07/25/2010
Throughout the course of human history there has been a trend to mythologize our lives, objects, and
activities. In architectural antiquity there was a trend to mythologize our building materials in a way that
anthropomorphized those materials as either terrestrial or divine. The empirical evidence for such a
hypothesis is found in our myths, folklore, dreams, fantasies, and anything else that might intrigue a
psychoanalyst. Owing to the last century of scientific developments in building material technology
there arises a lack of acceptance in new materials due to a correlated misunderstanding of mythological
anthropomorphizing of materials.
In order for this hypothesis to be deemed empirical an emphasis should be placed on myths themselves.
The common connotation evoked when the word “myth” is uttered is usually falsehood. This is typical
when writers use the phrase “break the myths”, which is to say that there is lie that people believe is
true and it needs to be “busted”. The classic example of this myth as a lie is evident in a radio talk show
with Joseph Campbell, in which the host begins the show by stating, “The word myth means a lie. Myth
is a lie.” But Campbell proceeds to relay to the host that myth is a metaphor.1 The myth, from Latin
mythos, literally means “tale” or “story”. In no way is the word myth etymologically associated with
falsehood. The fathers of modern psychology, e.g. Freud, Jung, and Adler, would emphatically agree
with Pablo Picasso when he said, “Art is the lie that tells us the truth.” It was particularly Jung that found
that all forms of hallucinations, visions, dreams, and psychosis were formulated from a collective datum
of archetypes. These archetypes were formed from a collective memory that is repressed into the
unconscious sphere of the human psyche, and from the subconscious depths of the mind archetypal
images emerge when consciousness is suppressed, namely in dreams. These archetypes coincide with
mythological motifs.2 The prime examples of psychosis as myth would be Freud’s Oedipus Complex,
given its name from the Greek myth of Plato’s Oedipus Rex, and Narcissism, from the Greek
mythological man Narcissus. The universality of these myths, archetypes and motifs across all cultures
explains the numerous similarities between so many widely removed cultures and religions. As Campbell
once put it: “Mythology everywhere is the same, beneath its various costumes.”3 This is more or less
what James Joyce terms the “monomyth”.4
Understanding the psychological implication of myths, it is important to understand the function of
myths in order to establish their accordance with architecture. Myths function on four primary levels.
The first is to put the individual in accord with him or herself and the transitions that will occur
throughout life, namely accordance with puberty, life, and death. Second is to put the individual in
accord with society as the collective embodiment of the species. These myths are typically the
1
Campbell, Joseph. Thou Art That. Joseph Campbell Foundation. Novato, California: New World Library. 2001. Pg.
1‐2.
2
Jung, Carl. Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. New York, New York: Bollingen Foundation Inc. 1959. Pg. 3‐
53
3
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Third Edition. Joseph Campbell Foundation. Novato,
California: New World Library. 2008. Pg. 2.
4
Joyce, James. Finnegans Wake. New York, New York: Penguin Books. 1999. Pg. 581.
foundation of laws and virtues. Third is to put the individual in accord with the natural realm, which is
primarily the participation of the sorrows of the natural world. Nature is, point in fact, a monster of an
entity. A lot of people (namely hippies and environmentalist) suggest there should be a return to nature.
If only they understood what they are asking for. In the natural realm organisms are always eating each
other. But the way of nature was what humans had to come to terms with in order to survive and
willfully participate in the death and life of all things. Finally, the fourth function is to put the individual
in accord with the cosmos, namely all that extends beyond human comprehension and be in accord with
its vast greatness while accepting how small each individual is within it.5
In order to discuss the mystical essence of typical building materials it is necessary to discuss the notion
of matter. The term material is derived from the Anglo‐Saxon matere, which is from the Latin root
materia. Materia is typically defined in contemporary terms as being a substance, albeit a substance
without essence. The origin of materia is from the Latin word for “mother”, mater, which also refers to
the “source” or “origin” of all things, but more particularly all living things. Even the word matter is
derived from mater. Owing to the fact that all building materials of prehistory and antiquity were born
from the earth, the term matter connotes a terrestrial material; that is, it is a material of the
mythological Earth Mother.
