Ancient Greece myths. Mythology in art Myths in art and history

All of you have ever picked up a book about ancient civilizations. I am sure you did not ignore and history of ancient Greece. Of particular interest, of course, are the myths and legends of this great state.
Usually, for the first time we read these stories at school age. Unfortunately, the number of people who have managed to grasp the very essence of the narratives is too small, but it is often just lazy to reread it again.
All the life stories of the Greek gods and heroes are filled with the deepest philosophical and vital meaning. Many ideas and truths do not lie on the surface, and sometimes it is difficult to understand what it is all about, because in the legends the ancient authors used a great variety of allegories, allegories ...
And really, it's worth working hard, comprehending the forgotten language of antiquity in search of a magic word that will open the way for us to the treasury of wisdom.
But to understand the meaning of this or that story is only the beginning.
Why, you ask? ..
Myths and legends of Ancient Greece inspired many creators and became the basis for the masterpieces they created.
In my project, I would like to introduce you to some of my favorite myths, legends and tales and show the creations of great masters inspired by these stories, who embodied in their works the historical, cultural, philosophical meaning of deeds and exploits gods and heroes of Ancient Greece.
It is especially exciting to compare the canvases of artists who represent different eras, countries and styles. I will try to convey to you the idea that the painter pursued while working on the canvas. And also you will see how different the views of the creators on the same antique plot.
I think for a start it is worth noting that the inhabitants of Olympus, despite their divine essence, earthly desires and temptations were not alien. The gods fell in love, were jealous, feuded with each other and mortals. And the entire spiritual life of the people of that time revolved around art and poetry, to a lesser extent around philosophy. Hellene I could not imagine life without admiration - long and repeated - with objects of art and contemplation of beautiful buildings. The contemplation of human beauty was even more important for the Hellene. That is why the gods were portrayed in the guise of beautiful, well-built people, like mere mortals, but only outwardly. I think it should be clarified that Hellenism is the ancient art of the last quarter of the 4th - 1st centuries BC in Greece, the Eastern Mediterranean, the Black Sea region, Western Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, in which the traditions of local and Greek culture are closely intertwined; arose as a result of the formation of Hellenistic monarchies and the spread of Hellenic culture in them after the conquest of the Persian state by Alexander the Great in the last quarter of the 4th century BC.
Artists not only tried to convey what the vision of the ancient Greeks was, but also to bring something of their own into the canvases, dictated by another historical era.
Well, I think it will be very interesting for you to know in more detail what is the essence of my research. Then ... read the following pages on my website.

Art and myth

a "specialized" semantic and symbolic system.

and, finally, to their relative independence. This happened with mythology, religion, art.
In modern culture, we can already talk about their relative independence and about the interaction of culture with these institutions.

"fairy tales" about the creation of the world and man, stories about the deeds of the ancient gods and heroes.

"myth" is of ancient Greek origin and means precisely "legend", "legend". European peoples up to the XVI-XVII centuries. only the famous and still Greek and Roman myths were known, later they became aware of Arab, Indian, Germanic, Slavic, Indian legends and their heroes. Over time, first scientists, and then a wider public, became available to the myths of the peoples of Australia, Oceania, Africa. It turned out that the holy books of Christians, Muslims, Buddhists are also based on various mythological legends that have been processed.

For those interested in the history of culture, literature and art, acquaintance with mythology is absolutely essential. Indeed, since the Renaissance, artists and sculptors began to widely draw plots for their works from the legends of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Arriving at any of the art museums, an inexperienced visitor finds himself in captivity of the beautiful, but often incomprehensible works of the great masters of Russian fine art: paintings by P. Sokolov (“Daedalus tying the wings of Icarus”), K. Bryullov (“Meeting of Apollo and Diana ”), I. Aivazovsky (“ Poseidon rushing through the sea ”), F. Bruni (“ The death of Camilla, sister of Horace ”), V. Serov (“ The Rape of Europe ”), sculptures by such outstanding masters as M. Kozlovsky (“ Achilles with the body of Patroclus ”), V. Demut-Malinovsky (“ The Rape of Proserpine ”), M. Shchedrin (“ Marsyas ”). The same can be said about some of the masterpieces of Western European art, be it Rubens' Perseus and Andromeda, Poussin's Landscape with Polyphemus, Rembrandt's Danae and Flora, Muzio Scsevola in Porsenna's camp, Tiepolo or the structural groups Apollo and Daphne ”by Bernini,“ Pygmalion and Galatea ”by Thorvaldsen,“ Cupid and Psyche ”and“ Hebe ”by Canova. 1

Target of this work: to show the interaction of art and myth, and to trace the history of the development of myth as a form of culture.

In this work, I put tasks :

3) Show the history of the development of myth in art;

4) Outline, from our point of view, the most significant relationship between contemporary art and myth.

5) Show the development of mythology and art in the XIX - XX centuries.

Relevance of this work lies in the fact that art and mythology are an integral part of culture, to which a person, with all his desire to distance himself from myth and destroy it, at the same time a deep need for it. Likewise, in contemporary art this need to acquire a myth is very strong.

1) Andreev G.L. History of Europe vol. 1., M., 1988, p. 21

The myth is not only the historically first form of culture, but also changes in the mental life of a person, which persists even when the myth loses its absolute dominance. The general essence of myth lies in the fact that it is an unconscious semantic interconnection of man with the forces of immediate being, be it the being of nature or society. If the myth appears as the only form of culture, then this twinning leads to the fact that a person does not distinguish meaning from a natural property, but a semantic one (an associative connection from a causal one). Everything is animated, and nature appears as the world of formidable, but related to man, mythological creatures - demons and gods. 2

Art existed and operated in parallel with myth in the history of culture. Art is an expression of a person's need for figurative and symbolic expression and experience of significant moments in his life. Art creates a "second reality" for a person - the world of life experiences, expressed by special figurative and symbolic means. Involvement in this world, self-expression and self-knowledge in it constitute one of the most important needs of the human soul. 3

Art produces its values through artistic activity, artistic assimilation of reality. The task of art is reduced to the cognition of the aesthetic, to the artistic interpretation of the phenomena of the surrounding world by the author. In artistic thinking, cognitive and evaluative activities are not separated and are used in unity. Such thinking works with the help of a system of figurative means and creates a derivative (secondary) reality - aesthetic assessments. Art enriches the culture of ideas about the world, through a system of images symbolizing meanings and

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subjective ideals of a certain time, a certain era. 4

Art reflects the world, reproduces it. Reflection itself can have three dimensions: past, present and future. In accordance with this, differences are possible in the types of values that art creates. These are retro values that are oriented towards the past, these are realistic values that are “precisely” oriented towards the present, and, finally, avant-garde values that are oriented towards the future. Hence the peculiarities of their regulatory role. However, what all these values have in common is that they are always addressed to the human "I". 5

to maintain the openness of the value system, the openness of the search and choice of orientation in culture, which ultimately fosters the spiritual independence of a person, freedom of spirit. For culture, this is an important potential and a factor in its development. The constant interaction of art and myth proceeds directly, in the form of "transfusion" of myth into literature, and indirectly: through the visual arts, rituals, folk festivals, religious mysteries, and in recent centuries - through the scientific concepts of mythology, aesthetic and philosophical teachings and folkloristics. This interaction is especially active in the intermediate sphere of folklore. According to the type of consciousness, folk poetry gravitates towards the world of mythology, however, as a phenomenon of art, it adjoins literature. The dual nature of folklore makes it in this respect a cultural mediator, and the scientific concepts of folklore, becoming a fact of culture, have a great influence on the processes of interaction between literature and mythology. The relationship between myth and literary fiction can be considered in two

