Structuralist analysis of integration and disintegration in Rome's foundation myths

Rome's Foundation Myths -- Structuralist Analysis -- Integration and Disintegration

Myths are some of human civilizations illuminating and enduring artifacts. Every culture has myths and each culture believes its myths are unique. Furthermore, each culture relies on certain myths to explain their uniqueness as a people. Indeed, the content of these myths are often fantastic and unique, worthy symbols of the culture's special place in the world. However, these myths, as unique as they seem on the surface, often share features with myths from other cultures, even those from vastly distant regions.

Scholars have invented several theories to explain the numerous patterns persisting throughout the world's array of myths. Some view understand it through the study of history, that the patterns arise because the myths are echoes of older myths created at a time when the human race was one tribe, before its fragmentation into separate tribes. Others understand it through the study of psychology, that the common conditions faced by people in different cultures lead them to tell the same stories, inventing the same types of myths.

One particularly influential framework for understanding this problem comes from the study of Anthropology. Anthropologist Levi-Strauss Levi-Strauss concluded that certain universal laws govern mythical thought. These universal laws provide every story with a common structure. This theory of myth interpretation is known as "Structuralism."

Structuralism

Structuralism posits that the meaning of a traditional story not conveyed by the content, he maintained, but by the structural relations behind the content. The meaning of the myth is its pure form and uses a mystical thought, always working from the awareness of oppositions toward the progressive mediation.

Strauss believed that myths were structured according to binary pairs, themes which are irreconcilably opposed. Myths consist of elements that oppose or contradict each other and need to be resolved before the story can end. These include life and death, nature and culture, and chaos and order. These elements are in opposition are resolved by other elements in the story which "mediate," or resolve, those oppositions.

Aeneas and Iulus

The myth of Aeneas and Iulus, told in the Aeneid and, to a lesser extent, the Iliad, is the story of a luckless wanderer and an established king. Aeneid and Iulus share the characteristic of familial piety, with Aeneas carrying his father on his back out of a burning Troy and Iulus helping his father in his war against the Latins.

The myth of Aeneas and Iulus presents the binary pair of disintegration and integration. Aeneas undergoes a process of disintegration, the disintegration of his homeland, his family, and his very identity. He goes from being a noble Trojan, to a stateless wanderer, to an honored guest, to a fledgling warlord. When Aeneas finally does conquer his foes, he is no longer a young man. Although he founds the city of Lavinium, it is his son that actually establishes the city as a Latin city, not as a Trojan city.

Iulus represents the opposite theme of integration. Iulus symbolizes Aeneas' destiny as the founder of the great Roman race, the integration of their future identity. Even Iulus' achievements during the war indicate the theme of integration. Whereas Aeneas is famed for attacking the Latin army to secure his future, Iulus is famed for defending the Trojan fort from Turnus's attack while Aeneas was away. Defense can be viewed as the act of preventing disintegration.

Defense is also the act of one who has something to protect, of one who has a home. Of the other few appearances Iulus makes in the Aeneid, he is typically represented in a domestic environment. His performance at the Games in Book Five, leading a procession of boys on horseback, are domestic and idyllic in nature. The games, thrown by the Trojans upon their successful arrival on the Italian coast, are celebratory in nature, which is a marked departure from the rest of the Aeneid. The games, of which Iulus was such a big part, were essentially a festival, marked by the gathering of the community for the sake of gathering.

The story also explores the themes of continuity and attenuation. Aeneas' life is marked by very sudden, traumatic attenuations. He experienced the attenuation of his identity with the tragic fall of Troy, the attenuation of his romance with his abrupt departure from Dido, and the attenuation. Iulus, on the other hand, represents continuity. The continuity of the Trojan race, the continuity of his father's bloodline, and the continuity of the mission to establish the Roman race in Italy.

Romulus and Remus

The story of the brothers Romulus and Remus is the last chapter in the founding of Rome saga. It also revisits the Aenean theme of familial piety. In addition to their rescue of their grandfather Numitor, Romulus and Remus also demonstrate familial piety to each other. Romulus rescues Remus when he is taken prisoner by Aumulius' shepherds. Later, Romulus' murder of Remus is a transgression of the theme of familial piety. However, Romulus eventually restores familial piety when he appeases the angry ghost of his brother Remus by inaugurating a festival

The story of Romulus and Remus is also structured according to the theme of integration and disintegration. Remus represents disintegration through his dissent from the will of his brother Romulus. First, he disagrees with Romulus, his savior, about the site of their new city. Then, he disputes the superiority of Romulus' augury contrary to convention. Finally, he interferes with Romulus' construction of his city's defining wall and violates its boundary as an insult to his brother.

Home is an important symbol of integration and Remus is less tied to home than Romulus. Amulius' shepherds were able to kidnap Remus because he was out walking with companions while Romulus was at home performing sacrifices to the Gods. Later, Remus appears as a ghost, which is an indication that he is not whole, another instance of disintegration.

Romulus represents the theme of integration. His penchant for integration is revealed in the rape of the Sabine women, which served to integrate the Romans and Sabines. It also served to provide wives for the many wifeless refugees settling in his fledgling city. Before that, his rescue of Remus marked the reintegration of their family unit.

Of the two brothers, Romulus is the more loyal, nurturing, and, ultimately, successful of the two. Also, his fondness for sacrifice was evidence of his piety and obedient nature. In contrast to the obedient Romulus, Remus is rebellious and disputatious. Remus is typically the one to create or point out problems, while Romulus is the one to propose solutions. Problems disintegrate while solutions reintegrate it.

Conclusion

The three chapters of Rome's foundation myth were hugely important, not only from a cultural standpoint but from a political standpoint. With it, Emperor Augustus, through Virgil's pen, provided the Romans a noble legacy to match its hegemonic power. However, even though the myths were constructed with such explicit political aims in mind, the myths could not help but be exhibit the universal themes of integration and disintegration.