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Author
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Comment
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arne97
Registered User
(1/2/05 6:06 pm)
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Sex
I have long enjoyed reading the available ancient texts, including those of Sumer and Old Kingdom Egypt.
In the myths/stories from these cultures there is an open sexuality which appears completely lost the closer we get to today.
For example, Inanna exhalts over her vulva and Osiris lost his penis. Obvious, straight-forward sexuality which strongly suggests that other cultures of the time probably were equally candid.
I see a connection between the development of the patriarchal Zeus-based religions ( Judaism, Christianity, Islam ) and the development of sexual represion.
Of course, Frazier and Graves have effectively plumbed these waters .
I have the suspicion that the bulk of collected folk tales have been bowdlerized in order to pass muster with publishers and public. We know that the Grimms did not present their collections with original language.
In many books of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the authors would cite the original "improper" text, using Latin or Greek to hide it from the masses.
I have occasionally seen folk-tales which have kept their original "crude" subject matter. I refer to certain collections of Slavic tales as well as some from indigenous peoples of the Canadian Pacific coast.
Has anyone addressed these issues?
I'd appreciate comments.
Arne
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redtriskell
Registered User
(1/4/05 11:29 pm)
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Re: Sex
I would love to assist you, Arne, but I can't quite figure out what you're asking. Are you wondering if particular ground has been covered in academia previously? Are you looking for sources to research? Is this for a thesis? ;)
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Mnemosynehime
Registered User
(1/9/05 2:51 pm)
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Re: Sex
There is work out there. Remember early cultures held fertility as of the utmost importance to survival. This is why so many deities and stories deal with the issue in one manner or another. And so many coming of age and marry rites revolved around fertility as well.
As for fairy tales, I've seen good writings on Little Red Riding Hood on this subject, and work on Grimm and Basile for starts.
The amount of bawdiness or sexual innuendo in the literary work or the oral tale depends on the audience. If you were Basile, Salon writers, or an oral storyteller you were more likely to include it because your tales were targeted at either adults or at the masses (and don't forget the masses love bawdy humor, whether it was back with Shakespeare, the Canterbury Tales, the exploits of Zeus, or our present day crude teen comedies at the box-office). If you were writing for children or to Victorian sensibilities (though there's quite a bit of juicy Victorian lit.) you might tone your stories down or take out much of the innuendo. Today on the shelves you can find children's versions and adult versions of fairy tales for this reason. For instance, if I wrote a story on Sleeping Beauty, depending on who the story was to be marketed to, this would influence how subtle or how strongly I might approach sexual symbolism in drops of blood or in sleep. In tales of Snow Maidens, I have an American author's children's tale and an adult aimed Japanese tale to compare that use much of the same symbolism in their stories. While I will be able to talk about awakening (even sexual) as presented in both, the latter obviously includes a bit more on the subject as it's longer and aimed at a maturer audience.
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Mary
Unregistered User
(1/11/05 9:35 am)
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myth and sex
Serendipitously (is that a proper word???), I just read an article on sex in myth and folklore on the Endicott site. Here's the link, hope it provides some of the info you're looking for.
www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/forsirn.html
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