The Eternal Shifter: Myths as Regenerative Ekphrasis

Myth’s ability to hold meaning without explicit verbiage allows for a similar experience to how pain and empathy can be experienced through other forms of art. The process of sharing and retelling changed myths can become a sort of cultural ekphrasis. However, in the example of myths, aspects which are maintained in each new telling of the myth represent a cultural common ground that can provide mythologists with a cultural snapshot of a moment in time, to help better study and understand a group of people. This paper will begin by explaining the developmental context of both ekphrasis and the interconnectivity of cultural, historical, and environmental contexts for myth. By connecting these three aspects, as has been done in several studies, in fields such as anthropology, evolutionary biology, genetics, psychology, and cultural studies, I will submit that mythologists may glean significantly more information by studying what is lost in retellings of myths, and focusing on what historical, cultural, and environmental changes coincided with the removal of this aspect of the story before studying previous iterations of the story and their historical, cultural, and environmental contexts.