Do you long to be immortal? Does the world have any elixir after all? There are considerable legends and myths, both in the West and the East, involve terms about immortality or elixir or something related, which has always been the yearning of mankind. In ancient China, since the first emperor of Qin has began to seek for immortal medicine, the emperors in the subsequent dynasties followed suit to seek for immortality through trying every means, but consequently ended in failure without exception. In the old testament, there are two miraculous trees in the garden of Eden - the tree of wisdom and the tree of life, it is said that one will never die if he eats the fruit of the tree of life. Likewise in Sumerian myth,Celtic myth, Norse mythology …show more content…
It has been extensively used in human beings’ communication. “Euphemism” derives from the Greek words “euphemos” and “pheme”, in which the former means “auspicious”or “sounding good”, and the latter refers to “speak”. On the whole, a euphemism is an expression intended by the speaker to be less offensive, disturbing, or troubling to the listener than the word or phrase it replaces. Ancestors in the ancient time show their fear and reverence towards natural power, which gives rise to euphemism. With the advance of society, On top of the influence of religion, other factors such as customs, hierarchy, cultures, courtesy and etc. have heavily shaped and filtered into the contents of euphemism. Now euphemism is not solely confined to traditional taboo areas, say, sex, reproduction, disease, death and the like. On the contrary, euphemism extends to various sensitive scopes in the modem world, for instance, race, gender, politics and War. Any words that are often used to hide unpleasant, offensive or disturbing ideas are called euphemism. Edward Sapir has ever said that something important must be hidden in the language and language cannot exist without culture. Euphemisms play a fairly vital role in language, so some important cultural information must be hidden in the euphemisms. This is also why the research on euphemism has attracted scholars at home and abroad.As a typical and common culture phenomenon in both Chinese and English communities, death euphemism, with its long-standing history, has been regarded as a crucial component of euphemism, which is both linguistic and cultural ubiquitous in human language and social life since there exists unpleasant or offensive words so that individuals would substitute relatively indirect terms to avoid cultural
In the modern society, millions of people realize that several offensive words with insulting taboo meanings heavily disturb their daily lives and break some special groups of people’s respect to push them to feel like outsiders of the whole society. As a result, more and more people join some underway movements to eliminate the use of these offensive words in people’s everyday speech and writing. However, these offensive words themselves are not the culprit, the bad meanings people attach are the problems and some other functions of the words are useful in the society. Christopher M. Fairman the author of “ Saying It Is Hurtful, Banning It Is Worse” also argues that although
The language has been used in writing before and many books use this type of language so they can build a connection to the real world. It is vital for teens especially in 8th grade and above to learn how important it is to stray away from these potentially hurtful words and how this type of language can set a certain tone to a
Death frequently uses figurative language to intensify the most mundane or tragic situations. For example, Death describes the large pile of books deemed propaganda at the book
Norse, Japanese, and Greek mythologies, too, agree on a lot of ideals. They each contain a clash of gods and the death of certain gods in order to form life. The list of creation myths, and myths in general, that relate to each other could stretch out for miles. With these parallels, humanity can better understand earlier cultures and document the method to how mythologies change over time. Works Cited Browning, W. R. F. Dictionary of the Bible.
