Ancient Culture # 7: Myth in Literature and the Test of Translation
-For the Uncensored!
To most of the first world, myth is nothing more than its namesake. A myth is believed to be false, or morally unjustifiable. It’s left for Shamans who are high all the time, but myths are not just meant to be experienced through drugs or visions quests. If the basic facets of myth are just only to tell stories, is there only one moral lesson to gain? When Odysseus is lost on the island of Sylla, and the sirens are singing in his ear, is that meant to tell us about how we shouldn’t listen to attractive women who want to drug us and blind us from our journey? It’s no different than a rock star who is led astray by a bad manager who lets him take drugs or keep him away from his family or band mates. It’s impossible to disguise the facets of myth within modern day if one doesn’t look critically at how myth can be interpreted in many different ways.
According to Eric Edits, there are over “200 translations of the Iliad” and while the exact date of the article is unclear, there is rife for interpretation when it comes to myth, because myth tell us stories not only about the psychological (Oedipus) but about heroic and unheroic men in warfare, or the Iliad (http://www.editoreric.com/greatlit/books/Iliad-translations.html). As Snake in Metal Gear Solid 4 said, “War. Has Changed.” It’s how we often see war translated that helps us retell the story we look for over and over to tell us who we really are as people.
If the Iliad and Odyssey author Homer, whose method was oral, because he was blind, probably would have embellished a great deal, because once he told the original story, later translations would make each interpretation through text apart of the translators own time in which they were living in.
Myths, like Kullervo, are meant to tell us how we should approach destiny and how we are swept up by tragedy only to not think about the consequences of who we become. The recent Tolkien translation, in which he completed as a young man, is a breathtaking journey and should be read by all.
But what comes as no shock or surprise is the devaluing of myth as the modern era approaches a new focus of interpretation. We would call this “reinterpretation” as many modern ideas do not fit well in the quest narrative.
Instead of the Hero with a thousand faces, by Joseph Campbell, it would be the Shapeshifter with a Thousand faces. What you have is a character who doesn’t really learn anything and he becomes less than who he should be. We all understand the narrative of how to become a villain, which is still a vision, and a journey.
While much of the fascination behind myth comes from interpretation and how people read things according to the translators day, it becomes a swill exchange of men who fight and think without profit or disdain. The unlikely threat of turning all you think into the very friend you need.
The fact is the Illiad, Odyssey, The Saga of the Icelanders, and even Gilgamesh are based around the premise that the original ideas work and so the facets surrounding it become a matter of how one interprets the language of the original text, and how to translate it so that each audience of the day gets there side of the story.
But Myths, as a rule, are always based around how to correctly give the text vision, but does the same text present a moral crisis of the story, or the way the myth is allowed to be directed to each translators time. How much can a myth be changed in ancient culture to fit modernity?
Sometimes myths work because they have stood the test of time. They sometimes can be offensive, weird, and outright shocking. But they are always moral and exciting, in intent. Myths are not meant to conform to social mores of the day, and why should it? Trying to reinterpret myths to represent modern times and it doesn’t work, should be left alone.
Myths and translators interpretations prove that not every story should fit the day, but rewriting it for the day doesn’t mean the story should change.
-Louis Bruno is the author of more than 15 books, including, The Michael Project, The Michael Project: Book 2: The Lost Children of Eve, Thy Kingdom Come, The Disintegrating Bloodline, Apocalypse Soldier, Hierarchy of Dwindling Sheep. His books can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Lulu. He can be found on Gab, https://gab.com/thereallouistbruno, Minds https://www.minds.com/lbruno8063/, and Parler https://parler.com/profile/therealLouistbruno/posts. Instagram @lbrruno8063 and @louisbrunoofficialbook. He has written for the Intellectual Conservative and Ephemere. Also, he writes on https://louisbruno.substack.com, where you can support him directly, and where he will post one article a day (the bulk of his work will appear on substack officially). Also he can be found on Our Freedom Book https://www.ourfreedombook.com/thereallouistbruno17 His latest, Come Home, Young One, a dark fantasy novel is out now at Lulu.com. Link is here: https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/louis-bruno/come-home-young-one/hardcover/product-pw8q7z.html?page=1&pageSize=4. His next series, City of Sand, will be available at the end of May 2021.