Considering the nature of the earliest hominids we understand that they were nomadic and followed
the grazing herds. They depended primarily on hunting, fishing, and gathering for survival. Due their
nomadic nature their shelters were made of light‐weight and portable materials, which would be mostly
animal skins and timber. This period of time is prehistoric and, therefore, there is no empirical proof of
any mythologies, save for cave painting. Although it does not make it empirical to compare concurrent
primitive tribes with prehistoric humans (it is even considered a grave mistake), there is still a lot that
can be gathered from the thinking of primitive cultures. There is an understanding of the Circle of Life,
though more commonly called the Food Chain. The condition of killing and eating for survival is the third
function of myth: accordance with nature. There was probably a considerable amount of guilt involved
with some of these early humans, now equipped with a conscious mind, albeit a very underdeveloped
conscious. Some sort of psychological defense mechanism had to be in order so that these early nomads
could kill, eat, and survive without a feeling of guilt. In the Ainu tribe the animals (from Latin anima, see
below) were considered gods who have come to visit humans, but their mammal prisons prevent them
from returning home. So the Ainu hunt and kill the beast, prepare a ceremonial feast for the divinity in
order to send the god back home.6 Since their livelihoods depended on the death of other things, and
without the “active participation in the sorrows” the tribe would die out. So there was a correlation of
what nourishes the human body, i.e. the hunted game, is also what is used to build their shelters. This is
similar to Marshall McLuhan’s concept of the “pen is an extension of the hand”, or “the wheel is an
5
Campbell. Thou Art That. 2‐5.
6
Etter, Carl. Ainu Folklore: Traditions and Culture of the Vanishing Aborigines of Japan. Chicago, Illinois: Wilcox and
Follett. 1949. Pg. 56‐57.
extension of the foot”. We might therefore say that the house is an extension of the body.7 So what
feeds the body feeds the house.
At the dawn of agriculture, when civilizations arise, there was no need for portable shelters, this being
so, the notion of “life feeds on life” does not diminish, but rather is augmented. These cultures saw that
with the death of animals plants grow, that is, where corpses lie plants arise.8 We find this concept in
contemporary myths such as in in Lord of the Rings the flower simbelmynë grows on the tombs of dead
men, namely the kings of Edoras.9 Or even the mystical red fern that grows on the graves of a young
boy’s two hounds in Where the Red Fern Grows. It is in the agrarian societies that we find the first
animal and human sacrifices. And, just as it was with the nomadic tribes, we find with the agrarian tribes
the understanding of what feeds the body feeds the house. Now that mostly plants were being eaten, so
the house would be made out of plants, i.e. trees and reeds, albeit they did not eat trees, but certainly
the fruits of the trees. Etymologically materia sometimes refers to wood or a tree trunk, or in the Latin
matrix which refers to the growth of a tree; in Portuguese madeira, “wood”. It is possible we get the
name of the Greek goddess Demeter from the Latin dmateria, which refers to the “produce of the
[earth]”, as Demeter is the goddess of the grain and harvest. Or again in deme, or domus, which refers
to a homestead or house.
Both animal hides and timber are terrestrial, Earth Mother materials. It was witnessed and
comprehended that all that lives eventual dies and returns to the soils of the earth, “Ashes to ashes.
