The myth of the birth of the hero : a psychological interpretation of mythology / by Otto Rank ; authorized translation by Drs. F. Robbins and Smith Ely Jelliffe.
- Otto Rank
- Date:
- 1914
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The myth of the birth of the hero : a psychological interpretation of mythology / by Otto Rank ; authorized translation by Drs. F. Robbins and Smith Ely Jelliffe. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![representatives of this method of myth interpretation;^^ or the regarding of the myths in a more restricted sense, as astral myths [Stucken, Winckler and others]—is not so essentially distinct, as the followers of each individual direction believe to be the case. Nor does it seem to be an essential progress when the purely solar interpretation as advocated especially by Frobenius^^* was no longer accepted and the view was held that all myths were originally lunar myths, as done by G. Hiising, in his Contribu- tions to the Kyros Myth [Berlin, 1906], following out the sug- gestion of Siecke, who [1908]^^ claims this view as the only legiti- mate obvious interpretation also for the birth myths of the heroes, and it is beginning to gain popularity.^* The interpretation of the myths themselves will be taken up in detail later on, and all detailed critical comments on the above mode of explanation are here refrained from. Although significant, and undoubtedly in part correct, the astral theory is not altogether satisfactory and fails to afford an insight into the motives of myth formation. The objection may be raised that the tracing to astronomical processes does not fully represent the content of these myths, and that much clearer and simpler relations might be established through another mode of interpretation. The much abused theory of elementary thoughts indicates a practically neglected aspect of mythological research. At the beginning as well as at the end of his contribution, Bauer points out how much more natural and probable it would be to seek the reason for the As an especially discouraging example of this mode of procedure may be mentioned a contribution by the well-known natural mythologist Schwartz, which touches upon this circle of myths, and is entitled: Der Ursprung der Stamm und Griindungssage Roms unter dem Reflex indo- germanischer Mythen [Jena, 1898]. ^ Frobenius, Das Zeitalter des Sonnengotten, Berlin, 1904. Siecke, Hermes als Mondgott, Myth. Bibi, Vol. II, Pt. i, p. 48. Compare for example, Paul Koch, Sagen der Bibel und ihre Uber- einstimmung m.it der Mythologie der Indogermanen, Berlin, 1907. Com- pare also the partly lunar, partly solar, but at any rate entirely one sided conception of the hero myth, in Gustav Friedrich's Grundlage, Entste- hung und genaue Einzeldeutung der bekanntesten germanischen Marchen, Mythen und Sagen [Leipzig, 1909], p. 118.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21169287_0013.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
