Introduction
--- I A Phenomenological Analysis of Myth 17
The General framework 17
Origins. Lived world. Culture. Sacred and profane.
Mystery. Existential transcendence.
Myth and Sense 29
Myth and Conceptual Reason 30
General Themes 39
Myth and the establishment of world. The
existential circle. Consciousness and the self.
Myth, art, and appearance. Myth and reflection.
--- II Greek Myth and Religion 47
General Characteristics 47
Religion of the earth. Mortality. Gods and humans.
Festivity. The Olympian-Titan distinction.
The Nonrational and Nonconscious in Greek Religion 56
Sacred madness. The shaman.
Hesiod's Theogony 63
--- III Epic Poetry 69
The World in Epic Poetry 69
The Self in Epic Poetry 72
The heroic ideal. The noncentralized self. The
divine-human relation.
The Beginnings of a Break with the Epic \X'orld 88
--- IV Lyric Poetry in the Archaic Age 97
The Archaic World View 98
The Emergence of Self-Consciousness in Lyric Poetry 1 0 3
Pindar: Heroism's Refrain 108
--- V Tragic Poetry 113
Tragedy and Greek Religion 113
Nietzsche on tragedy. The link with epic poetry.
Dionysus.
Tragedy and the Dionysian Tradition 130
The Self in Tragic Poetry 132
The Tragic Poets 134
Aeschylus. Sophocles. Eurip ides.
Tragedy and Myth 149
--- VI The Advent of Philosophy 157
The Beginnings: Hesiod and Thales 160
The First Philosophers 164
Xenophanes. Anaximander. Heraclitus. Parmenides.
Time and Process 191
Early Philosophy and Myth 193
Consciousness , Unity, and Philosophy 199
Cultural Resistance to Philosophy 202
--- VII Plato 207
Revolutionary Elements in Platonism 208
The reflective individual. A new view of the soul.
New intellectual criteria. Philosophy. Morality.
Traditional Elements in Platonism 223
A correlation between knowing and doing. The
social self. The rejection of Sophistic relativism
and humanism. Aristocracy in platonism.
Intuition in platonism.
Plato and ?tyth
The Timaeus. Plaw's criticism of traditional myth.
Mythical and phenomenological aspects of Plato's
philosophy.
--- VIII Aristotle
The Origins of Natural Philosophy
Aristotle's Philosophy
General principles. Individuation and
desacralization. Aristotle's conception of time.
Aristotle's Revolution
Traditional Elements in Aristotle's Thought
The soul. The social self. Virtue. Teleology.
Intuition.
--- IX The Relationship Between Philosophy and Myth 293
Summary Conclusions and Reflections 29 3
Platonic philosophy. Philosophy and existential
meaning. Consciousness.
Myth and Nonobjective Aspects of Thought 304
Myth, fact, and mystery. Subjectivity, objectivity,
and pluralism. Myth, science, and explanation.
Myth, Truth, and Certainty 317
NOTES 329
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 365
INDEX 371