Dust to dust”. The anthropomorphosis of these materials is seen in numerous mythologies. In Ovid’s
Metamorphoses the man Actaeon is transformed into a stag after witnessing a naked Diana bathing and
he is then devoured by his hounds (Book III: 142‐249). Actaeon is transformed into what he used to
hunt: deer. Or in the story of Apollo and Daphne, Apollo chases the nymph Daphne because he loves
her, but she refuses his love and prays for her father to protect her virginity and is turned into a laurel
tree (Book I: 450‐567). As the old saying goes: “You are what you eat,” and owing to McLuhan’s concept:
“your house is you”.10
Upon the advent of history proper with more advanced civilizations, such as Egypt, Greece and Rome
there arose a heighten sense of the Mother Earth and that humans were her children. The mythos of
these civilizations demonstrates the psychological shift from animate materials, i.e. materials that were
once alive, to earthen materials. According to Ovid once the universe was created and order was
established against the chaos humans were created by Prometheus from clay (Book I: 450‐567). Or again
in the Bible: “The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2: 7). Clay represented an
anthropomorphic primordial mater that was crude, malleable, and owed to the lesser status of humans
to the gods. Humans classically were understood to be the slaves of the gods. In the Sumo‐
7
McLuhan, Marshall. Medium is the Massage.
8
Campbell, Joseph. Myths to Live By. New York, New York: Penguin Compass. 1972. Pg. 172.
9
Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel. The Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers. New York, New York: Houghton Mifflin
Company. 1965. Pg. 111.
10
Also consider Clare Cooper’s The House as Symbol of the Self (Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania: Dowden, Hutchinson &
Ross. 1974. Pp. 130‐145.)
Mesopotamian Enuma elish, Marduk creates humans from the blood of Kingu so that they may provide
sacrifices for the gods. In Metamorphoses the gods worry about how they will get their sacrifices if
Jupiter floods the world. Or again in Genesis: “There was no man to work the ground” (Gen. 2:5); “The
Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Gen. 2:15).
“The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him” (Gen.
2:18). In short, Adam and Eve were the gardeners of the gods11. We could even use the Masonic
symbolism in which each person is a brick and the mortar is the essence that unites us all. If I may use an
anecdote for the latter symbol of mortar: “All things are connected like the blood that unites us all.”12
This symbol is of considerable importance as it pertains to the second function of myth: accordance with
the social order.
The second mater of considerable anthropomorphic mysticism and usage is stone. Where brick and clay
would be for the humans, and more particularly the living, it is stone that is for sacred structures,
divinity, and the dead. The distinction between this dichotomy in architectural building materials is best
understood in Egypt. It is in ancient Egypt, and Egypt only, that architects were deified. The architect‐
physician‐priest, Imhotep was deified and he is often associated with the god Thoth, the scribe of the
gods and was thought to be an architect. In Egypt only temples and tombs were allowed to be built out
of stone, and everything else was piled burnt clay and brick. Though it was common for tombs of
ordinary citizens of Egypt to be buried in clay mastabas, the mastabas are rendered in a monolithic
expression to give the essence of stone, while not mimicking it. Workers of the pyramids were often
buried in the pyramids or near them in stone tombs. Although the pharaohs were thought to be deities,
all who are dead are elevated to the status of divine. In the Egyptian Book of the Dead the deceased are
referred to as Osiris N, where N is the name of the deceased. In the Chapter of Coming Forth by Day in
the Underworld the soul recites: “I am Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, and I have the power to be
born a second time; I am the divine hidden Soul who createth the gods…” This understanding of the
deceased as divine gives critical insight as to why the Egyptians built such grand, and not to mention
almost permanent Necropolises and tombs.
Albeit, stone is often considered divine, it is still anthropomorphic. Again according to Ovid we have a
classic example of the anthropomorphic myth of stone. Following the Deluge the only two human
survivors are Deucalion (son of Prometheus) and his wife Pyrrha. They pray to oracle goddess Themis
who orders them to “Go from the temple, cover your heads, loosen your robes, and throw your
mother’s bones behind you!” (Book I: 379‐381). Deucalion sees that the riddle refers to the bones of the
Great Mother, that is, Mother Earth, whose bones are the stones on the ground. The stones soften in
the mud and take on the shapes of humans and come to life. “Hence we derive the hardness that we
have, and our endurance gives proof of what we have come from.”
Where clay is human, stone is divine, metals on the other hand are cosmogonic and are the mater of the
celestial spheres and the ages of humanity. In accordance with Joyce’s monomyth there are two distinct
and geographically remote cultures that establish four ages of humanity: Hinduism and Greco‐Roman. In
11
Elohim, one of the original names for God, is a plural noun and literally means “We”, Genesis 1: 26, 3: 22.