4) Bogatyrev P.G., Questions of the theory of folk art, M., 1971., p. 51

5) Vygotsky L.S., Psychology of Art, 2nd ed., M., 1968, p. 79

The evolutionary aspect provides for the idea of myth as a certain stage of consciousness, historically preceding the emergence of written literature. From this point of view, literature deals only with destroyed, relict forms of myth and itself actively contributes to this destruction. The myth is also staged - the art and literature that replace it are subject only to opposition, since they never coexist in time. The typological aspect implies that mythology and written literature are compared as two fundamentally different ways of seeing and describing the world, existing simultaneously and in interaction and manifested only to varying degrees in certain epochs. For the mythological consciousness and the texts generated by it, the indiscreteness and fusion of the messages transmitted by these texts are characteristic first of all. 6

the ancestors and similar characters, once accomplished, could repeat themselves in the constant circulation of world life. These stories were consolidated in the memory of the collective with the help of a ritual, in which, probably, a significant part of the narration was realized not with the help of verbal narration, but also through gesture demonstration, ritual play performances and thematic dances, accompanied by ritual singing. In its original form, the myth was not so much told as played out in the form of a complex ritual action. With the evolution of myth and the formation of literature, tragic or divine heroes and their comic or demonic counterparts have appeared. As a relic of this process of crushing a single mythological image, a tendency has been preserved in literature, going from Menander and through M. Cervantes, W. Shakespeare and romantics, N.V. Gogol,

6) Shakhnovich M.I., Myth and contemporary art, St. Petersburg 2001 .-- 93 p.

Conclusions: So, the myth is the most ancient value system. It is believed that, in general, culture is moving from myth to logos, that is, from fiction and convention to knowledge, to law. In this regard, in modern culture, myth plays an archaic role, and its values and ideals have a rudimentary meaning. I think that the development of science and civilization often devalues the myth, shows the inadequacy of the regulatory functions and values of the myth, the essence of modern socio-cultural reality. However, this does not mean that the myth has exhausted itself. The myth in modern culture creates the means and methods of symbolic thinking, it is able to interpret the values of modern culture through the idea of "heroic", which, say, is inaccessible to science. In the values of myth, the sensual and the rational are given as one, which is hardly accessible to other means of culture of the 20th century. Fantasy and fiction make it easy to overcome the incompatibility of meanings and content, because in myth everything is conditional and symbolic. In these conditions, the choice and orientation of the individual is liberated and, therefore, using convention, it can achieve high flexibility, which, for example, is almost inaccessible to religion. The myth, humanizing and personifying the phenomena of the surrounding world, reduces them to human representations. On this basis, a specific sensory orientation of a person becomes possible, and this is one of the simplest ways to streamline his activities. In early and primitive cultures, this method played a leading role, for example, in paganism. But in developed cultures, such phenomena are more likely a relapse or are a mechanism for the implementation of one or another archetype, especially in mass culture or mass behavior. Mythology is often used in the 20th century as an amplifier of values, usually due to their hypertrophy and fetishization. The myth allows one to sharpen one or another aspect of value, to exaggerate it, and, consequently, to emphasize and even emphasize.

2. The history of the development of myth in art

Each era in the history of art is characterized by a certain awareness of the relationship between art and mythology.

Greek tragedy (Aeschylus - "Chained Prometheus", "Agamemnon"; Sophocles - "Antigone", "Oedipus the king", "Electra", "Oedipus in Colon", etc.; Euripides - "Iphigenia in Aulis", "Medea" , "Ippolit", etc.). It is reflected not only in the appeal to mythological plots: when Aeschylus creates a tragedy based on a historical plot ("The Persians"), he mythologizes the story itself.

Roman poetry provides new types of attitudes towards myths. Virgil ("Aeneid") connects myths with a philosophical understanding of history, with religious and philosophical problems, and the structure of the image developed by him largely anticipates Christian mythologemes (the preponderance of the symbolic significance of the image over its figurative concreteness). 7

"myth" are painted in negative tones. At the same time, the exclusion of myth from the realm of "true" faith to a certain extent facilitated its penetration as a verbal and ornamental element into secular poetry. In church literature, on the one hand, mythology penetrated into Christian demonology, merging with it, and on the other, it was used as material for searching for encrypted Christian prophecies in pagan texts. The purposeful demythologization of Christian texts (that is, the expulsion of the ancient element) actually created an extremely complex mythological structure in which the new Christian mythology (in all the richness of its canonical and apocryphal texts), a complex mixture

7) Freidenberg O.M., Myth and literature of antiquity, M., 2000 .-- 131 p.

mythology often underwent the most unexpected modifications (for example, Jesus Christ in the ancient Saxon epic poem "Heliand" appears in the form of a powerful and warlike monarch). eight

The Renaissance created a culture under the sign of de-Christianization. This led to a sharp increase in the non-Christian components of the mythological continuum. The Renaissance era gave rise to two opposite models of the world: an optimistic one, which gravitates towards a rationalistic, intelligible explanation of space and society, and a tragic one, which recreates an irrational and disorganized appearance of the world (the second model directly "flowed" into the baroque culture). The first model was built on the basis of rationally ordered ancient mythology, the second activated the "lower mysticism" of folk demonology mixed with the extra-canonical ritualism of Hellenism and the mysticism of side heretical currents of medieval Christianity. The first had a decisive influence on the official culture of the High Renaissance. The fusion into a single artistic whole of the myths of Christianity and antiquity with the mythologized material of personal fate was carried out in Dante's "Divine Comedy". To an even greater extent than in "book" literature, the myth is seen in the folk carnival culture, which served as an intermediate link between primitive mythology and fiction. Live connections with folklore and mythological origins were preserved in the drama of the Renaissance (for example, the "carnival" of William Shakespeare's drama - the buffoon's plan, crowns - debunks, and so on). F. Rabelais ("Gargantua and Pantagruel") found a vivid manifestation of the tradition of folk carnival culture and (more broadly) some common

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the peculiarities of mythological consciousness (hence the hyperbolic, cosmic image of the human body with oppositions from top to bottom, "travels" inside the body, etc.). The second model was reflected in the writings of J. van Ruisbruck, Paracelsus, the visions of A. Dürer, the images of H. Bosch, M. Niethardt, P. Bruegel the Elder, the culture of alchemy, etc.

Venus ”,“ Spring ”), Titian (painting“ Venus in front of a mirror ”), etc. The outstanding Italian sculptor Benvenuto Cellini took the subject for his remarkable statue of Perseus from the images of ancient Greek mythology. nine

Biblical motives are characteristic of baroque literature (poetry by A. Griffius, prose by P.F. Quevedo y Villegas, drama by P. Calderon), which continues to turn to ancient mythology (Adonis by G. Marino, Polyphemus by L. . Gongory, etc.). English poet of the 17th century J. Milton, using biblical material, creates heroic and dramatic works in which tyrannical motives sound ("Paradise Lost", "Paradise Returned", etc.).

