You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This paper discusses the ancestry of Zeus, as recorded by Hesiod. The various dimensions of the myth are analyzed, and several of its modern implications are pointed out.
Working a century ago with the data of classical mythology, Bulfinch asked an already ancient question: “Whence came these stories? Have they a foundation in truth, or are they simply dreams of the imagination?” (1) In a sense, myths are the products both of truth and imagination. Their origins go back to the most remote antiquity, and their meanings can vary with the orientations and purposes of the interpreter. That myths have historic and symbolic meaning can no longer be doubted; yet they are not interchangeable with history or dreams.
They are “historic” to the degree that they reveal aspects of the cultural past, and because they contain survivals of infancy (of the individual and the species). Since the historic value of specific myths varies and must be evaluated in the light of archaeological and other reconstructions, mythology records an evolutionary rather than a truly historic process, with some myths being “more historic” than others.
The symbolic meaning of mythology has best been elucidated by Abraham. (2) Using the psychoanalytic method of dream interpretation, Abraham has elicited the inner meaning of myths such as that of Prometheus, and of Bible stories like those of Moses and Samson. Abraham indicates that dreams