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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 March 2021
Myth played an important role in Greek religion: it illustrated and defined the roles of gods and heroes (Chapter II, §1); it also explained aspects of rituals (Chapter IV, §3), showed correct or deviant patterns of behaviour, and reflected on human conduct and the cosmos. Since, of all aspects of Greek religion, myth has perhaps drawn the greatest attention and the largest number of different approaches, I start with a short historical survey of these approaches and a brief discussion of recent definitions (§1). I then analyse origins and uses of myth (§2), study the relations between myth and ritual (§3), and conclude by looking at some changes in the popularity of myths, as reflected by the visual arts, and the nature of myth itself (§4).
1 Despite its importance, there is no chapter on mythology in Nilsson 1967; Burkert 1985; Jost 1992; Rudhardt 1992; Parker 2011; or Larson 2016, although the last has good observations throughout (see the index s.v. ‘myth’).
2 Good introductions, each with a different approach: Dowden 1992; Graf 1993b; Buxton 1994, 2004; Saïd 2008. There are stimulating collections in Bremmer 1988a; Calame 1988, 2015; Woodard 2007; Dowden and Livingstone 2011.
3 Natale Conti 1567 (translated as Mulryan and Brown 2006); Costa 2004; Hartmann 2018: 17–52.
4 Starobinski 1989: 233–62 (‘Fable et mythologie aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles’).
5 For historical surveys, see Graf 1993b: 9–56; Jamme 1995; Bremmer 2019e: 511–31, which I use and update in this section.
6 De Fontenelle 1989: 197–202 (‘De l'origine des fables’) (translated in Feldman and Richardson 1972: 7–18); Krauss 1989 (a good German translation and an important study).
7 Fréret 1756; see also Grell and Volpilhac-Auger 1994.
8 Most recently, Scheer 2014.
9 For this development and its prehistory, see, from different angles, Humphreys 2004: 197–222; Gordon 2019.
10 On Karl Müller, see Momigliano 1984: 271–86; Calder and Schlesier 1998. On Max Müller, see Lloyd-Jones 1982: 155–64; Stocking 1987: 56–62; van den Bosch 2002; Segal 2016.
11 On Frazer, see most recently Rosa 1997; Stocking 2001: 147–61. For Nilsson, see Bremmer 2019e: 13–16.
12 Calder 1991; Bremmer 2011a. For Harrison in particular, see Bremmer 2019e: 533–7.
13 For the texts, with monumental commentary, see Fowler 2000–13.
14 Hawes 2014.
15 See Kindt 2016.
16 See Fowler 2017; W. Hansen 2017; S. Johnston 2018. Scobie 1979 is still interesting.
17 For women as myth-tellers, see S. West 2003; Tuck 2009; Heath 2011; Bremmer 2019e: 248–50.
18 Parker 2005: 254–6.
19 See especially Detienne 1981 (translated as Detienne 1986).
20 R. Martin 1989: 12 (quotation); Beck 2004. For developments, see Buxton 1999; Fowler 2009, 2011.
21 Burkert 1979: 23 and 2001–11: iv.105 (definitions); Bremmer 2019e: 419–26 (also on differences between myth and other types of traditional tales, such as legends, Sagen, and fairy-tales). My definition is similar to that of Fowler 2017: 7: ‘a myth is a story offering an explanation about something of collective importance’.
22 Burkert 2001–11: i.1–12; Bremmer 2019e: 419–22.
23 Graf 1993b: 74 (Achilles); Jackson 2006 (Helen); Burkert 1979: 78–98 (Heracles).
24 For Erichthonius/Erechtheus, see Kearns 1989: 16; Meyer 2017: 313–17, 362–77.
25 Frei 1993; note also Burkert 2001–11: ii.48–72; Simon 2009; Fowler 2000–13: ii.183–4; Calame 2015: 117–53.
26 See López-Ruiz 2010.
27 See Rutherford 2009, 2018.
28 The late date makes it unlikely that Homer left out the motif on purpose: see March 1987: 27–46; Bremmer 1988b; Woodford et al. 1992. For a different view, see Grossardt 2001. In general, see also Arrigoni 2019: 11–63.
29 Burkert 2001–11: i.211.
30 For Aphrodite, see Stesichorus, fr. 223 Davies = 85 Finglass. For Hera, see Ap. Rhod. Argon. 1.14; Apollod. 1.9.16; Bremmer 2019e: 325.
31 Fowler 1998; for Hellenistic times, see Scheer 1993.
32 On families, see Thomas 1989: 155–95. For Athens, see Meyer 2017: 244–56. For Ion and Kresphontes, see Zingg 2016: 25–65 (Kresphontes); Bremmer 2019e: 463–74.