"demythologizes" it, turning it into a system of discrete, logically arranged images-allegories. The appeal to the mythological hero (along with the historical hero), his fate and deeds is typical of "high" genres of classicism literature, first of all - tragedy (P. Cornel - "Medea", J. Racine - "Andromache", "Phaedra", " biblical "dramas -" Esther "," Atholia "). Burlesque poetry parodied classicist epics

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9) Bakhtin M. M. Folk culture of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, M, 1965, p. 98

quite often she also used mythological subjects ("Virgil in disguise" by the French poet P. Scarron, "Aeneid, etc.).

the rationalism of the aesthetics of classicism leads to the formalization of the methods of using the myth. ten

("Merope", "Oedipus" by Voltaire, "Messiada" by F. Klopstock) or the formulation of universal generalizations ("Prometheus", "Ganymede" and other works by I. V. Goethe, "The Triumph of the Winners", "Complaint of Ceres", etc. F. Schiller's ballads).

Flemish, French, Dutch artists: Rubens (Perseus and Andromeda, Venus and Adonis), Van Dyck (Mars and Venus), Rembrandt (Danae, The Head of Pallas Athena), Poussin (Echo and Narcissus ”,“ Nymph and Satyr ”,“ Landscape with Polyphemus ”,“ Landscape with Hercules ”, etc.), Boucher (“ Apollo and Daphne ”) - and many others. eleven

Romanticism (and before it - pre-Romantiem) put forward the slogans of turning from reason to myth and from the rationalized mythology of Greco-Roman antiquity to national pagan and Christian mythology. "Discovery" in the middle of the 18th century. for the European reader of Scandinavian mythology, the folklorism of I. Herder, interest in oriental mythology, in Slavic mythology in Russia in the second half of the 18th - early 19th centuries, which led to the appearance of the first experiments of a scientific approach to this problem, prepared an invasion of the art of romanticism of images of the national mythology.

11) Weyman R., History of Literature and Mythology, M., 1975., p. 395

Thus, F. Hölderlin, who was the first in modern poetry to organically assimilate the ancient myth and who was the initiator of new myth-making, included, for example, the Earth, Helios, Apollo, Dionysus among the Olympian gods; in the poem "The Only" Christ is the son of Zeus, the brother of Hercules and Dionysus.

playing with the images of traditional mythology, combining elements of various mythologies and, in particular, the experiments of one's own literary myth-like fiction ("Little Tsakhes" by E. T. A. Hoffman), repetition and duplication of heroes in space (doubles) and especially in time (heroes live forever, die and are resurrected or incarnate in new creatures), a partial shift of emphasis from the image to the situation as a kind of archetype, etc., is a characteristic feature of the myth-making of romantics. This often manifests itself even where the heroes of traditional myths act. Hoffmann's myth-making was unconventional. For him (the stories "The Golden Pot", "Little Tsakhes", "Princess Brambilla", "Lord of the Fleas" and others), fantasy acts as a fabulousness through which a certain global mythical model of the world peeps through. The mythical element is included to some extent in the "terrible" stories and novels of Hoffmann - as a chaotic, demonic, nocturnal, destructive force, as an "evil fate" ("Elixir of the Devil", etc.). The most original thing in Hoffmann is the fantasy of everyday life, which is very far from traditional myths, but is built to some extent according to their models. The noble war of toys led by the Nutcracker against the mouse army ("The Nutcracker"), the talking doll Olympia, created with the participation of the demonic alchemist Coppelius ("The Sandman"), and others - various variants of mythologizing the ulcers of modern civilization, in particular, soulless technicism, fetishism, social alienation ... In the work of Hoffmann, the tendency of romantic literature in relation to myth was most clearly manifested - an attempt at a conscious, informal, unconventional use of myth, sometimes acquiring the character of an independent poetic myth-making. 12

Conclusion: I believe that in the era of writing, literature begins to oppose myths. The oldest layer of culture after the emergence of writing and the creation of ancient states is characterized by a direct connection between art and mythology. However, the functional difference, which is especially acute at this stage, determines that the connection here invariably turns into rethinking and struggle. On the one hand, mythological texts are the main source of plots in art during this period. Myths turn into many fairy tales, stories of gods, cultural heroes and ancestors. It is at this stage that such narratives sometimes take on the character of stories about violations of the basic prohibitions imposed by culture on human behavior (for example, prohibitions on killing relatives).

With Christianity, mythology of a specific type entered the horizons of the Mediterranean and then the common European world. The literature of the Middle Ages arises and develops on the basis of the pagan mythology of "barbarian" peoples (folk-heroic epic), on the one hand, and on the basis of Christianity, on the other. The influence of Christianity is becoming predominant, although ancient myths are not forgotten. For that time, the attitude towards myth as a product of paganism was characteristic.

12) Weiman R., History of Literature and Mythology, M., 1975., p. 465

XIX – Xx century

Greco-Roman mythology has penetrated so deeply into Russian literature that a person who reads A.S. Pushkin's poems (especially early ones) and is ignorant of mythological characters will not always understand the lyrical or satirical meaning of this or that work. This is true of the poems of G.R.Derzhavin, V.A.Zhukovsky, M.Yu. Lermontov, the fables of I.A.Krylov and others. All this only confirms the remark of F. Engels that without the foundation laid by Greece and Rome, there would be no modern Europe. The strongest influence that ancient culture had on the development of all European peoples, thus, is beyond doubt.

expressed in the creation of the demonic mythology of romanticism (J. Byron, P.V. Shelley, M. Yu. Lermontov). The demonism of romantic culture was not only an external transfer to the literature of the beginning. XIX century. images from the myth of the hero-fighter against God or the legend of the fallen rejected angel (Prometheus, Demon), but also acquired the features of genuine mythology, which actively influenced the consciousness of a whole generation, created highly ritualized canons of romantic behavior and gave rise to a huge number of mutually isomorphic texts. 13

Realistic art of the 19th century focused on the demythologization of culture and saw its task in liberation from the irrational heritage of history for the sake of the natural sciences and the rational transformation of human society. Realistic literature strove to reflect reality in life forms adequate to it, to create an artistic history of its time. However, she

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13) Meletinsky EM Poetics of myth. M., 1995., p. 68

material (the line going from Hoffmann to the fantasy of Gogol ("The Nose"), to the naturalistic symbolism of E. Zola ("Nana")).

giving depth and perspective to the whole. Names such as Leo Tolstoy's "Resurrection" or "Earth" and "Germinal" by E. Zola lead to mythological symbols; the scapegoat mythologeme can be seen even in the novels of Stendhal and O. Balzac. But in general, realism of the XIX century. marked by "demythologization". fourteen

In the XVII-XX centuries. many warships of various European countries were named after the deities and heroes of ancient mythology. The Russian heroic sloop "Mercury", the frigate "Pallada" in the 19th century, the cruisers of the First World War - "Aurora", "Pallada", "Diana", the English ship of the early 19th century "Bellerophon", which delivered Napoleon to St. Helena Island, many ships of the English fleet of the early XX century. (destroyers Nestor and Melpomene, cruiser Aretuza, battleships Ajax, Agamemnon, etc.). In the German navy the cruiser "Ariadne", in the French - "Minerva" also bore names borrowed from ancient Greek mythology. 15

The revival of general cultural interest in myth falls on the late XIX - early. XX centuries, but the revival of the romantic tradition, accompanied by a new wave of mythologizing, was outlined already in the second half of the XIX century. The crisis of positivism, disillusionment with metaphysics and analytical ways of knowing,

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15) Andreev G.L. History of Europe t. 1., M., 1988., p. 254

The criticism of the bourgeois world as a heroless and anti-aesthetic, coming from romanticism, gave rise to attempts to return the "holistic", transforming strong-willed archaic world outlook embodied in myth. In the culture of the late XIX century. arise, especially under the influence of R. Wagner and F. Nietzsche, "neomythological" aspirations. Very diverse in their manifestations, social and philosophical nature, they largely retain their significance for the entire culture of the 20th century.

