I had my first lecture of the semester today and, unlike my first lecture of my failed degree last semester, I loved every word of this one! I guess it had something to do with the fact that I enjoyed the subject of the lecture. History certainly is more exciting than psychology or whatever it was that I tried to study last semester. Unsurprisingly, the main subject of today's Myth, Legend and History lecture was (can you guess) the difference between myth, legend, and history!
In primary school, I learned it like this: myth = untrue, legend = half-true, history = true.
In university we do it like this:
myth = from the Greek ‘mythos’. The word originally meant any spoken conversation between two or more people. Over time, the word changed to mean a tale told like a fable with a fantastic element to it. Myths are often timeless and, while sometimes based in fact, they deal with the exploits of mortals, heroes, and gods (e.g. The Trojan War).
legend = stories that are hard to verify historically, but are popularly accepted as historical fact. They can often be traced to a loose period in time and usually focuses on the doings of one mortal individual (e.g. Robin Hood).
history = a narrative of factual, verifiable events that occur chronologically or within a set period in time. It deal specifically with mortals (e.g. Queen Victoria).
Oh, come on, it's not that bad! It's just a little more complex than the primary school method, but that's to be expected. I am at university, after all.
While the first half of the lecture was taken up in describing the difference between myth, legend, and history, the second half explained all about textual and visual sources, as well as informing all us students that time was the most important historical concept. That may seem like a no brainer, but if one can’t place events within a certain historical time period then chances are it is either myth or legend. The difference between a textual source and a visual source was easy enough to understand: a textual source is a written source, and a visual source is artistic source. In the final few sentences before our video conference connection was turned off, the lecturer stressed the importance of looking at historical artworks. Now, she didn't say why it was so important to look at historical artworks, but I suspect it has something to do with the fact that important scenes from mythology and legend are often depicted in art works.
You'll hear from me again tomorrow, I've got a tutorial and another lecture in this subject. Until then, goodbye!
~ Australian Kiwi
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