When I was about ten years old, my parents traveled from Pennsylvania to California. Naturally, they took me to Disneyland. I learned an important lesson that day. Not how to dress like a princess, or that it takes willful suspension of disbelief to enjoy myths re-imagined for the purpose of merchandising.I learned about time. The […]
Mythphile
all the myth that’s fit to print
Browsing the archives for the Pondering Myth category
13 Apr 12
What Ancient Art Tells Us About Pinboards
What do “pin boards,” social media websites designed around sharing pictures, have in common with Stone Age cave paintings and Egyptian funerary art?
21 Dec 11
The Ritual of the Gift
A Time magazine article this week notes that traditional ink-and-paper paper books are seeing a surprising spike in sales this year, as they did last year, despite the meteoric rise in popularity of ebook readers. The article flails for causes: “The holiday spike may reflect this year’s partial lifting of economic gloominess.” If that’s true, why was there one […]
7 Jun 11
Recommended Article on Carl Jung
Today, the 50th anniversary of C.G. Jung’s death, an excellent introduction to his ideas appears on the BBC website, reflecting on what Jung would make of 2011. Among many other concepts that have entered our culture, he coined the terms extravert (nowadays called extrovert) and introvert. I suspect he would have been fascinated and appalled by […]
29 Oct 10
The Goddess Athena: Feminist or Misogynist?
Applying modern standards to ancient symbols, myths, and civilizations is as anachronistic as a Shakespearean production of Antony and Cleopatra in Elizabethan garb. Nevertheless, when we hail these ancient gods and goddesses, we must remember whom we are calling. As a graduate of Bryn Mawr College, which regards Athena as a muse of the mind, […]