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→The Oedipus Myth: The Mother
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==== The Oedipus Myth: The Mother ==== | ==== The Oedipus Myth: The Mother ==== | ||
Aristotle once had an idea that thinking and knowledge are the driving forces in human life, and through the well-known myth of Oedipus, a tyrant of Thebes, he tries to reveal these forces are also found at the myth's semantic base. The first and oldest component of the myth is the story of the Sphinx, initially presented as one of the "storm demons," symbolizing disaster and plague, and naming her a "sacred disease" (Rudnytsky 96). The combination of the two myths of the Sphinx and Oedipus was at first understood as a symbolic representation of the purely physical conflicts between the sun and storm clouds. Consequently, changes in social conditions catalyzed a change in the interpretation, so eventually the story developed and became enriched into a myth tracing the daily or yearly career of the sun, which was believed to kill his father (the night) and marry his mother (the dawn) (Rudnytsky 98) | Aristotle once had an idea that thinking and knowledge are the driving forces in human life, and through the well-known myth of Oedipus, a tyrant of Thebes, he tries to reveal these forces are also found at the myth's semantic base. The first and oldest component of the myth is the story of the Sphinx, initially presented as one of the "storm demons," symbolizing disaster and plague, and naming her a "sacred disease" (Rudnytsky 96). The combination of the two myths of the Sphinx and Oedipus was at first understood as a symbolic representation of the purely physical conflicts between the sun and storm clouds. Consequently, changes in social conditions catalyzed a change in the interpretation, so eventually the story developed and became enriched into a myth tracing the daily or yearly career of the sun, which was believed to kill his father (the night) and marry his mother (the dawn) (Rudnytsky 98). | ||
In respects to religion, the Sphinx can be interpreted as Mother Earth - its gradual metamorphosis from an environment of hostile natural forces and diseases into one of earth, life and Mother Nature. Freud pointed out that figures of this kind are the religious equivalent of the "phallic mother" symbolized in cults by objects such as a totem. In her many guises the goddess represents all the aspects which a mother shows to her child. She is an intercessor with the father-god, embodiment of beauty as well as the origin of all things (Rudnytsky 107). | In respects to religion, the Sphinx can be interpreted as Mother Earth - its gradual metamorphosis from an environment of hostile natural forces and diseases into one of earth, life and Mother Nature. Freud pointed out that figures of this kind are the religious equivalent of the "phallic mother" symbolized in cults by objects such as a totem. In her many guises the goddess represents all the aspects which a mother shows to her child. She is an intercessor with the father-god, embodiment of beauty as well as the origin of all things (Rudnytsky 107). | ||