2000words essay paper
Cosmological: to explain the origin and nature of the universe and its contents, including humanity
Historical: as accounts, possibly camouflaged, of events that actually took place
Anthropological: as sources of cultural values (e.g., courage, hospitality, cleverness, loyalty)
Ritual: as content recited, sung, enacted, etc., in the course of religious practices
Sociological: to explain and reinforce the order of human society (e.g., autocracy, patriarchy, egalitarianism)
Metaphysical: to express fundamental truths about existence (e.g., the transitory nature of all things, how all humans are subject to fate)
Psychological: as the result of patterns and processes within the human mind, some of which may be universal and innate to the human species, others derived from different aspects of group and individual experience
Aetiological: as explanations of particular commonplace observations and facts (e.g., what is a rainbow, why are ravens black in color)
Literary: as creative works susceptible to analysis using the same tools and concepts applied to other kinds of narrative or poetic composition
Choose a myth or group of myths within a single mythological tradition and discuss how this myth or myths functions on at least four of the levels listed above. Discuss how these levels reinforce one another or, conversely, how they perhaps conflict in their implications and operate in tension with one another. You may choose from among the texts and traditions we have discussed in the course or from among any others with which you are familiar. In either case, you should refer in your discussion to specific details of the mythological narratives, along with relevant contexts. Please note that your paper should be presented as a single, cohesive essay appropriately organized and framed by an introduction and a conclusion, not as a series of separate responses.