Diachronic and Synchronic

Myth can be obeserved in two forms, the Diachronic and the Synchronic, and each provides a different, and informative, look at storytelling.

Diachronic mythic examination is a study of myth over time, specifically looking at the issue of Change in Myth. The easiest place to study myth diacrhonically is between Greece and Rome, the great myth giver and myth taker (steal is such a harsh word). When one examines the two mythos a majority of it appears the same, the primary differences being the names (Zeus to Jupiter, Aphrodite to Venus, Heracles to Hercules, etc).

A closer examination, however, reveals important differences. The myth of Romulus and Remus, for example, is critical in the Roman mythic cycle but non existant in the Greek. Likewise, Olympus is absent from the Roman myth.

When one examins myth synchronically, one looks at a single period of time. This is where a majority of study is actuall done, looking at the myth itself rather than it's change over time.

The diachronic study of myth is a place where, if we take a second look, a thousand new things may come to us. Many of the world's myths are drawn from others, and the changes can provide us with a deep insight into the cultures that gathered to those myths. Why Odei as apposed to Thor as opposed to Zeus? Which came first the Draco or the Dewi?

Looking into the change of our stories and not just their origins is like looking into another past, one we have forgotten, the past of time.

"From time, through time, to time immemorial
the world remained as it had for eternity."

Then . . .

"But time moved, and the world followed after."