks to arouse mirth by laughable lines;
situations are too ridiculous to be true; the characters seem to be caricatures and the motives
undignified and absurd.
5. Social Poems. It could be comic or tragic. It pictures the life today. It may aim to
bring about changes in current social conditions.
4. The role of mythology in the history of world literature.
Mythology refers variously to the collected myths of a group of people or to the study of
such myths – their body of stories which they tell to explain nature, history, and customs. It can
also refer to the study of such myths. All cultures have developed their own mythology over time.
Mythology includes the legends of their history, their religions, their stories of how the world was
created, and their heroes. These stories have great symbolic power, and this may be a major reason
why they survive as long as they do, sometimes for thousands of years.
The main characters in myths are usually gods, demigods, or supernatural humans, while
legends generally feature humans as their main characters. Many exceptions or combinations exist,
as in the “Iliad”, “Odyssey”, and “Aeneid”. Myths are often endorsed by rulers and priests and
closely linked to religion or spirituality. In fact, many societies group their myths, legends, and
history together, considering myths to be true accounts of their remote past.
Creation myths take place in some early primordial age when the world had not reached its
present form. Other myths explain how the society's customs, institutions and taboos were
established and sanctified. A separate space is created for folktales, which are not considered true
by the people who tell them. As stories spread to other cultures or as faiths change, however, myths
can come to be considered folktales. Sometimes myths and legends get merged together. Their
divine characters get recast as humans or as demi humans (such as giants, elves, and faeries).
Creation myths describe the "official" belief as to how world was created. These myths differ
greatly between societies, as any collection of myths clearly shows. Over the last three centuries,
the power of myths over the minds of people has been challenged by the growth of science.
The basis of ancient mythology are stories about the oldest deities, gods Olympians and
heroes. Legends of the oldest gods appeared among Greeks and Romans at a time when society
was matriarchal. These gods were called chthonic, or beastlike. With the onset of patriarchy, the
gods began more to resemble people. At this time appears the image of Zeus or Jupiter - the
supreme deity who lived on Mount Olympus. It is from here that the name of the Olympian gods
takes place. In the representation of the Greeks, these creatures had a rigid hierarchy that justified
the same order that exists in society.
The heroes of ancient myths were unusual people, who appeared as a result of the
connection between the mere mortals and the Olympian gods. For example, one of the most famous
is Hercules - the son of Zeus and the common woman Alkmena. The Greeks believed that each of
the heroes had a special purpose: to cleanse the Earth of the monstrosities that Gaia had spawned.

5. Literature of the Antiquity: Epic, Lyric, Drama and Prose.

The works of ancient literature in the epic genre are represented by such names as Homer
and Virgil. Homer is a legendary poet, the author of the oldest surviving epic poems - "Iliad" and
"Odyssey." Sources for the creation of these works were myths, folk songs and legends. Epic
poems by Homer were written with a hexameter.
Virgil is an ancient Roman poet, the author of the legendary epic poem "Aeneid." In it the
author sings the legendary origin of the Roman people.
One of the most famous women lyrical genre can be called poetess Sappho. She used
traditional folklore motifs, but saturated them with vivid images and strong feelings. The poet
gained wide popularity during her lifetime. Her work consisted of nine books of poetry, but to this
day only two poems and a hundred lyrical passages have survived.
Theater performances were one of the most popular entertainment in ancient Greece.
Antique literature of the Golden Age of this direction is represented in two main genres: tragedies
and comedies.
In fact, the ancient tragedy was an opera. Its founder is Ancient Greek playwright
Aeschylus. He wrote more than 90 plays, but up to our time only 7 have survived. One of the most
famous tragedies of Aeschylus is "Prometheus the Chained", whose image is still used by writers.
The ancient comedy had a political directivity. For example, one of the representatives of
this genre - Aristophanes - in his comedies "Mir" and "Lysistrata" condemns the war between
Greece and Sparta. Comedy "Riders" severely criticizes the shortcomings of democracy that has
developed in Athens.
 List of ancient literature in the genre of prose is represented, first of all, by Plato's
dialogues. The content of these works is expounded through the arguments and dispute of two
interlocutors who must find the truth. The main hero of Plato's dialogues was his teacher Socrates.
This form of information was called "Socratic dialogue." There are 30 Plato's dialogues. The most
famous of them are the myth about Atlantis, "Feast", "Fedon", "Fyodr".

