Myth

Myths matter because we allow them to matter. Myths matter because deep down we know they do not “matter.”

“She would give them order, she would create constellations…” (Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49)

The Mythology of the Constellations >> The mythology in the constellations.

Even though Homer unknowingly or subconsciously mythologizes the stars in his works (e.g. in the Illiad), at the time he was writing there was no concrete evidence to indicate that the constellations were part of the contemporaneous mythology of Classical Greece…

Nevertheless, Ancient mythology has played a part in humanity’s remote possession of the universe. In other words, the naming of stars, constellations, planets, and even Jupiter’s Galilean moons, has been inspired by mythology. Mythology – which is instigated by the undecipherable and the incomprehensible – has been used to bring the remote closer to us through association and allegory. In this way, mythology has paradoxically rendered the unknown even more unknown.

D-i-s-a-s-t-e-r

Dis- aster –> dis: separated    astro: star –> separating from the heavens

disaster : Italian disastro: “ill-starred,” from dis- “away, without” + astro “star, planet,” from Latin astrum, from Greek astron. The sense is astrological, of a calamity blamed on an unfavorable position of a planet.

2. Obsolete. an unfavorable aspect of a star or planet. [Dictionary.com, 2nd definition]

BLANCHOT: “If disaster means being separated from the star (if it means the decline which characterizes disorientation when the link with fortune from on high is cut), then it indicates a fall beneath disastrous necessity.”

Disaster

BLANCHOT: “On the contrary, the indeterminateness of what is written when this word is written, exceeds etymology and draws it into the disaster.”

*            *            *

Myths emerge from and resonate through influential figures ranging from politicians to Hollywood screenwriters. Figures emege through myths. Zeus, Narcissus, Homer, Shakespeare, Oprah, Obama…

Myths can be updated, recycled and modified accordingly. The act of mythologizing survives through a collective consensus that validates its existence and potency. Mythologizing is a social and cultural ritual that trascends historical and contextual boundaries due to its versatile nature. Myths have to be shared in order to be exchanged. Myths make sense yet transcend logic.

>> I will watch myself rework mythic tropes throughout the creation of this blog. See Posts for more >>