Biblical and Classical Myths: The Mythological Framework of Western Culture

by Northrop Frye

In the 1970s and 80s, Northrop Frye and Jay Macpherson co-taught a very influential course at the University of Toronto's Victoria College on the history of Western mythology - Frye focusing on the biblical myths; Macpherson on the classical. Biblical and Classical Myths recreates the thought behind that course, with Frye's lectures - unpublished until very recently - supplemented by Macpherson's popular 1962 textbook on classical mythology, Four The Classical Myths . Frye's lectures on the Bible make up the first half of the book. He expounds on an array of topics, including translations of the bible, sexual imagery, pastoral and agricultural imagery, and law and revolution in the bible. Four Ages makes up the second half. Macpherson narrates the major classical myths from stories of creation to the myths' survival in later European traditions. By complementing the biblical tradition with the classical, this volume imparts a comprehensive understanding of western mythology. With a preface by Alvin Lee, general editor of the Collected Works of Northrop Frye, Biblical and Classical Myths is an essential volume and represents a unique achievement in scholarship.

Genres: Nonfiction, Mythology, Philosophy, Art, Religion, Criticism, Literary Criticism

500 pages, Paperback

First published October 19, 2004

About the author

Born in Quebec but raised in New Brunswick, Frye studied at the University of Toronto and Victoria University. He was ordained to the ministry of the United Church of Canada and studied at Oxford before returning to UofT.

His first book, Fearful Symmetry, was published in 1947 to international acclaim. Until then, the prophetic poetry of William Blake had long been poorly understood, considered by some to be delusional ramblings. Frye found in it a system of metaphor derived from Paradise Lost and the Bible. His study of Blake's poetry was a major contribution. Moreover, Frye outlined an innovative manner of studying literature that was to deeply influence the study of literature in general. He was a major influence on, among others, Harold Bloom and Margaret Atwood.

In 1974-1975 Frye was the Norton professor at Harvard University.

Frye married Helen Kemp, an educator, editor and artist, in 1937. She died in Australia while accompanying Frye on a lecture tour. Two years after her death in 1986 he married Elizabeth Brown. He died in 1991 and was interred in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto, Ontario. The Northrop Frye Centre at Victoria College at the University of Toronto was named in his honour.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop...

Reviews

[Dario Andrade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Como o título indica, o livro trata de dois temas diversos. Na primeira parte, o crítico Northrop Frye aborda a Bíblia, enquanto na segunda parte Jay MacPherson trata dos mitos gregos.
Li a primeira parte porque é aquele que me interessa no momento, ou seja, só li a parte referente à Bíblia.
Frye foi um dos grandes críticos literários do século XX. Aqui, originalmente um curso universitário, ele oferece uma leitura literária da Bíblia. Sendo a transcrição de algo exposto em sala de aula existe a vantagem do didatismo.
Os capítulos que mais me interessaram foram os dois primeiros. Possivelmente porque responderam a algumas das dúvidas que tinha em relação às origens, organização, seleção e tradução dos textos que vieram a formar a Bíblia.
Também nesses dois primeiros capítulos, Frye oferece uma ideia da Bíblia como uma narrativa que tem uma unidade. A ideia é complexa, já que a Bíblia, como o próprio nome indica, é uma coleção de livros. Ele, porém, sugere que há uma unidade narrativa, com um começo e um fim, da criação até o apocalipse. Essa unidade se dá também pelo uso de imagens recorrentes. São imagens que são reiteradamente usadas e que simbolizam algo. Além disso, ele sugere que o Antigo Testamento tem uma unidade no que diz respeito à mensagem: tem a estrutura da comédia, ou seja, as coisas começam bem, tudo piora, os hebreus abandonam Deus, são punidos, se arrependem e as coisas voltam a normalidade.
A partir do capítulo três ele parte para a análise de alguns livros da Bíblia, seja do Antigo Testamento, seja do Novo. Essa parte também merece uma leitura atenta.
Uma boa leitura e pretendo no futuro reler os 2 primeiros capítulos.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read just the first half of this book (on Biblical Myths) and was astonished at how insightful one man could be on the overdone Bible. This book is the best "Sunday School" manual ever written for students of the Bible, whether you're religious or not. And if you're Mormon, you have worlds to gain by reading this book along with the Old and New Testaments. Just a thought.

[Moktoklee]

This was tough to read not just in terms of the content. While reading I found that I had to stop at least every two chapters to just to give my mind a rest. Otherwise I would have just been reading everything superficially and that's just gross, not to mention pointless. The content was great, however, so all the brain pain was worthwhile in the end. Frye has a sense of humour that shows itself at strange times but never forces the reader from the main idea of his argument. After reading a few of Frye's books I'm starting to realize what I like about his style. I don't quite know how he does it, but his ideas track well in the mind of the reader. What I mean is that Frye will present an argument at the beginning of a chapter and then delve into all the important details of that subject, but near the end of the chapter, something in the text will reminder the reader of the beginning of the chapter. It is clear that he knows this because always following this jump in understanding in the mind of the reader, Frye always summarizes the content of the chapter and concludes with something greater than what he started with. I like this aspect of of his writing style. I also like how cleanly and simply Frye expresses his ideas. One thing that made the reading a bit difficult was that the book was written as notes for a course he was teaching, so it reads and sounds like it was written to be spoken orally. Up to now I have only read Frye's works written to be spoken orally or were written as notes. I am looking forward to reading something that was written for the page in the near future.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part One of this book, "The Symbolism in the Bible" which was based on transcriptions of lectures that Northrup Frye gave was excellent. I thorougly enjoyed his analysis of Biblical texts and found it very enlightening and illuminating.

The second half of the book, "The Four Ages of Classical Myths", written by Jay Macpherson was good, but there was no analysis. He simply recounts the famous tales of the Olympian gods, from the Greek creation myths, the to fall of Troy, and the "twilight of the gods". Though enjoyable, I would have liked to see some of the analysis that Frye provided and some more insight. If there had been more analysis, I would have given the book five stars.