Meanings of Myths

Conscious Meanings -----» "surface" meanings the community would find in the myth

• Aetiology of a custom, food, animal

Example: discovery of corn; breaking of Seven Macaw's jaw

• Onomastics (origin of a name)

Example: Iycos(wolf)fromLycaon; Babelfrombabble

• Culture Hero who creates or represents important values

Example: Noah, Deusalion and Phyrra, Hunapuh

• Astral (describes the movements of the heavenly bodies)

Example: names of Greek and Roman gods are planetary (Mars, Orton, etc.)

UnconsciousMeanings -----» community is unaware of or disagrees with these

• Archetypal (universal images which appear in myths all over the world)

Example: Xmucane a.s "earth mother; Hunahpuh as trickster figure

• Individual/Psychological (working out of fantasies and unconscious desires)

Example: snakes as phallic symbols, hero as the ego

• Astral (when original planetary references or names are obscured)

Example: Seven Macaw as the big dipper constellation, adventures of Hunahpuh as the rising and setting of the planet Venus