The Myth and Ιts Influence

“Nature likes to hide” Heraclitus

   Every child is brought up with myths and adults often recall them. Through myth, children make their first contact with the insurmountable character of nature and life and with the archetypes that define our existence. Whereas adults redefine their values and their view of the world.

The word μύθος* (myth) is derived from μύχια (depths), the depths of time, to initiate us into its secrets, which are none other than the mysteries of life, of the world as it is decorated and placed in its cosmos. Within this context, Hesiod’s “Theogony” is a mythological work that “speaks” to us (ομιλεί*), involving us in a cosmogonic view which goes back to the beginning of time.

Structure of “Mythology-Movement-Language”

    This work follows the mythological trails of “Theogony”, presenting the birth of the world, of gods and demigod heroes played out in the land of Greece. The letters of the Greek alphabet are the main means of reconstructing this myth, and function as pilots in five stories.

In the first story, “Cosmogony” and the first letters that derive from it are presented, Κ, Γ and X, which are deep, palatal sounds. With them unfold the first concepts of Chaos (Χάος), Earth (Gaia, Γαία or Γη in Greek) and Love (Eros, Έρως in Greek), the power which can unite everything. These three concepts constitute the World (Cosmos, Κόσμος).

In the second story, the two “os” of the Greek language, O (όμικρον) and Ω (ωμέγα) which constitute the Earth’s Εgg, the ovum (egg = Ωό in Greek), according to the Orphic myths, are presented. Gaia gives birth to Uranus (the sky, Ουρανός), the Mountains (Όρη) and joins with Uranus. Thus, the Titans (Τιτάνες) are born, the first architects of the world, and the dental consonants (Τ, Δ, Θ) are presented.

In the third story, after Uranus banishes his children to Tartarus (Τάρταρα), and is rendered incapable of having offspring, the letter Delta (Δέλτα) appears, which is the first letter of the word “division” (Διαίρεση) in Greek, initially through the spread of the Titans, and later through the prevailing of Zeus (Ζεύς and also Δίας in Greek) in the battle of the Titans. The third story finishes with the letter Theta (Θήτα) and the word Θεοί (= Gods in Greek).

In the following stories appear the labial consonants appear (Π, Β, Φ) and Alpha (Άλφα) which opens (Open = Ανοίγω in Greek), Prometheus, Atlas, Bacchus. The stories continue until the Greek alphabet is completed.    

Archetypes as Starting Points of Myths

 Each story is marked by an archetype. In Cosmogony, Gaia is presented as the big mother. The first birth as Ωό, the ovum (the egg) of Gaia. The archetype of power as Uranus and then as Cronus. Prometheus, the gift provider, as fire, and the human who must endure the world as Atlas, bearing the Earth on his shoulders (τλάει, tlai = endures in Greek).

In the work “Mythology-Movement-Language”, the alliterations of the words that have an etymological relationship, the original music, the scenic tools, the movement and the visual representations all contribute to the creation of a mystic landscape where language prevails.

The aim of the work is for the children who are participants or viewers, and the adult viewers to be initiated into the drama, to become aware of relationsphips inherent in language and to receive the message of the unity of the myriad of things that link us and enclose us in what we call our world.

ΤΟ ΔΕΝΤΡΟ ΜΕ ΤΙΣ ΡΙΖΕΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗΣ ΓΛΩΣΣΑΣ

Οι πρώτες βασικές ρίζες -δα, -μα, -να, οι επιμέρους ρίζες που ανεβαίνουν και “τρέφουν” το δέντρο, -δηλ, -δαλ, -μην, -μαν, -νε, -νεμ κλπ. και οι βλαστοί-λέξεις Δίκη, Δίας, Μέτρο, Μήτις, Ναός, Νάμα κλπ. που “ανθίζουν” επ’άπειρον.

ΕΤΥΜΟΛΟΓΙΚΗ ΠΡΟΣΕΓΓΙΣΗ ΤΗΣ ΡΙΖΑΣ -ΜΥ

٭ η ονοματοποιημένη ρίζα -μῡ, -μύ δηλώνει την θέση των κλειστών χειλιών, ώστε ο ήχος να είναι ένρινος, όπως όταν κάποιος μουρμουρίζει, μουγγρίζει, κλαίει ή ρουφάει, εκμυζάει.

μύω (= κλείνω) >μυέω-ῶ, μύηση, μύστης, μυστήριο, μυστικός,ή,ό, μύωψ

≈ μυχός (ὁ) (= το εσώτατο σημείο), μύχιος-α-ο, (πιθανόν) μῡθος, πρβλ.σανσκρ. múkham = στόμα  

> μύζω(Α) (= γογγύζω, ομιλώ υπόκωφα)

   μύζω(Β), (ἐκ,ἀπό)μυζάω-ῶ (=πίνω με συμπιεσμένα τα χείλη, ρουφώ)

   μυκάομαι-ῶμαι, ὁ μυκηθμός (= μούγγρισμα των βοοειδών, η άγρια και υπόκωφη βοή του ανέμου ή

  των κυμμάτων της θάλασσας)

ΕΤΥΜΟΛΟΓΙΚΗ ΑΝΑΛΥΣΗ ΤΟΥ ΡΗΜΑΤΟΣ ΟΜΙΛΕΩ-Ω

 ٭٭ὁμιλέω-ῶ (=συναθροίζομαι, συναναστρέφομαι, συνομιλώ, συχνάζω) < ὃμιλος (= σύνολο προσώπων, ομάδα)< ὁμοῡ (=μαζί) + ἴλη (= ομάδα ανθρώπων, πλήθος), πρβλ. λατιν. miles (= στρατιώτης, στρατός)