12
Chief Seattle’s 1852 letter in response to the United States Government wanting to buy land from his tribe.
Hinduism the four stages of Vishnu’s dream of the Universe follow almost identically to Ovid’s Four
Ages. In Metamorphoses (Book I: 88‐151) the first is the Golden Age, which is a time of peace and
eternal spring, and coincides with the Hindu Krta Yuga (Age of Truth) exactly; second is the Silver Age, in
which summer, autumn and winter set in and men start to build shelters, and again is identical to the
Hindu Treta Yuga; third is the Bronze Age, which men are quick to arms, though they are not exactly evil,
and this coincides with the Dvapara Yuga, which is the beginning of death and disease; finally is the Iron
Age, when men are greedy, warmongering, and begin to mine for precious metals and gems in the
earth, and is the equivalent of the Kali Yuga (the Black Age). All people today are descendants of the Iron
Humans, that is, this is still the Kali Yuga. In Hinduism the fourth function of myth, accordance with the
cosmos, appears here: adding up the 1000 cycles of the Yugas the number of human years that elapse is
4,320,000,000 years, which is half a Cosmic Day. The human heart beats on average one beat per
second, sixty seconds a minute, sixty minutes to an hour, and twelveh ours to half a day; the heart beats
43,200 times in half a day. The cosmogonic metals go further in alchemy, in which there are seven
metals and each is associated with a planet, and each planet is to a day of the week. In order of
ascension from earth the metals are as follows: silver (the moon, Monday), mercury (Mercury, Thursday
or Thor’s Day), copper (Venus, Friday or Frigga’s Day), gold (the sun, Sunday), iron (Mars, Tuesday or
Tyr’s Day), tin (Jupiter, Wednesday or Woden’s Day), and lead (Saturn, Saturday).13 In alchemy it was
believed that the human soul passes through each planet and takes on each metal as it descends to
earth from the fixed stars, and the soul sheds each metal at each planet as it ascends back to the
heavens following death.14
In the course of the past two to three hundred years science has, so to say, killed myth, although not
entirely. In antiquity and prehistory myth was science. It was the primitive as well as mystical mind’s
way of understanding what the sky is and how it got there, or where did humans come from, or why the
seasons exist. Alchemy was the Orpheus of science: as the Orpheus cults sympathized with the
naturalistic rites of the Dionysian cults but anticipated the future cult of Christ, alchemy made the
transition between the science of mysticism and modern science, hence chemistry. There really is no
conflict between science and mysticism; they are just two different ways of understanding the world
around us (although there is a conflict between the science of today and the science of four thousand
years ago). So it is that science is our modern mythology, which is why Campbell elevated to the
scientist to the level of a modern hero.
But mythology still exists today. For instance, when Le Corbusier called the house a “machine for living
in” is an example of myth as metaphor. Point in fact the house is not a machine for living, nor is it a
machine at all. That statement is not a lie but is a metaphor. Le Corbusier calls the house so in order to
make an accordance between society and the Industrial Era, which owes to the second function of myth:
accordance with society. His metaphor was a psychological mechanism of understanding the current age
we were in and that we should embrace it. So the new material technologies of the Modern Era, namely
concrete, steel, and glass, albeit not new per se but now used on a massive level, could be
psychologically rendered acceptable. The house had long been anthropomorphized from its materials
13
Campbell. Thou Art That. Pg. 44‐45
14
Also consider Dante Alighieri’s Paradiso.
and as an extension of the body, so the house therefore is anthropomorphic. If the house was thought
of as a machine the Modernist therefore would have anthropomorphized the Machine Age, which they
more or less were successful at considering how commonplace accepted mass production is today. But
even glass is still a material, as it is made from sand, as is concrete, which is a sort of modern stone.
