Chapter 20
The Structural Study of
Myth—
Claude Levi-Strauss
Two Kinds of Readings in This
Chapter
• Claude Levi-Strauss
• Edmund Leach on Levi-Strauss
Vocabulary
• Chthonian—a creature that comes from or
is related to the earth
• Autochthonous—springing from the earth
• Synchronic—happening at the same
moment of time
• Diachronic—including a range of different
times
How to Study a Myth
• Levi-Strauss believed that
– in order to understand a myth, you need to
assemble all the known versions of it
– a myth is a kind of language that expresses
the values found in a culture
How to Read the Oedipus Table
• Read left to right, row by row, the chart
explains the story of Oedipus in
chronological order.
• Read from the top of each column to the
bottom, from the first column to the last,
the chart analyzes the story of Oedipus
into the four most important relationships
Levi-Strauss found in it, as listed at the
tops of the columns.
Overvaluing Kinship Undervaluing Kinship Men Kill Monsters Men Are Monsters
Cadmus seeks his
sister Europa, ravished
by Zeus.
Cadmus kills the
dragon.
The Sparta kill one
another.
Labdacus (Laius’
father) = lame
Oedipus kills his father. Laius (Oedipus’ father)
= left-sided
Oedipus kills the
Sphinx.
Oedipus = swollen-foot
Oedipus marries his
mother, Jocasta.
Eteocles kills his
brother, Polyneices.
Antigone buries her
brother, Polyneices,
despite prohibition.
The Structural Method
Extreme Example
• Overrating blood • Incest
relationships
• Underrating blood • Killing your father
relationships
• Monsters being slain • Death of the Sphinx
• Difficulty in walking • Oedipus’ damaged
straight and standing feet
upright
Tricksters
• Myth progresses from “the awareness of
oppositions toward their resolution” (p. 288)
• Tricksters act as mediators between oppositions.
• Opposites with no mediator tend to be replaced
by opposites with a mediator: that’s how we get
from the life-death opposition to the trickster
figures Raven and Coyote.
Raven and Coyote
• The first pair is life-death and has no
intermediary (p. 288).
• This pair is replaced by the related pair
agriculture-warfare whose intermediary is
hunting.
• This pair is replaced by the related pair
herbivorous animals-beasts of prey whose
intermediary is carrion-eating animals like
ravens and coyotes.
Ash Boy and Cinderella
• These figures are mediators between opposites
in America (Ash Boy) and Europe (Cinderella).
• They are what Victor Turner (Ch. 26) calls
“liminal figures” which are on the threshold
between two different worlds. They are outside
the power structure looking in, and inside the
values of the society, looking out at those who
do not respect them.
Edmund Leach’s Analysis of
Levi-Strauss
• Leach presents us with a discussion that shows how
Levi-Strauss’ ideas work for other Greek stories related
to that of Oedipus.
• The pattern in these stories is the same as that found in
the story of Oedipus by Levi-Strauss.
• The stories we include of Leach’s examples are:
– Cadmus—who founded Thebes, where Oedipus is king
– Laius—Oedipus’ father
– Oedipus himself
– Oedipus’ children
The Main Oppositions
Cadmus, Europa, and the
Dragon’s Teeth
• Bull (Zeus) carries away Europa, who has a
human child, Minos. – Mediation between divine
and human
• Europa has a human brother, Cadmus, who
follows her. – Overvaluing kinship
• Cadmus is required to sacrifice a cow, sent from
the gods, and in the process, he kills a monster
from whose remains come live humans. – Men
kill monsters
• nature : culture :: gods : men
Laius, Chrysippus, and Jocasta
• During the reign of Lycus, Amphion, and Zethus (an
earlier, omitted story), Laius is banished and befriended
by Pelops. He falls in love with Pelops’ son, Chrysippus,
whom he teaches to drive a chariot. – Incest : Exogamy
• After returning to the throne of Thebes, Laius marries
Jocasta but avoids sleeping with her because of the
prophecy that her son will kill him. The conception that
results in the birth of Oedipus follows a bout of lust when
Laius has got drunk at a religious feast.
Oedipus
• Oedipus is exposed on a mountaintop. –
Undervaluing kinship
• Oedipus kills Laius “at the crossroads.” –
Undervaluing kinship
• Oedipus kills the Sphinx. – Men kill
monsters
• Oedipus marries Jocasta. – Overvaluing
kinship
Argives – Antigone, Eteocles,
and Polyneices
• Oedipus has two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices, who
are supposed to hold the throne alternately. Eteocles
takes the throne first and refuses to give it up. –
Undervaluing kinship
• Polyneices is banished and leads an army of heroes
from Argos against Thebes. The expedition fails.
Eteocles and Polyneices kill each other. – Undervaluing
kinship
• Antigone, in defiance of Creon, performs funeral rites
over Polyneices. – Overvaluing kinship
• In punishment, she is walled up alive in a tomb, where
she commits suicide. Later, the sons of the dead heroes
lead another expedition against Thebes and are
triumphant. – Overvaluing kinship
