The New Theogony

Mythology for the Real World

By Maria M. Colavito

Subjects: Myth
Paperback : 9780791410684, 163 pages, September 1992
Hardcover : 9780791410677, 163 pages, September 1992

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Table of contents

Introduction

 

Definition and Theories of Myth
Mythology in Four Moves: The Methodology of the New Theogony

 

1. The Mythic Model: On the One and the Zero

 

The Problem with One
How These Two Models Operate
Historical Glimples
The One Made Myth versus Zero Made Theory
Revisioning the Triple Goddess
The Four and the Three
Phase One: Chaos, Golden Age, New Mon, Maia
Phase Two: The Virgin, The Androgyne, Mythos
Phase Three: Full Moon, Mother/Love, Mimesis
Phase Four: Crone, Iron Age, Waning Moon, Logo
Vestiges fo the Lunar Cycle
The Path Back to One

 

2. Chaos to Cosmos

 

Cosmology
Sacred Marriage (Hieros Gamos)
Generations of the Gods and Goddesses
Creation of Man
Ages of Man
Conclusion: The Spindle of Necessity
The Musical Model

 

3. Models of Perfection: The Gods and Goddesses

 

Zeus, Poseidon, Hades: Male Space Markers
Hestia, Hera, Demeter: Female Space Markers
Athena and Hephaestus: Divine Artisans
Ares, Hebe, Eileithyia: Progeny of Zeus and Hera
Dionysos and Heracles: Two Suffering Gods
Aphrodite and Hermes: Of Love and Magic
Apollo and Artemis: Mirror Twins

 

4. The Fourfold Path

 

The Shadow of Existence: Realm of Becoming
The Path of Materialism
The Path of Humanism
Divine Harmonia: The Path Back to One
The Heroic Path
The Mystic Path
Conclusion: The Path Back to Hestia

 

5. Myth Made Flesh: The Philosophical Models

 

Pythagorean Model of Education
Plato's Mythical Divided Lines

 

Conclusion: Recovering Our Mythic Origins

Appendix

 

The Monochord and Ancient Acoustics
From Chaos to Cosmos: The Dismemberment of the One
Membering and Dismembering: Apollo and Artemis and the Technology of Imagining
The One Divided; The Realms of the Gods and the Human Paths
The Gods and their Realms (Overview)
Pythagorean Training and the Monochord
Plato's Mythic Divided Lines

 

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Description

This book is a sustained focus of on those original human acts that gave us the gods, the human psyche, and the stories about them. Dr. Colavito divides myth into four distinct but inseparable "acts": first is the original power to create; second, the stories about the manifestation; third, the imitation and duplication of the manifested images; and four are the theories regarding the first three. Development of these four "acts" provides the foundation for studying and interpreting myth cross-culturally.

Maria M. Colavito teaches Mythology at the University of North Florida and is the President of the Mythic Arts Institute of America. She is the author of The Pythagorean Intertext in Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Reviews

"What I like most about this book are the possibilities it suggests. Maria Colavito's ideas constitute a new hermeneutical approach to the Greek myths that pushes the reader to consider (or reconsider) the relevancy of these myths, their potential function as meaningful paradigms for the reader's life. The ideas outlined by the author are inherently important. At the same time, they will prove to be a valuable contribution to the study of western esotericism, an increasingly important area which is being carved out by scholars like Carlo Ginsburg and Antoine Faivre. The author's bold insistence on a connection between the meaning of myth and the embodied praxis of certain followers of Plato and Pythagoras is far-reaching in its implications. This book has the potential to transform, rather than merely inform, its readers." — Karen Voss, San Jose State University