6. Literature of Rome.
Roman literature, written in the Latin language, remains an enduring legacy of the culture
of ancient Rome. Some of the earliest extant works are historical epics telling of the early military
history of Rome, followed (as the Republic expanded) by poetry, comedies, histories and tragedies.
Latin literature drew heavily on the traditions of other cultures, particularly the more
matured literary tradition of Greece, and the strong influence of earlier Greek authors is readily
apparent. Few works remain of Early and Old Latin, although a few of the plays of Plautus and
Terence have come down to us.
The “Golden Age of Roman Literature” is usually considered to cover the period from
about the start of the 1st Century BCE up to the mid-1st Century CE.
Catullus pioneered the naturalization of Greek lyric verse forms into Latin in his very
personal (sometimes playful, and frequently abusive) poetry.
The Hellenizing tendencies of Golden Age Latin reached their apex in the epic poetry of
Vergil, the odes and satires of Horace and the elegiac couplets of Ovid.
The “Silver Age of Roman Literature” extends into the 2nd Century CE, a period during
which the eloquent, sometimes bombastic, poetry of Seneca the Younger and Lucan gave way to
the more restrained, classicized style of Pliny the Younger’s letters and the powerful satires of
Juvenal.
Brief mention should also be made here of a lesser known genre, that of the ancient novel
or prose fiction. Two such Ancient Roman novels have come down to us, the "Satyricon" of Gaius
Petronius (1st Century CE) and "The Golden Ass" (or "Metamorphoses") of Lucius Apuleius (2nd
Century CE).
Roman literature written after the mid-2nd Century CE is often disparaged and largely
ignored, and Medieval Latin was usually dismissed as “Dog-Latin”. However, long after the
Roman Empire had fallen, the Latin language continued to play a central role in Western European
civilization.
Questions:
1. What is the origin of the phrase “World literature”?
2. What was the reason of “World literature” being not so popular in the scientific circles?
3. What is the modern concept of “World literature” as a science?
4. What is a “myth”?
5. What is a “mythology”?
6. What are the most ancient literatures in the world?
7. What are specific features of the literature of Antiquity?
8. Define the most significant works of epic.
9. Define the most significant works of lyrics.
10. Define the most significant works of drama.
11. What is the literature of Rome characterized by?
 References:

1. Apter, Emily. The Translation Zone: A New Comparative Literature. – Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 2006.
2. Damrosch, David. What Is World Literature? –Princeton: Princeton University Press,
2003.
3. Doty, William. Myth: a handbook. –Westport: Greenwood, 2004.
4. D’haen, T., Damrosch, D., Kadir, D. The Routledge Companion to World Literature. –
London: Routledge, 2012.
5. Eckermann, J.P. Gespräche mit Goethe in den letzten Jahren seines Lebens. Trans. John
Oxenford as J. W. von Goethe, Conversations with Eckermann. –London: North Point
Press, 1994.
6. Kirk, G.S. Myth: its meaning and functions in ancient and other cultures. –Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1973.
7. Oxford English Dictionary. 3rd edition. –Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
8. Posnett, H.M. Comparative Literature. –London: K. Paul, Trench, 1886.
9. Puchner, Martin. Poetry of the Revolution. –Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006.
10. The forms of folklore: prose narratives. Sacred narrative: readings in the theory of myth.
(ed) Alan Dundes. –Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.
11. The Norton Anthology of World Literature, ed. Maynard Mack and Sarah Lawall,
Expanded Edition, 1995. Third edition, ed. Martin Puchner et al., 2012.
12. The World Republic of Letters. Trans. M. B. DeBevoise. –Harvard: Havard University
Press, 2004.
13. Watson, Peter. Ideas: a history, from fire to Freud. –London: Folio Society, 2009
14. World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago, London, Sydney. Toronto: A Scott Fetzer
Company.1995. 26 volumes.