'Myth Theory'

List of Related Articles with Summaries

Truth behind the power of myths

September 18th, 2007

16 Sep 2007, 0104 hrs IST,Atul Sethi,TNN
(written in response to the Ram-Sethu  or Adam's bridge controversy)
Myths, they say, never die. They only sleep. American poet Stanley Kunitz put it aptly, when he said, "Myths lie sleeping, at the bottom of our mind, waiting for our call. We have a need for them, since they […]

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Lost Civilizations with Flying Saucers

June 7th, 2007

The antediluvian school of mythology believes that myths, though distorted, are the only records of real events that occurred in the distant past. But this past is not quite the past of historians. In the antediluvian school, the past is a time at least fifteen thousand years ago, sometimes even more, before the Ice Age, […]

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From Oedipus To Yayati

November 17th, 2006

First published in First City, Delhi, May 2006

There are things in this world that we would rather not talk about, but they demand expression. In such cases myth become a safety valve of culture, expressing unacceptable ideas in an acceptable manner. Stories allow the imagination to flirt with what is forbidden in reality. Take the […]

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Frames of Reference

November 3rd, 2006

First Published in First City, New Delhi, May 2005

 
Everybody sees the world through a frame of reference. No one, but the gods, have the full picture. At least that is what the following tale from Hindu mythology seeks to communicate:
All the gods of the Hindu pantheon once went to Mount Kailas to pay their respects to […]

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Myth as History

November 3rd, 2006

Published in First City, New Delhi, September 2006

Many people are convinced that at the heart of an epic or legend is an event that occurred a long time ago, that narratives becomes sacred because they are the only available records (however distorted and embellished they may be) of a community’s past. To these people the […]

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