The founder of "neo-mythologism" Wagner believed that it is through myth that the people become the creator of art, that myth is the poetry of deep life views that have a universal character. Turning to the traditions of Germanic mythology, Wagner created an operatic tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen (Gold of the Rhine, Valkyrie, Death of the Gods). He makes the "damned gold" motif (a theme popular in romantic literature and marking romantic criticism of bourgeois civilization) as the core of the entire tetralogy. Wagner's approach to mythology created a whole tradition, which was subjected to rough vulgarization among the epigones of late romanticism, who strengthened the features of pessimism and mysticism inherent in Wagner's work.

Revived interest in myth throughout 20th century literature. manifested itself in three main forms. The use of mythological images and plots, which comes from romanticism, is sharply increasing. Numerous stylizations and variations are created on themes posed by myth, ritual or archaic art. The art of the peoples of Africa, Asia, South America is beginning to be perceived not only as aesthetically complete, but also, in a sense, as the highest norm. Hence - a sharp increase in interest in the mythology of these peoples, which is seen as a means of decoding the corresponding national cultures. In parallel, a revision of views on their national folklore and archaic art begins; I. Grabar's “discovery” of the aesthetic world of the Russian icon, the introduction into the range of artistic values of folk theater, fine and applied art (signs, artistic utensils), interest in preserved rituals, in legends, beliefs, conspiracies and incantations, etc. the influence of this folklorism on writers like A.M. Remizov or D.G. Lawrence. Secondly (also in the spirit of the romantic tradition), there is an orientation towards the creation of "author's myths." If the realist writers of the 19th century. strive to ensure that the picture of the world they create is similar to reality, then already the early representatives of neo-mythological art - symbolists, for example, find the specifics of artistic vision in its deliberate mythologized, in a departure from everyday empiricism, from a clear temporal or geographical confinement. At the same time, however, the deep object of mythologizing even among the Symbolists turns out to be not only "eternal" themes (love, death, loneliness of the "I" in the world), as it was, for example, in most of Maeterlinck's dramas, but precisely the collisions of modern reality - the urbanized world of the alienated personality and its objective and machine environment ("Octopus Cities" by E. Verharne, the poetic world of S. Baudelaire, Bryusov). Expressionism ("R. U. R." K. Chapek) and especially the "neomythological" art of the 2nd and 3rd quarter of the XX century. only finally consolidated this connection of mythologizing poetics with contemporary themes, with the question of the paths of human history (compare, for example, the role of "author's myths" in modern utopian or dystopian works of so-called science fiction). 16

Most clearly, however, the specificity of the modern appeal to mythology was manifested in the creation (at the end of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th centuries, but especially - from the 1920s to the 1930s) such works as "novels-myths" and similar "dramas. myths "," poems-myths ". In these purely "neo-mythological" works, the myth is fundamentally neither the only narrative line, nor the only point of view of the text. He collides with, is difficult to correlate with either other myths (giving a different assessment than him)

16) Shakhnovich M. I, Myth and contemporary art, St. Petersburg. 2001 .-- 128 p.

images), or with themes of history and modernity. Such are the "novels-myths" by Joyce, T. Mann, "Petersburg" by A. Bely, the works of J. Updike and others.

"Process", "Castle", short stories). The plot and heroes have a universal meaning for him, the hero models humanity as a whole, and the world is described and explained in terms of plot events. In Kafka's work, the opposition between primitive myth and modernist myth-making is clearly manifested: the meaning of the first is in the hero's familiarization with social community and natural circulation, the content of the second is the "mythology" of social alienation. The mythological tradition, as it were, turns into its opposite in Kafka, it is, as it were, a myth inside out, an anti-myth. So, in his short story "The Metamorphosis", in principle comparable to totemic myths, the hero's metamorphosis (his transformation into an ugly insect) is not a sign of belonging to his own genus group (as in ancient totemic myths), but, on the contrary, a sign of separation, alienation, conflict with family and society; the heroes of his novels, in which the juxtaposition of “initiated” and “uninitiated” (as in the ancient rites of initiation) plays an important role, cannot pass “initiatory” tests; "celestials" are given to them in a deliberately reduced, prosaized, ugly form.

The English writer DG Lawrence (the "Mexican" novel "The Feathered Serpent" and others) draws ideas about myth and ritual from J. Fraser. For him, turning to ancient mythology is an escape into the realm of intuition, a means of escape from the modern "decrepit" civilization (chanting of the pre-Columbian bloody ecstatic cults of the Aztec gods, etc.). 17

Mythologism of the XX century. has many representatives in poetry.

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17) Mints Z. G., Myth - folklore - literature. L., 1978., p. 147

the purpose of poetic creativity (Viach. Ivanov, F. Sologub and others). Sometimes poets of other trends in Russian poetry at the beginning of the century also turned to mythological models and images. For V. Khlebnikov, mythology became a peculiar form of poetic thinking. He not only recreates mythological plots of many peoples of the world ("The Virgin God", "The Death of Atlantis", "Children of the Otter"), but also creates new myths, using the model of the myth, reproducing its structure ("Crane", "Granddaughter of Malusha"). eighteen

"Jezebel") and antique ("Medea", "Antigone"), J. Girodoux (plays "Siegfried", "Amphitrion 38", "There will be no Trojan war", "Electra"), G. Hauptmann (tetralogy of "Atrida" ) and etc.

The ratio of mythological and historical in works of "neo-mythological" art can be very different - and quantitatively (from separate images-symbols and parallels scattered in the text, hinting at the possibility of mythological interpretation of what is depicted, to the introduction of two or more equal storylines: "The Master and Margarita" M.A.Bulgakov), and semantically. However, brightly "neo-mythological" works are composed of those where myth acts as the function of language - the interpreter of history and modernity, and these latter play the role of that motley and chaotic material that is the object of ordering interpretation. 19

"Neomythologism" in the art of the 20th century. He also developed his own, in many respects, innovative poetics - the result of the influences of both the structure of the rite and myth, and modern ethnological and folkloristic theories. It is based on the cyclical concept of the world, "eternal return" (Nietzsche). In the world of eternal returns, in any phenomenon of the present, its past and ……………………………………………………………………………………

"neomythological" texts in the works of Russian Symbolists, L., 1978., p. 79

future reincarnations. "The world is full of correspondences" (A. Blok), you just need to be able to see in the innumerable flashing of "masks" (history, modernity) the face of world unity (embodied in myth) shining through them. But therefore, each single phenomenon signals an innumerable number of others, the essence of their similarity, a symbol.

