Pagan Foreshadowings
Myth Made Fact: Reading Greek and Roman Mythology Through Christian Eyes
by Louis Markos
Classical Academic Press, 2020
(420 pages, $27.99, hardcover)
Louis Markos has written a book unlike any other I have reviewed or read, and, apart from any consideration of its quality, I must say that I was immediately struck by the ingenuity of the idea. Inspired by C. S. Lewis's essay, "Myth Became Fact," Markos has undertaken to work out in practice the notion that Christianity is not discredited because it is mythical, like (for instance) classical paganism. The reason is that Christian "myths," unlike those of paganism, are true. "The heart of Christianity," Lewis writes,
is a myth which is also a fact. The old myth of the Dying God, without ceasing to be a myth [emphasis in original], comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history. It happens [emphasis in original]—at a particular date, in a particular place, followed by definable historical consequences. We pass from a Baldur or an Osiris, dying nobody knows when or where, to a historical Person crucified (it is all in order) under Pontius Pilate [emphasis in original]. By becoming fact it does not cease to be myth: that is the miracle.
And so, Lewis concludes, "We must not be ashamed of the mythical radiance resting on our theology. We must not be nervous about 'parallels' and 'Pagan Christs': they ought [emphasis in original] to be there—it would be a stumbling block if they weren't."
That a Christian literary scholar, especially one with a predilection for Lewis and the other Inklings, would take up this idea is hardly surprising; Markos, however, has used the concept of the parallels between Christian "myth" and pagan myth to create a textbook for students. He has thereby fulfilled one of the most pressing current needs of Christian parents and educators and done so with aplomb. Depending on the nature of the school and the caliber of the students, Myth Made Fact could be useful, I should think, for students as young as eighth or ninth grade and as advanced as first- or second-year college. In the hands of a skilled and dedicated teacher, this book could be used to introduce students to the literature and mythology of the classical world within a specifically Christian context.
In the course of the past two generations, American culture has not merely been "secularized"—the culture has always been secular in its everyday practices—it has, rather, been thoroughly and brutally de-Christianized. Louis Markos offers a pedagogical aid to compensate for the virtual banishment of Christian attitudes, stories, and assumptions from the world in which almost all young persons now grow up. For even the most fervently Christian home, even the most rigorously Christian school, is fighting a rearguard action against the encroachments of a relentlessly hostile and belligerently atheist culture. The children all have cell phones and tablets or at least access to them, and the World Wide Web is the habitat of especially venomous spiders.
Method & Organization
Markos employs a disarmingly simple method: in plain prose versions, he recounts 50 of the more famous and influential of the Greco-Roman myths. Although Markos is telling the story in his own words (much as Edith Hamilton and Robert Graves do in their mythological compendia), he identifies the particular ancient literary source that he uses for each tale. For example, "Phaeton and the Chariot of the Sun" is taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses; "Demeter and Persephone" from the Homeric "Hymn to Demeter"; and "The Twelve Labors" of Hercules from The Library of Apollodorus.
After each story, the author offers "Reflections" on the similarities between the ancient myth and stories and characters from Sacred Scripture, stressing especially how the meaning of the myth may be seen to anticipate the fulfillment of its significance in the Christian version. Following the "Reflections" is a set of "Applications," comprising questions, assignments, and challenges for students. The author draws particular attention to the misconceptions about classical mythology and the Bible that many students will have picked up from distorted references in popular culture.
The myths that Markos treats are organized into six groups according to thematic classifications. "Journeys and Origins" includes such stories as "Odysseus and Circe" and "Pandora's Box." Part II, "Platonic Myths," deals with seven myths found in Plato's dialogues: "The Allegory of the Cave," for instance, and "The Ladder of Love." The remaining sections deal with "The Four Great Heroes" (Perseus, Jason, Theseus, and Hercules), "The Tragic House of Thebes," "The Tragic House of Atreus," and "Love Lost and Found."
The book also includes three appendices on Greek mythology in literature, art, and film; on various pedagogical approaches to The Myth Made Fact; and an appendix devoted specifically to classroom use of the book. Markos adds, further, extensive suggestions for further reading and a bibliography, a glossary of terms and concepts, an index of scriptural references, and an index of mythological characters. It is, finally, an attractive book, illustrated by reproductions of various paintings on mythological themes.
An Objection & Its Answer
I can easily imagine an objection already occurring in the minds of many readers, because I have considered it myself with no little consternation: Would it not be better to have the students read the actual works of classical literature rather than someone's simplified paraphrase of the story? Or, better still, to have them learn Latin and Greek and read the works in the original languages?
The short answer—and I suspect that Louis Markos would agree—is yes, of course! But regrettably, this procedure is feasible only for a very small number of students in a very few academic settings. The schools, academies, and colleges that have been founded over the past few decades—and continue to be founded—will be largely dealing with students whose cultural and intellectual backgrounds, even with motivated Christian parents, are not altogether different from those of their demographic cohort in the populace as a whole.
They will be arriving at these institutions at different ages and different stages in their education. Some may have had a year or two of introductory foreign language, usually Spanish. Only exceptional students will have had even the rudiments of Latin, much less Greek. Only exceptional students will know anything at all about either classical literature or the Bible. The campaign to impose diversity, not only in the public schools but also in the culture as a whole, has in a few decades succeeded in eradicating from the awareness of anyone younger than middle age virtually the entire religious and literary patrimony of Western civilization.
The kind of course that one could teach with Myth Made Fact offers a means of providing students of widely disparate backgrounds and preparation with a foundation of common knowledge about Christianity and the cultural matrix in which it developed. Students whose educational vector is largely vocational will at least be furnished some sense of the spiritual unity and integrity of the Christian civilization of the West. Students with more acute intellectual interests may well be inspired to study classical and biblical languages and literature in more depth, and those few who already have made a substantial beginning in these areas will see their efforts rewarded by direct experience of how it all fits together.
A Rebuilding Tool
It seems that Christians today are living through a mirror image of the experience of Christians of ancient times: then, the slowly decaying Roman Empire was in the process of being Christianized over the course of three or four centuries; now, the gradually crumbling Euro-American empire seems to have reached a crisis in its process of de-Christianization, begun three to four centuries ago.
Most of us will not be able to contribute much to resisting or reversing this trend other than to work assiduously to maintain the faith among our own family and friends. Louis Markos offers us a means of shoring up the faith of our children by giving them the learning and the intellectual tools to defend their beliefs rationally and learnedly. While not a panacea—I imagine that the author would agree—Myth Made Fact can be a useful tool in the effort to rebuild Christian knowledge and understanding. This book is an impressive achievement: I hope that it will be widely read and, more important, widely assigned to the students who will most benefit from the perspective and insights it provides.
R. V. Young is Professor of English Emeritus at North Carolina State University, a former editor of Modern Age: A Quarterly Review, and the author of Shakespeare and the Idea of Western Civilization (Catholic University of America Press, 2022). He and his wife are parishioners at St. Ignatius of Antioch Church in Tarpon Springs, Florida. They have five grown children, fifteen grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. He is a senior editor of Touchstone.
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