Lecture 1:

Stories at the
Beginning
Part ii – three myths
 Three Origin myths/foklore
• They are accounts of origin of things as conceived by people in those times;
• they are not more true or real, but rather they are the constructions of that period and
that society.
 • that society (through ancestors; e.g.,
the origins of the tribes of Jews, or
clans like Thebans, or tribe of
Arunta/Aranda)
Myths/folklore • the whole world (the extents of the
world that were understood at that
as accounts of time, depending on whether it was the
account by an island society or an
the origins of: inland, or a coastal one.
• the elements; human beings (e.g.,
“Book of Genesis” in the Bible,
Australian ‘Dreamtime’)
 This distinction of myth vs. folklore is
modern; it is not always tenable
• Often, “myth” is used for societies which
have changed over time but have
preserved a relation to their own past via
many processes of assimilation and
adoption (e.g. Greek and Roman myths in
Europe) – while “folklore” is used for the
foundation stories, songs, fables and
Myth vs folklore proverbs of other societies than one’s
own.
• Among scholars and thinker, there has also
been “a modern need to see, in the
archaic world, societies unified by
common foundational stories believed by
all. Unlike mere fables, these stories
present a comprehensive cosmogony and
model of the social order.”
 • Both begin with a state of sleep and dream or delirium
• Followed by the generation of a crowd of animals
• the theme of genesis from one to many (rather than
Parallel with later conceptions of sexual production of one from
two)
the Lakura • Emergence from navel or arm-pit – the principle of
Myth – self-increase, multiplication
• Figure of the ancestor as ‘father’ and his fertility
feeding and • The relation of the clan to the animal – both men and
reproducing the badicoots/grubs are propogated in the same way,
e.g., “grub-men” – this is the dual aspect of the totem
 • The possibility of transformation between the tribe’s
Parallel with men and their totem animal. The totem embodies this
metamorphosis (later in KAFKA)
the Lakura • Self-consumption along-with self-increase – father first
Myth – eats the bandicoot
• Ceremony establishing the father-son relation
feeding and • Meeting and laming the stranger – the first arrival of a
reproducing food other than themselves (but yet he is an ancestor,
therefore a return to the self)
(cont.) • Later in actual practice the totem animal is the one
not to be eaten.
Origin of new
religious
practices and
identities
The myth of Abraham’s sacrifice
The origins of the story itself:
Cross-civilizational heritage. Authoritative version??

“The Book of Yahweh (Isaiah XXXIV. 16) seems to have

been a mythological bestiary. Several other lost books
mentioned in the Bible, such as the Acts of Solomon,
the Book of Genealogy, the Chronicles of the Kings of
Judah, Of the Kings of Israel, Of the Sons of Levi,
must have contained many mythic
references….Genesis nevertheless still harbours
vestigial accounts of ancient gods and goddesses—
disguised as men, women, angels, monsters, or
demons. Eve, described in Genesis as Adam’s wife, is
identified by historians with the Goddess Heba, wife
of a Hittite Storm-god”

– Robert Graves
The origins of the story itself:
Cross-civilizational heritage. Authoritative version??

“All pre-Biblical sacred documents in

Hebrew have been either lost or
purposely suppressed. They included
The Book of the Wars of Yahweh and
the Book of Yashar, epic accounts of
the Israelites’ desert wanderings and
their invasion of Canaan. That these
books were written in the early poetic
Hebrew style

– Robert Graves
The origins of the story itself:
Cross-civilizational heritage.
Authoritative version??

“Genesis, which is far more closely linked

with Greek, Phoenician, Hittite, Ugaritic,
Sumerian and other bodies of myth than
most pious Jews and Christians care to
admit, was thereafter edited and re-edited
from perhaps the sixth century B.C.
onwards, for moralistic ends.

– Robert Graves
 ABRAHAM’S SACRIFICE
or THE BINDING OF ISAAC

• It is a test of faith by god which

Abraham (and his son) pass
successfully and then receive god’s
favours – god may not have intended
the sacrifice of Isaac at all.
• It has a symbolic meaning – a)
displacement of human sacrifice to
animal sacrifice b) it foreshadows the
inverted sacrifice of Jesus Christ by
God

Mosaic in Or Torah synagogue

 ABRAHAM’S SACRIFICE
or THE BINDING OF ISAAC

• “the concept of God and the story of

Abraham are mutually constitutive;
together they constitute a notion of
creativity expressed at both the divine
and human levels, which by its very
nature is authoritative and gendered.”
(Carol Delaney)

Mosaic in Or Torah synagogue

 ABRAHAM’S SACRIFICE
or THE BINDING OF ISAAC

• It is an inaugural’ event – it inaugurates

a new trajectory for him and his
descendants, their future rule,
ownership of property
• The Jewish New Year ritual
commemorates the binding of Isaac –
story is called Akedah.
• It is commemorated among Muslims
through the celebration of Id-al-Adha on
the end of Hajj. The son is believed by
many Muslims to be Ishmael, ancestor
of Prophet Mohammad
Context
• Ram caught in the bush: This theme is common in Sumerian
art.

• Such mention of human sacrifice has parallels in Greek myth

(Iphigenia), and there may be indication of customs of sacrifice
of first-born in the wide region of the Mediterranean, Levant,
Sumeria, Syria, and Maghreb.

• Many ancient myths of other parts of the world also have

reference to human and animal sacrifice.

• Also found in folktales like Hansel and Gretel, and Baba Yaga
Context
• The specific story of Abraham has Jewish,
Christian, and Muslim interpretations, each
different from the other. It also has non-religious
interpretations.

• There are also prominent criticisms of the

meaning of the story -- It serve as an example of
patriarchy and of the oppressive power of any
religion.
 “no matter how divinely inspired the stories may be, they are
ultimately human constructions elaborated
in relation, as well as in opposition, to what was culturally
accepted, including notions of human coming-into-being. The
stories may incorporate aspects of the society from which they
originated, but they also project a vision of society as the
authors wished it to be. The stories are, in short, ideological,
for they incorporate and project the ideas, values, and
aspirations of a particular group.”

Carol Delaney