It is specific for many works of "neo-mythological" art that literary texts perform the function of myths in them, and quotations and paraphrases from these texts play the role of mythologemes. Often, what is depicted is decoded by a complex system of references to both myths and works.

art. For example, in "The Little Demon" by F. Sologub, the meaning of the line of Lyudmila Rutilova and Sasha Pylnikov is revealed through parallels with Greek mythology (Lyudmila is Aphrodite, but also a fury; Sasha is Apollo, but also Dionysus; a masquerade scene when an envious crowd almost breaks Sasha dressed in a fancy dress for women, but Sasha is "miraculously" saved - ironic, but also having a serious meaning, an allusion to the myth of Dionysus, including such essential motives as tearing apart, changing appearance, salvation - resurrection), with mythology the old - and the New Testament (Sasha - the serpent-tempter). For F. Sologub, myths and literary texts that decipher this line constitute a kind of contradictory unity: they all emphasize the kinship of the heroes with the primordially beautiful archaic world. This is how a "neo-mythological" work creates a typical art of the 20th century. panmythologism, equalizing myth, literary text, and often historical situations identified with myth. But, on the other hand, such an equalization of myth and works of art noticeably expands the overall picture of the world in "neo-mythological" texts. The value of archaic myth, myth and folklore turns out not to be opposed to the art of later eras, but rather difficult to compare with the highest achievements of world culture.

"models", as much as a technique that allows you to accentuate certain situations and collisions with direct or contrasting parallels from mythology (most often - ancient or biblical). Among the mythological motives and archetypes used by modern authors - the plot of "Odyssey" (in the works of H. E. Nossak "Nekia", G. Hartlaub "Not every Odyssey"), "Iliad" (in G. Brown - "The stars follow their course ")," Aeneid "(in" Vision of the Battle "by A. Borges), the history of the Argonauts (in" The Journey of the Argonauts from Brandenburg "by E. Langeser), the motive of the centaur - by J. Updike (" The Centaur ").

From the 50-60s. the poetics of mythologizing develops in the literatures of the "third world" - Latin American and some Afro-Asian. Modern intellectualism of the European type is combined here with archaic folklore and mythological traditions. A peculiar cultural and historical situation makes possible coexistence and interpenetration, sometimes reaching organic synthesis, elements of historicism and mythologism, social realism and genuine folklore. For the work of the Brazilian writer J. Amado ("Gabriela, Cloves and Cinnamon", "Shepherds of the Night", etc.), the Cuban writer A. Carpentier (the story "The Kingdom of the Earth"), Guatemalan - M. A. Asturias ("The Green Pope" and others), Peruvian - X. M. Arguedas ("Deep Rivers") is characterized by a two-dimensional nature of socio-critical and folklore-mythological motives, as if internally opposed to the denounced social reality. Colombian writer G. Garcia Márquez (novels "One Hundred Years of Solitude", "Autumn of the Patriarch") relies heavily on Latin American folklore, supplementing it with ancient and biblical motives and episodes from historical legends. One of the original manifestations of Marquez's myth-making is the complex dynamics of the relationship between life and death, memory and oblivion, space and time. Thus, throughout its history, literature has been correlated with the mythological heritage of primitiveness and antiquity, and this attitude has fluctuated greatly, but on the whole, the evolution was in the direction of "demythologization". "Remythologization" of the XX century. although it is primarily associated with the art of modernism, but due to the various ideological and aesthetic aspirations of artists who turned to myth, it is far from reducible to it. Mythologization in the XX century. became a tool for the artistic organization of material not only for typical modernist writers, but also for some realist writers (Mann), as well as for writers of the "third world" who refer to national folklore and myth, often in the name of preserving and reviving national forms of culture. The use of mythological images and symbols is also found in some works of Soviet literature (for example, Christian-Jewish motives and images in Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita). twenty

The problem of "art and myth" has become the subject of special scientific consideration mainly in the literary criticism of the 20th century, especially in connection with the emerging "remythologization" in Western literature and culture. But this problem has been posed before. Romantic philosophy early. XIX century. (Schelling and others), who attached particular importance to myth as a prototype of artistic creativity, saw in mythology a necessary condition and primary material for all poetry. In the XIX century. a mythological school was formed, which derived from myth various genres of folklore and laid the foundations for the comparative study of mythology, folklore and literature. The work of Nietzsche had a significant impact on the general process of "remythologization" in Western cultural studies, who anticipated some characteristic tendencies in the interpretation of the problem of "literature and myth", tracing in "The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music" (1872) the importance of rituals for the origin of artistic types and genres. Russian scientist A.N. Veselovsky developed at the beginning of the XX century. the theory of primitive syncretism of art forms and kinds of poetry, considering the primitive rite to be the cradle of this syncretism. The starting point that developed in the 30s. XX century. in Western science, the ritual-mythological approach to literature was the ritualism of J. Freyer and his followers - the Cambridge group

20) Shakhnovich M. I, Myth and contemporary art, St. Petersburg 2001 .-- 178 p.

researchers of ancient cultures (D. Harrison, A.B. Cook and others). In their opinion, at the heart of the heroic epic, fairy tale, medieval chivalric romance, revival drama, works using the language of biblical-Christian mythology, and even realistic and naturalistic novels of the 19th century. lay initiation rites and calendar rites. The mythologizing literature of the 20th century attracted special attention in this area. Jung's establishment of well-known analogies between various types of human fantasy (including myth, poetry, unconscious fantasizing in a dream), his theory of archetypes expanded the possibilities of searching for ritual and mythological models in modern literature. For N. Fry, who is largely Jung-oriented, the myth, merging with ritual and archetype, is the eternal subsoil and source of art; mythologizing novels of the XX century. seem to him a natural and spontaneous revival of myth, completing the next cycle of the historical cycle in the development of poetry. Frye asserts the constancy of literary genres, symbols and metaphors based on their ritual-mythological nature. The ritual-mythological school has achieved positive results in the study of literary genres genetically related to ritual, mythological and folklore traditions, in the analysis of the rethinking of ancient poetic forms and symbols, in the study of the role of the tradition of the plot and genre, collective cultural heritage in individual creativity. But the interpretation of literature characteristic of the ritual-mythological school exclusively in terms of myth and ritual, the dissolution of art in myth, are extremely one-sided.

In a different plan and from different positions - with the observance of the principle of historicism, taking into account substantive, ideological problems - the role of myth in the development of literature was considered by a number of Soviet scholars. Soviet authors turn to ritual and myth not as eternal models of art, but as the first laboratory of poetic imagery. OM Freidenberg described the process of transformation of myth into various poetic plots and genres of ancient literature. The work of M. M. Bakhtin about Rabelais is of great theoretical importance, showing that the key to understanding many works of literature of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance is folk carnival culture, folk "laughter" creativity, genetically related to ancient agrarian rituals and holidays. The role of myth in the development of art (mainly on ancient material) was analyzed by A.F. Losev. A number of works, which highlighted various aspects of the problem of "mythologism" of literature, appeared in the 60-70s. (E. M. Meletinsky, V. V. Ivanov, V. N. Toporov, S. S. Averintsev, Yu. M. Lotman, I. P. Smirnov, A. M. Panchenko, N. S. Leites).