There are many reasons why people use euphemism as mentioned by William Lutz in “The world of Doublespeak” states that “euphemism is an inoffensive or positive word or phrase used to avoid the harsh, unpleasant, or distasteful reality” (390). However as mentioned by Lutz in “The world of doublespeak” when a euphemism is used to mislead or deceive, it becomes doublespeak” (391). For example instead of saying we killed three people they would use the phrase we exterminated three intruders to mislead and confuse people especially the uneducated. Also as stated by William Lutz in “The World of Doublespeak” indicates that “when you use a euphemism because of your sensitivity for someone’s feelings or for a recognized social or cultural taboo, it is not doublespeak” (390). For instance, imagine someone told you I heard your grandpa died that would sound harsh, but if someone said I heard your grandpa passed away that sounds more respectable which is not considered doublespeak. Lutz finds the People who are responsible for euphemism doublespeak tend to be people that try to cover up the unpleasant, which are mainly the government, armies and the news. Next as stated by Lutz “it is a language designed to alter our perception of reality”
According to Linda Seger all myths, in all cultures are much the same. In these myths it is just the time, place and setting that changes. This is why Hollywood is so successful at making good movies, because they base it off these myths. The most popular myth is that of the hero, because for most of us this is what we want to be. With this myth we can live that experience through these characters. In the creation of a hero there are ten stages, using the Matrix as an example we will look at these ten stages.
Why do myths from different cultures around the world address such similar or universal themes? Do we see these same themes in today's myths? Think about how myths explain the unknown and the tribulations of mankind.
Since the beginning of recorded history, everlasting life has been pursued by old and young, rich and poor. One need only look to the Gilgamesh Epic, the oldest story in the world, to discover where these roots lay. Gilgemesh, the mighty king and warrior, fearing his own demise, seeks out Utnapishtim, a mortal made immortal by the gods, in the hopes that he'll reveal the secret of eternal life. The immortal tells the king of a flower, which when eaten, bestows eternal life. Note that the answer is tangible and real, something that can be seen and held. Not immortality for the soul, but for the body. In the end Gilgamesh fails at his quest, but he is all the wiser for his journeys. The Greeks, too, sought immortality, but it tended to be of a spiritual nature only, because generally the gods were the only ones considered to be true immortals.
The search for the "fountain of youth" or the "elixir of life" is something that we have read about in many myths and fiction stories throughout the year. They are also things real life explorers looked for dating back centuries, the most famous of which is Ponce de Leon whose search of this elusive fountain took him to Florida in the late 1400 's and early 1500 's. However, He was not the first looking for this fountain that is said to give you the power of endless youth, the desire to stay young is a desire that may date back to the beginning of mankind itself. Although, as civilization has advanced through the centuries most people have given up on magical fountain and elixirs that extends your life while making you young again, and turned to
Coincidentally, when thought about, all mythological stories seem to be written with the same communal ideas in mind. Back in ancient times, all of the authors were oblivious to the fact that they were all writing stories that were hypothetically the same. Authors nowadays are much more familiar with the theory of the Monomyth. Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, describes the theory that all archetypical heroes follow a single supernatural journey throughout their story. The Monomyth consists of three main stages: The Departure, Initiation, and the Return. Joseph Campbell theorized that all mythological stories follow this outline one way or another.
Mythology is an essential part of all cultures. Through myth, ancient cultures attempted to explain the world and make sense of their daily lives. Myth helps us to live in the minds and time period of people who lived many centuries ago with no technology, no running water, and a basic education. Greek myth is possibly the most commonly recognized myth simply because it is likely the most developed and best recorded. Modern Greek myth originated around 1000 B.C. in the writings of the famous Greek poet Homer in the Odyssey and the Illiad. Although early Greek myths are often vague and contain many primitive elements regarding their understanding of death, sacrifice, and fate, later myths show Greek culture developed and changed over time.
Even though dying is a natural part of existence, American culture is unique in the extent to which death is viewed as a taboo topic. Rather than having open discussions, we tend to view death as a feared enemy that can and should be defeated by modern medicine and machines. Our language reflects this battle mentality, we say that people "combat" illnesses, or (in contrast) "fall victim" to them after a "long struggle." Euphemistic language also gives us distance from our discomfort with death, (Grohol, 2013). People who die are "no longer with us", have "passed", gone "to meet their Maker", “bought the farm”, “kicked the bucket", and so on.
Kirk, Geoffrey Stephen. Myth: its meaning and functions in ancient and other culture California; University of California Press. 1970
This animalistic and dehumanising language, emotionally charged with