Many of the materials of antiquity, and even modernism, could be considered ambiguous as to whether
they are human, divine, cosmological, social, or natural. Animals were considered to be imprisoned
divinities, animals were made from mud in Metamorphoses (Book I: 423‐428), as were humans, but
humans are also of metals and stone, even though stone is divine, but to the Egyptians the dead are
divine… Regardless of the ambiguity the examples above simply illustrate the terrestrial or mater
essence of these materials, that is, they are of the earth. In the past half century there have been
exponential increases in the development of new material, most of which are synthetic and their origins
are not terrestrial.
The opposite of matter is the spirit. The word spirit is from the Latin root spiritus, which literally means
“breath”. The spirit is the “breath of life”, the pneumatic essence of life. In the Genesis 2: 7 God
breathes the breath of life into Adam in order to animate him. There are many myths of the life
impregnating wind, such as in the Southwestern Native American tale of the virgin Sky Woman who is
impregnated by the East Winds, or again Mary who is impregnated by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1: 18).
There is a mythological connection between the Latin pneuma, meaning “wind, air”, and the Latin
anima, meaning “life, soul”. Similarly there is the Latin word genius, which means “spirit” or “wisdom”.
Genius comes from the Latin gignere “to beget” or “to produce”, and is similar to the “breath of life”.
and the original context of the word referred to an extern divine entity that worked ingenious deeds
through the individual. Genius or genie, from the Arabic jinn or jinni, is synonymous with the Greek word
daemon, which referred to any divine entity that was not one of the primordial or Olympian gods. Often
in Greek prose demon and god are used interchangeably. The notion of genius is also synonymous with
the Greek mousa or muse.15 The term spirit, therefore, and quite obviously, refers to an antithetical
essence of matter, and connotes an ethereal essence; that is, it is an essence that is mythologized as the
Sky Father.
Architects often have a begrudging comment or two when new materials are used in architecture.
Usually the comment is something like: “Just because they use a new material does not make it
architecture!” Even though zinc is a relatively new building material no one really feels threatened by its
usage. In a sense these synthetic materials are not terrestrial and therefore are not readily accepted on
earth. But when one watches a modern space myth, such as Star Wars or 2001: A Space Odyssey, no one
really complains about plastics and other futuristic materials being used. The environs and settings of
these space myths are outside the bounds of earth and therefore the materials should not be mater. It
practically seems ridiculous to consider using wood, brick or stone in space, and rightfully it is.
Synthetics are of the sky, the heavens, and the cosmos and their anthropomorphosis is additionally
15
Joyce makes an interesting etymological connection between “jinnie”, genius, muse, museum or “museyroom”,
which could be a “double think at once” for “music room” (muse and music) and the PIE root mon or men, from
which comes the wood mind. Finnegans Wake, pg. 8‐10.
found in these myths of the Space Age. For instance, robots, androids, cyborgs, talking computers like
HAL are all anthropomorphic. Furthermore, these space myths still follow the motifs and archetypes of
classic myths of antiquity.
Further still, we can find the Native American notion of everything has a spirit. This same thought
makes itself present in another futuristic myth Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, which embraces the
idea of all matter has a spirit. Here there is a connection between the earth and the spirit of the earth:
Gaia. Or again in the Final Fantasy VII videogame, with the magical orbs called materia, which are given
their magical powers from Mako, which is the lifeblood of the planet. In both cases there is a connection
between matter and spirit, Gaia and life. Final Fantasy mythology unites the dualities we experience in
our waking consciousness, and renders the mystic experience of transcendence par excellence. The
space myths and synthetics are aspects of the second and fourth functions of mythology, so that we
may engender the human race and society’s accordance with living amongst the stars and not under
them. In a sense science has already shown us this with the Copernican model of the universe. The earth
is not beneath the heavens; rather we are in the heavens. Nietzsche says, “He who still experiences the
stars as something above him still does not see with the eyes of a knower.” All these mythological
aspects of anthropomorphosis of matter we find in our architecture and our building materials of the
past and still today, and it will still continue into the future, for there is and always will be a
psychological need to anthropomorphize our materials.