The mythological era lasted millennium after millennium and gave rise to many great and amazing cultures of antiquity, but somewhere around 500 BC. NS. takes place, according to K. Jaspers, "the sharpest turn in the history of mankind." In this era, the main categories were developed by which we think to this day, the foundations of world religions were laid, and today they determine the life of people. This is the time of the Upanishads and Buddha, Confucius and Lao Tzu, Zarathustra and the biblical prophets, Homer, Plato, Heraclitus and many other geniuses who stood at the origins of the cultures of the new era.

Culture crowns the richest ancient civilizations. The features of a different worldview have already appeared in it. Scientific thought has already begun to destroy that naive worldview, full of enthusiasm and fears, which is reflected in the myths. The world has changed. But mythology remains - the great treasury of the creations of human genius.

Conclusions: At the beginning of the XIX century. there is an increase in the role of Christian mythology in the general structure of romantic art. At the same time, theomachic sentiments became widespread, expressed in the creation of a demonic mythology of romanticism.

"nations", races ", etc., which most fully appeared in the ideology of fascism. Moreover, the myth used turns out to be either traditionally religious, like ancient German mythology; sometimes constructed within the framework of bourgeois philosophy; sometimes a demagogically absolutized real community, like a nation "," people ", etc.

subordination, because the myth, as a certain hierarchy and a unit that is not subject to doubt, was actively used by totalitarian regimes and today is very strongly associated with them. And, at the same time, a deep need for the magic is characteristic of modern art, it is permeated with longing for lost myths and a craving for the creation of new ones.

Conclusion

what existed before the axial time, even if it was majestic, like Babylonian, Egyptian, Indian or Chinese culture, is perceived as something dormant, unawakened. Ancient cultures continue to live only in those of their elements that are perceived by the new beginning. Compared to the clear human essence of the modern world, the ancient cultures preceding it are, as it were, hidden under a kind of peculiar veil, as if the man of that time had not yet achieved true self-consciousness. Monumentality in religion, in religious art and in the corresponding huge authoritarian state formations of antiquity was for the people of the axial period an object of reverence and admiration, sometimes even a model (for example, for Confucius, Plato), but in such a way that the meaning of these samples in perception completely changed ...

There are different points of view on what prompted entire cultures to this gigantic process of reflection, when, according to K. Jaspers, "consciousness was aware of consciousness, thinking made thinking its object." According to A. Weber, this turn of history was carried out precisely by the Indo-European conquerors with their heroism and "tragic spirit".

It is unlikely that such an explanation is sufficient, just as purely socio-economic explanations are insufficient. Be that as it may, the new European culture began to count down its time.

1. Andreev GL History of Europe t. 1., M., 1988. - 414 p.

2. Bakhtin M. M., Folk culture of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance,

M., 1965 .-- 475 p.

4. Veyman R., History of Literature and Mythology, M., 1975. - 538 p.

5. Vygotsky LS, Psychology of Art, 2nd ed., M., 1968. - 324 p.

7. Zhirmunsky V. M., People's heroic epos, M.-L., 1962. - 390 p.

8. Likhachev D.S., Poetics of Old Russian Literature, 2nd ed.,

9. Losev A. F., Aristophanes and his mythological vocabulary,

in the book: Articles and Research on Linguistics and Classical Philology,

M., 1965 .-- 550 p.

10. Meletinsky EM Poetics of myth. M., 1995 .-- 96 p.

11. Mints 3. G., On some "neo-mythological" texts in the works of Russian Symbolists, L., 1980. - 167 p.

12. Mints 3. G., Myth - folklore - literature. L., 1978 - 363 p.

14. Ryazanovsky F.A., Demonology in Old Russian Literature,

M., 1975 .-- 359 p.

15. Smirnov IP, From a fairy tale to a novel, in the book: Proceedings of the Department of Old Russian Literature, vol. 27, L., 1972. - 424 p.

17. Florensky P. A., Reverse perspective, in the book: Works on sign systems, [t.] Z. Tartu, 1967. - 387 p.

18. Freidenberg OM, Myth and literature of antiquity, M., 2000. - 254 p.

S. - Petersburg 2001 .-- 270 p.

8th grade

Topic: Art begins with a myth

Mythology (Greek μυθολογία, - legend, legend and Greek λόγος - word, story, teaching)

This is a system of perception of the world, based on traditional legends, images, is characterized by metaphor, belief in the miraculous.

This is a way of communicating with a higher reality, with the gods, in which a person, as it were, imitates them.

Gods and other supernatural beings are close to him, they are almost real and at the same time fabulous.

Myth is a synthesis of earthly reality with the reality of the other world.

All the peoples of the world have myths. All types of art have used mythology in one way or another, for myth is a very interesting, vivid, figurative material.

Such synthetic arts as theater, opera, cinema were especially often referred to myth.

The combination of music and literary text, entertainment and ideological richness can have a particularly strong effect on people.

In music, myths were also used very often, because music acts simultaneously on the mind and on the senses, which is a necessary condition for the perception of the myth.

What kind examples of the use of myths in music we know?

First of all, classical myths - the myths of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome (example: "Orpheus" Gluck ")

myths of the Northwest (German-Scandinavian, Celtic) - the myths of Edda and the Elder Edda among the Germanic peoples, myths about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table - in Celtic mythology (examples: "King Arthur" by G. Purcell, operas by Richard Wagner)

Slavic mythology (examples: "The Snow Maiden", "The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia" by N. Rimsky-Korsakov)

Important elements of the myth:

Images of nature

Magic cities: Monsalvat castle for the North-West, Kitezh for Russia.

Characters (edit)

The ideological content of the myth - its plot

Today we will talk about the German composer R. Wagner (1813-1883)

The central place in Wagner's legacy is occupied by operas (there are thirteen in total), which capture the national character, recreate the legends and traditions of the German people, stately pictures of nature. His operas contain a rich, complex world of ideas and human experiences: heroism, nature, love.

We will listen "Flight of the Valkyries" from the opera "Valkyrie".

Valkyrie - in Scandinavian mythology, the daughter of a glorious warrior or king, who flies on a winged horse over the battlefield and takes the lives of the soldiers. The dead soldiers go to the heavenly palace - Valhalla. Dew drips from the manes of their horses (clouds), and light shines from their swords. Warrior maidens are portrayed in helmets, with shields and spears; from the shine of their armor, according to legends, the northern lights appear in the sky. The image of the Valkyrie is used in modern literary works of the fantasy genre, as well as in computer games, from their names even the drug Valkyrin originated.

Wagner imitates vortex currents: "gusts of wind", "squeals and whistles" surrounding the main theme give the impression of the authenticity of the action. However, for the main theme, Wagner chose a different prototype: here the image of long jumps following each other emerges.

