(August 22, 2012 at 2:23 am)FallentoReason Wrote: That's quite interesting. I still think context is rather important though, hence why I would like to know what era these stories were reflecting.
That's just what you can't take from folk/fairy tales. It's like urban myths where the story happens to a loose relative, or somebody that lives down our road. Story tellers tend to place themselves close to the story they are telling, they might even believe in the story being told to them, and have just bigged up their own part by adding in they are related to the character involved which means the story when investigated never has any context. Then there are questions like the story of Adam and Eve, is the bible story the same as the Sumerian tale, although they seem to come from the same root. Or if the names are changed is it a different story, are Zeus, and Jove the same, and if you say they are is Tyr just another name for the same god, and is Indra a name for that same god? What you can't have without a clear written version is a solid fact to work with, but you may be able to trace some connections or similarities, which can be from a common root, but they can also be from a common need, which produces similar stories.
Think of the bird symbol is it a good way of representing something flying away from the body? It could well be that it is such a good symbol it has been in use from its first creation as a symbol and passed in a continuous thread from that single invention, but it might also be that the bird lends itself to that sort of symbolism, and has been used separably by many cultures without a connection. In this area there are only probabilities for and against.
