Origin of the Ashkenazi

[iceaura]

You don't find it interesting?

Not for the content of the stories as somehow reflecting history. As far as I have ever encountered, little in the Bible (and less in the Old Testament) has any direct correspondence with historical event or circumstance.

The Quran, obviously drawing from the same pool of legend and story, seems to share the same difficulty.

 

[S.A.M.]

Not for the content of the stories as somehow reflecting history. As far as I have ever encountered, little in the Bible (and less in the Old Testament) has any direct correspondence with historical event or circumstance.

The Quran, obviously drawing from the same pool of legend and story, seems to share the same difficulty.

I'm not so certain about that. Another bit of overlapping mythology I am looking at is the possible connection between Abraham and Sara with Brahma and Saraswati.

 

[iceaura]

Another bit of overlapping mythology I am looking at is the possible connection between Abraham and Sara with Brahma and Saraswati.

Overlapping myths are of course interesting. Some kind of myth of the Great Bear - a story about that constellation, featuring a bear which the star pattern represents - has been postulated as the oldest and most widely spread human myth.

But trying to trace anything about actual bears, their locations or travels, to that myth, seems an unlikely venture to me.

 

[S.A.M.]

I think tracing the Great Bear is different from tracing myths about people and events [e.g. there is an interesting myth on the churning of the ocean, another of a bridge between India and Ceylon, a third about a primitive tribe of "monkey" men]. A recent linguistic analysis of old mantras in an insular tribe in South India revealed that these were bird chants similar to some tribes in Africa.

So yes, I see a lot of value in myths and stories.