The melody is structured in such a way that each next motive seems to be repelled from the previous one, each phrase first acts as a "landing", an accent, and immediately serves as a short and energetic impetus for the next phase of the movement. So Wagner shows the flight-jump, the flight of the warrior-maidens, weighed down by heavy armor.

Wagner's music turned out to be so close to the German people, the heroic images of Wagner's operas are so strong that in the 20th century German fascism, represented by A. Hitler, appropriated the Wagnerian image of the fearless young Siegfried and made him a symbol of the nation.

The composer, therefore, artistically talentedly brought to life the world of collective national representations.

1) The myth of the beauty of Psyche and the jealousy of the goddess Venus

Hover over to see the title

Psyche or Psyche (ancient Greek. Ψυχή, "soul", "breath") - in ancient Greek mythology, the personification of the soul, breath; presented herself as a butterfly or a young girl with butterfly wings.

In the later times of antiquity, the god Eros (Cupid) was combined with Psyche, personifying the human soul and depicted under the guise of a charming gentle girl with butterfly wings. [In the Russian tradition of transferring the names of the ancient mythology of the god Eros (Cupid) in plots related to Psyche, Cupid is consistently called Cupid, and the whole set of such mythological plots is the myth of Cupid and Psyche or the tale of Cupid and Psyche.]

The Latin writer Apuleius in his novel "Metamorphoses, or the Golden Donkey" combined various elements of the myth about Cupid and Psyche into one poetic whole.

According to Apuleius, one king had three daughters, all beautiful, but if it was possible to find suitable expressions and praise in human language to describe the two elders, then this was not enough for the youngest named Psyche. The beauty of Psyche was so perfect that it defied any description of a mere mortal.

The inhabitants of the country and foreigners were whole crowds, attracted by rumors about her beauty, and when they saw Psyche, they knelt before her and paid her such honors, as if the goddess Venus herself was in front of them.

Finally, a rumor spread that Psyche was the goddess Venus herself, who descended to earth from the peaks of Olympus. No one began to travel to Cnidus anymore, no one visited the islands of Cyprus and Kythera, the temples of the goddess Venus remained empty, no more sacrifices were made on the altars. Only when Psyche appeared, the people took her for Venus, bowed before Psyche, showered Psyche with flowers, lifted up their prayers to Psyche and brought sacrifices to Psyche.

This reverence for beauty, so consistent with the spirit of the Greek people, is beautifully expressed in one of Raphael's extensive compositions on the mythological theme of Cupid and Psyche.

The indignant goddess Venus, tormented by envy of her lucky rival, decided to punish Crazy. Venus called on her son - Cupid (Eros, Cupid), the winged god of love, and instructed Cupid to avenge her by the one who dared to challenge her the primacy of beauty.

The goddess Venus asked Cupid to instill in Psyche love for a person unworthy of Psyche, for the very last of mortals.

2) Psyche kidnapped by Zephyr

Ancient myths in Russian poetry: the famous poem by O.E. Mandelstam "When Psyche-life descends to the shadows ..." (1920, 1937). On Psyche as a symbol of the human soul, see: The myth of Cupid and Psyche - the myth of the human soul.

When Psyche-life descends to the shadows
Into the translucent forest, following Persephone,
The blind swallow throws herself at my feet
With Stygian tenderness and a green branch.

A crowd of shadows rushes towards the refugee
Meeting new merchandise with lamentations,
And weak hands break in front of her
With bewilderment and timid hope.

Who is holding a mirror, who is a jar of perfume, -
The soul is a woman, she likes trinkets,
And a forest of leafless transparent voices
Dry complaints sprinkle like a fine rain.

And in a tender hustle and bustle, not knowing what to do,
The soul does not recognize either weight or volume,
Dies on the mirror - and hesitates to pay
Copper cake to the owner of the ferry.

Both Psyche's sisters married kings. Psyche alone, surrounded by crowds of admirers, did not find a spouse. Psyche's father, amazed by this, asked the oracle of the god Apollo what was the reason. In response, Psyche's father received an order from the oracle to put his daughter on a rock, where Psyche should expect a marriage. The Oracle of Apollo said that the immortal would be the spouse of Psyche, that he had wings like a bird of prey, and like this bird, he is cruel and cunning, inspires fear not only to people, but also to gods, and conquers them.

Obeying the oracle, the father took Psyche to the rock and left her there to wait for the mysterious husband. Trembling with horror, the beautiful Psyche burst into tears, when suddenly the gentle Zephyr lifted Psyche and carried him on his wings to a beautiful valley, where he lowered Psyche onto the soft grass.

The myth of the abduction of Psyche by Zephyr has served as a plot for many paintings.

Psyche saw herself in a beautiful valley. The transparent river washed the banks covered with beautiful vegetation; a magnificent palace stood by the river itself.

Psyche dared to cross the threshold of this palace; there is not even a sign of a living being in it. Psyche walks around the palace, and everything is empty everywhere. Only the voices of invisible beings speak to Psyche, and whatever Psyche wishes, everything is at her service.

Indeed, invisible hands serve Psyche at a table covered with food and drinks. Invisible musicians play and sing, delighting the ears of Psyche.

Several days pass in this way; at night her mysterious husband, Cupid, visits Psyche. But Psyche Cupid does not see and only hears his gentle voice. Cupid asks Psyche not to try to find out who he is: as soon as Psyche finds out, their bliss will end.

In the Louvre there is a beautiful painting by Gerard "Cupid Kisses Psyche".

At times, Psyche, recalling the prediction of the oracle of Apollo, with horror thinks that, despite the gentle voice, her husband can be some kind of terrible bogeyman.

3) Cupid and Psyche: a drop of oil

The sisters, mourning the sad fate of Psyche, looked for her everywhere and finally came to the valley where Psyche lives.

Psyche meets her sisters and shows them the palace and all the treasures it contains. The sisters of Psyche look with envy at all this luxury and begin to shower Psyche with questions about her spouse, but Psyche had to admit that she had never seen him.

Psyche shows her riches to her sisters. Jean Honore Fragonard, 1797

The sisters begin to persuade Psyche to light a lamp at night and look at her husband, assuring Psyche that this is probably some kind of terrible dragon.

Psyche decides to follow the advice of the sisters. At night, Psyche creeps up with a lighted lamp in his hand to the box on which the unsuspecting god of love Cupid rests. Psyche at the sight of Cupid is delighted. Psyche's love for Cupid is growing. Psyche leans over to Cupid, kisses him, and a hot drop of oil falls from the lamp onto Cupid's shoulder.

Waking up from pain, Cupid immediately flies away, leaving Psyche to indulge in her grief.
This mythological scene from the tale of Cupid and Psyche is very often reproduced by artists of the modern era. Pico's painting on this topic is very famous.

Psyche in despair runs after Cupid, but in vain. Psyche cannot catch up with Cupid. He is already on Olympus, and the goddess Venus is bandaging Cupid's wounded shoulder.

4) Persephone's box and the wedding of Cupid and Psyche

The vengeful goddess Venus, wanting to punish Psyche, is looking for her all over the earth. Finally he finds and makes Psyche to perform various works. The goddess Venus sends Psyche to the kingdom of the dead to the goddess Persephone to bring her a box of beauty from her.