33 Hawes 2017.
34 On cities, see Zeitlin 1990; Saïd 1993; Rosenbloom 2013. On crossroads, see S. Johnston 1991.
35 Motte 1973. Buxton 2013: 9–31 (‘Imaginary Greek Mountains’) is exemplary; Viscardi 2020 (mountains and caves).
36 Gartziou-Tatti and Zografou 2019.
37 Detienne 1972; Buxton 2013: 33–51 (‘Wolves and Werewolves in Greek Thought’); Gordon 2015; Kindt 2020; Ogden 2021.
38 On Inachus, see Dowden 1989: 123–4; Katalis 1990. For Acheloos, see Graf 1985: 104–6.
39 There are good observations towards such a project in Dowden 1992: 121–49; Buxton, 1994: 80–113.
40 On oral tradition, see Thomas 1989: 283 (quotation).
41 For fosterage, see Bremmer and Horsfall 1987: 53–6 (Bremmer); Bremmer 1999a.
42 On this genre, see Seaford 2018: 300–22.
43 For father–son hostility, see Sourvinou-Inwood 1991: 244–84. For brother–sister relationships, see Bremmer 2008: 325–33. On Troilus, see Kossatz-Deissman 1981: nos. 206–388 and Kossatz-Deissman 1997; Wathelet 1988: s.v. Troilos.
44 For a history of the debates, see Versnel 1993: 15–88; Bremmer 2019e: 435–44.
45 For Athens, see Lardinois 1992. For Argos, see SEG 42.274; also Pariente 1992. For Tarentum, see Graf 1985: 391. In general, see Richardson 1983.
46 Burkert 1992: 83–5; also Pomponius Mela 1.64 (tourists); Kaizer 2011. In general, see Hartmann 2010; Osborne 2010b.
47 On Perseus see Ogden 2008; Fowler 2000–13: ii.253–8; Jameson 2014: 22–40 (Mycenaean inscription). For bulls’ masks, see Ovid, Met. 10.222–37; Graf 1985: 415–16 (also bull warriors); Hermary 1986: 164–6; Hermary and Masson 1990. For helmets, see Brijder 1991: 430–2. On Theseus and the Minotaur, see Fowler 2000–13: ii.468–74; Giudice and Giudice 2018: 166–7 (iconographical evidence).
48 Versnel 1993: 88–135. For a reinterpretation of the complex of Kronos and the Kronia, see Bremmer 2008: 82–7; and 2019c: 289–91.
49 Calame 1991 (reprinted in Calame 2008: 43–62).
50 For the complicated relations between myth and ritual, see Bremmer 2010 and 2019c: 427–45; Larson 2016: 84–8.
51 On Lemnos, see Burkert 2000 (= Burkert 2001–11: v.186–205); Fowler 2000–13: ii.217. On Pegasus, see Schürr 2014. For migrating myths, see Graf 1979b and 1993: 116–17; Audley-Miller and Dignas 2018.
52 From the many studies on art and myth, note especially Knell 1990; Carpenter 1991; Shapiro 1994b; Junker 2012.
53 See also the excellent handbook Gantz 1993.
54 Moret 1992.
55 Neils 1992; Moreau 1994; Clauss and Johnston 1997; Fowler 2000–13: ii.195–234. POxy. 53.3698 adds a small fragment of archaic Argonautic poetry, mentioning Orpheus, Mopsus, and Aeëtes. For Eumelos, see Fowler 2000–13: ii.656–7; M. West 2011: 367–79; Debiasi 2015: 15–150 and 2020.
56 Shapiro 1990. Note also the table with changes regarding Attic panel amphoras in Scheibler 1987: 89. For maenads, see Osborne 2010a: 382–7.
57 Heath 2017; Bremmer 2019e: 240–2.
58 For Asclepiades, see FGrH/BNJ 12; Villagra 2012.
59 Pàmias 2017; Acerbo 2019.
60 Muth 1998; Bowersock 2006: 31–63; Hodske 2007; Lorenz 2008.
61 For the Hellenistic and Roman mythographers, see, most recently, van Rossum-Steenbeek 1997; Cameron 2004; Trzaskoma and Smith 2013 (with a useful bibliography); Zucker et al. 2016; Romano and Marincola 2019; Smith and Trzaskoma forthcoming; many studies in the journal Polymnia, https://polymnia-revue.univ-lille3.fr/index.php/en/this-journal-home/ (accessed 20 January 2021).