Alyssa Lobatch, Period 1, 12/05/2023

Alyssa Lobatch
Period 1
02 December 2023
Modern Mythology 2024

Literacy & Learning

    A few days ago, we spent our class watching a video interview where Natalie Haynes, the author of Stone Blind, spoke on her inspirations for writing her novel. One moment that particularly struck me was when she discussed the noisiness of the Gorgons (specifically Euryale). She says that in the original Greek material, Euryale simply makes a really loud sound or a howl, but in most modern interpretations, this sound is translated as something negative, for instance, “a baleful dirge”. She goes on to add that a hero called Diomedes also makes a very loud noise, but his is translated as a powerful war cry. Haynes compares the two and concludes that when a woman is noisy, it’s negative, but the opposite is true for a man.

    This got me thinking about the preservation of language and stories. It’s easy to forget that almost every text we read in our lifetimes is biased in some capacity, even when it claims to be the pure truth. Translations are absolutely not exempt from this. Many of the translations of ancient myths that are accessible to us now may have been produced decades or even centuries ago, often in a time before the rise of feminism. This would explain Haynes’s example, which suggests that traditional gender roles were at play when these texts were translated. Whoever rewrote the Greek words in English applied some meaning to each word.

    Because of this, we can’t take the translations as gospel, but I am grateful to have them, since they help preserve the stories told in Greek myth so long ago. For our creation project in class, my group is studying the Celtic creation myth, and we’ve found that it’s difficult to find artifacts or written primary sources about it that are authentically from the time before the Christianization of the Celtic people. Much of the Celtic tradition and religion was wiped away through loss of sources, oral tradition, and newer cultures pushing out the old. All ancient civilizations have experienced this unfortunate phenomenon, albeit some more than others.

    There has been a lot of discussion in recent years about how we can preserve minority cultures, discussion about cultural appreciation versus appropriation, gentrification, cultural genocide, and more. Lost myths and ancient traditions are the perfect example of what could happen if we don’t do our absolute best to tell everyone’s story and make sure no one is left behind. Luckily, modern technology allows us to document everything, nearly guaranteeing that today’s stories can last centuries.

    As we move on from our Greek Mythology Unit in the next few weeks, I’ll make sure I keep this in the back of my mind. I’ll express gratitude for having access to records and translations of older folklore, but I will be critical of the way in which it is presented to me, especially if I’m not reading a primary source. I will look at it through my own lens and find my own meaning in what we read.