This paper is written to provide a comparative analysis of Myths of national founding fathers in East Asian countries. First. I extract the narrative features common to both Jumong and Yuri myths. Then I investigate how these two are similar to and di...
This paper is written to provide a comparative analysis of Myths of national founding fathers in East Asian countries. First. I extract the narrative features common to both Jumong and Yuri myths. Then I investigate how these two are similar to and different from such myths from other East Asian countries. The myths I consider additionally in the present study include Vietnam's <Hongbangsi-Jeon>. Thailand's <Prarueng>, Japan's <Ohokuninushi>, and <Theseus> from Europe. Also studied are oral materials such as Korea's <Jesuk Bonpuri> and <Chogong Bonpuri> and Japan's <Omoimatzugane>. Since the myths of national founding fathers are of the hero type, I propose to analyze the myths using the six stages of the life cycle : birth, childhood, separation from their family, foundation of the nation, enthronement and achievement, and death and shrine. First, I find that Jumong and Yuri myths both are typical of the Sky father-Earth mother type and, at the same time, possess distinctive features that separate one from the other. This is because they exhibit different characteristics in each of the six stages. Next. I examine how the narrative features common to the two myths are compared with those of the myths from other neighboring countries. All of the six stages can be found in East Asian myths, except for the last 'death and shrine' stage. As such, Jumong and Yuri myths which are composed of the six stages are considered to models.