Psyche sets out on a journey. On the way, Psyche comes across an old goddess who has the gift of speech. The old goddess gives Psyche advice on how to get into Pluto's dwelling. She also warns Psyche not to succumb to curiosity, which has already proved so destructive for her, and not to open the box that Psyche will receive from Persephone.

Psyche is ferried across the river of the dead in Charon's boat. Following the advice of the old goddess, Psyche pacifies Cerberus by giving him a cake with honey, and finally receives a box from Persephone.

Returning to earth, Psyche forgets all the advice and, wanting to take advantage of the beauty for herself, opens Persephone's box.

Instead of beauty, steam rises from it, which lulls the curious Psyche. But Cupid had already managed to fly away from his mother. Cupid finds Psyche, wakes her up with an arrow and sends her to take Persephone's box to the goddess Venus as soon as possible.

Cupid himself goes to Jupiter and begs him to intercede before Venus for his beloved. Jupiter grants Psyche immortality and invites the gods to a wedding feast.

Fresco of the Loggia of Psyche of Villa Farnesina, Rome

The beautiful sculptural group of Antonio Canova, located in the Louvre, depicts the awakening of Psyche from Cupid's kiss.

Raphael, on one of his decorative panels, depicted the wedding feast of Psyche and Cupid.

Many antique cameos with the image of Psyche and Cupid have survived; these cameos were usually given to young spouses as wedding gifts.

From the union of Psyche with the god of love Cupid, the daughter Bliss (Happiness) was born.

5) The myth of Cupid and Psyche - the myth of the human soul

The whole myth about Cupid and Psyche depicts the eternal striving of the human soul for everything sublime and beauty, which gives a person the highest happiness and bliss.

Psyche is a symbol of the human soul, which, according to the Greek philosophers, until its descent to earth, lives in close communion with goodness and beauty.

Punished for her curiosity (= base instinct), Psyche (= human soul) wanders the earth, but the desire for the sublime, goodness and beauty has not died out in her. Psyche is looking for them everywhere, performs all kinds of work, goes through a number of trials that, like fire, purify Psyche (= the human soul). Finally, Psyche (= the human soul) descends into the dwelling of death and, cleansed of evil, gains immortality and lives eternally among the gods, “because,” says Cicero, “what we call life is in reality death; our soul begins to live only when it is freed from the mortal body; only throwing off these burdensome shackles, the soul gains immortality, and we see that the immortal gods always send death to their favorites as the highest reward! "

Art depicts Psyche always in the form of a tender young maiden, with butterfly wings on her shoulders. Very often on antique cameos beside Psyche lies a mirror in which the soul, before its earthly life, sees the reflection of deceptive but attractive pictures of this earthly life.

In both ancient and new art, there are many works of art depicting this poetic and philosophical myth of Psyche.

Introduction

A person can realize his creative principle in different ways, and the fullness of his creative self-expression is achieved through the creation and use of various cultural forms. Each of these forms has its own "specialized" semantic and symbolic system.

The development of culture is accompanied by the emergence and formation of relatively independent value systems. Initially, they are included in the context of culture, but then development leads to a deeper specialization and, finally, to their relative independence. This happened with mythology, religion, art.
In modern culture, we can already talk about their relative independence and about the interaction of culture with these institutions.

So what are myths? In the ordinary sense, these are, first of all, antique, biblical and other ancient "fairy tales" about the creation of the world and man, stories about the deeds of ancient gods and heroes.

The word "myth" itself has an ancient Greek origin and means precisely "legend", "legend". European peoples up to the XVI-XVII centuries. only the famous and still Greek and Roman myths were known, later they became aware of Arab, Indian, Germanic, Slavic, Indian legends and their heroes. Over time, first scientists, and then a wider public, became available to the myths of the peoples of Australia, Oceania, Africa. It turned out that the holy books of Christians, Muslims, Buddhists are also based on various mythological legends that have been processed.

Target of this work: to show the interaction of art and myth, and to trace the history of the development of myth as a form of culture.

In this work, I put tasks:

1) Expand the concept of myth;

2) Show the role of art in the development of culture;

3) Show the history of the development of myth in art;

4) Outline, from our point of view, the most significant relationship between contemporary art and myth.

5) Show the development of mythology and art in the XIX - XX centuries.

………………………………………………………………………….

1) Andreev G.L. History of Europe vol. 1., M., 1988, p. 21

1. What is a myth.

spiritual values through artistic production, through the creation

……………………………………………………………………

2) Ryazanovsky F.A. Demonology in Old Russian Literature, M, 1975, p. 16

3) Vygotsky L.S., Psychology of Art, 2nd ed., M., 1968., p. 75

subjective ideals of a certain time, a certain era. 4

The role of art in the development of culture is controversial. It is constructive and destructive, it can bring up in the spirit of lofty ideals and vice versa. In general, art, thanks to subjectivation, is able to maintain an open value system, an open search and choice of orientation in culture, which ultimately fosters a person's spiritual independence, freedom of spirit. For culture, this is an important potential and a factor in its development. The constant interaction of art and myth proceeds directly, in the form of "transfusion" of myth into literature, and indirectly: through the visual arts, rituals, folk festivals, religious mysteries, and in recent centuries - through the scientific concepts of mythology, aesthetic and philosophical teachings and folkloristics. This interaction is especially active in the intermediate sphere of folklore. According to the type of consciousness, folk poetry gravitates towards the world of mythology, however, as a phenomenon of art, it adjoins literature. The dual nature of folklore makes it in this respect a cultural mediator, and the scientific concepts of folklore, becoming a fact of culture, have a great influence on the processes of interaction between literature and mythology. The relationship between myth and literary fiction can be considered in two

………………………………………………………………………………………

4) Bogatyrev P.G., Questions of the theory of folk art, M., 1971., p. 51

5) Vygotsky L.S., Psychology of Art, 2nd ed., M., 1968., p. 79

aspects: evolutionary and typological.

Mythological texts were distinguished by a high degree of ritualization and told about the fundamental order of the world, the laws of its origin and existence. Events, the participants of which were gods or the first people, ancestors and similar characters, once accomplished, could be repeated in the constant circulation of world life. These stories were consolidated in the memory of the collective with the help of a ritual, in which, probably, a significant part of the narration was realized not with the help of verbal narration, but also through gesture demonstration, ritual play performances and thematic dances, accompanied by ritual singing. In its original form, the myth was not so much told as played out in the form of a complex ritual action. With the evolution of myth and the formation of literature, tragic or divine heroes and their comic or demonic counterparts have appeared. As a relic of this process of crushing a single mythological image, a tendency has been preserved in literature, going from Menander and through M. Cervantes, W. Shakespeare and romantics, N.V. Gogol,

……………………………………………………………………………………..

6) Shakhnovich M.I., Myth and Contemporary Art, St. Petersburg 2001 .-- 93 p.

F.M. Dostoevsky, which came down to the novels of the 20th century, - to provide the hero with a twin companion, and sometimes with a whole bunch of companions.

Ancient Greece myths. Mythology in art Myths in art and history

Topic: Art begins with a myth

Psyche or Psyche (ancient Greek. Ψυχή, "soul", "breath") - in ancient Greek mythology, the personification of the soul, breath; presented herself as a butterfly or a young girl with butterfly wings.

The last

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