Les princesses Médée et Himiko : une étude comparative des mythologies grecque et japonaise
Mythology is often considered a key component of the culture for a given society. It is often used to explain natural and social phenomenon particular to the aforementioned society. The hypothesis guiding this research is that, although mythology is considered culturally linked to a society, there is a basis for creating myths that is common to human kind, like some sort of a mythological blueprint common to all cultures. To verify this hypothesis, this study will focus on comparing Greek and Japanese mythology through the princesses Medea and Pimiko. At first, these princesses might seem to have nothing in common, however after a thorough study, it is possible to see that they are similar in more ways than one. They are, however, not completely identical. This is because some cultural traits truly are unique to a given society. By studying these differences, it is possible to determine what is truly similar between two cultures. However, with the study of mythology, it is considered normal that some information is missing. This can be the result of two deciding factors. The first one is that this piece of information was destroyed at some point in time. The second one is that it never existed in any written form and simply disappeared. This second factor will be discussed at length in this paper.
Medea Greek mythology Japanese mythology Comparison