An Intertextual Analysis Of Myths

Mythology, as the most primitive spiritual and cultural heritage of human beings, reflectedthe ancient people’s interpretation and meditation about the cosmos, nature and culturalphenomena. It is the earliest literary aesthetics coming into being in the human society. Theprecious myths deserve our studies and evaluations as much as we can for they are the livingfossils of national culture and literature with extraordinarily abundant cultural informationencompassed in them. Therefore, it is necessary to study myths in order to interpret and grasp therule of development of national culture and literary traditions. Greek mythology originates fromthe ancient Aegean Civilization and reflects ancient Greeks’ fantasy and meditation for naturalphenomena, human beings’ life and death. It is considered as one of ancestors of the WesternCivilization and has profound effect on the development of English and American Literature.Hebrews refer to the ancestors of Jews and belong to one group of Semites and the Hebrewhistory and myths are primarily collected in the Holy Bible and Hebrew myths reflect thedevelopment of Jewish Civilization in the land of Canaan. Mesopotamia Civilization is the mostearly one in the world and Sumerians living there create their own mythology which, withSumerian religion together are accepted and inherited by the later Semites. Sumerian myths haveeven influenced the ancient Greek myths and the biblical myths. Allowing for the far-reachinginfluence exerted by Greek myths, Hebrew myths and Sumerian myths on Western culture andEnglish and American Literature the author of this thesis considers these three types of myths asthe subjects of study.According to the theories of intertextuality, this thesis is to carry out an intertextual analysison Greek myths, Hebrew myths and Sumerian myths. Intertexuality, in the broad sense,according to the author of this thesis, refers to the universal relationality, a philosophic concept,reflected in the domain of texts for relations between text existing impersonally even before theterm “intertextuality” comes into being. The term “intertextuality” first derives from theories ofJulia Kristiva, a French semiotician and she defines intertextuality as “any text is constructed asa mosaic of quotations and any text is the absorption and transformation of another”. Manyprevious scholars’ studies primarily focus on quotation, plagiary, reference revealed in texts orthe employment of idioms, allusions, proverbs and cliche in texts.This thesis lays emphasis on the references existing within a type of myth or betweendifferent types of myths in the scope of Greek myths, Hebrew myths and Sumerian myths. Theauthor of this thesis argues that references fall into two types and the references stressing thesimilarities between myths are positive references while those focusing on the disparities are named as negative references. Thus during the process of study, the author first discovers thereferences between these three types of myths in terms of five themes including cosmogenicorigin, genealogy and transformation of gods, religion and rituals, heroes and floods. The abovefive themes also encompass several subthemes respectively, including the creation of universeand human beings; genealogy of gods and transformation of gods; polytheism and monotheism,oracles from gods, sacrifice for gods; the birth, feat and final destiny of heroes; the cause, courseand aftermath of great flood. Therefore this thesis also presents similarities and disparities,namely positive and negative references revealed within a certain type of myths and betweenthrees types of myths in terms of those subthemes.Through the study, the author of this thesis supposes that intertextuality of myths is a sort ofsociocultural relations within a myth or between different myths. By means of the intertextualanalysis on Greek myths, Hebrew myths and Sumerian myths, it can be discovered that theancient Greeks, the early Jews and Sumerians shares many similarities in terms of theirinterpretations of the nature itself and the communities where they live. And these similarities arebeneficial for us to deeply interpret the related themes involved in the works of English andAmerican Literature. Meanwhile, the author of this thesis expects that this study can be helpfulfor the study on the cultural communications between the Near East and the regions aroundMediterranean.