Françoise wrote that Romulus and Remus is definitely a myth. The thing about myth is that it is powerful and deep-rooted. As such, it often contains essential truth, an understanding of something significant about life that cannot be explained by science or cognition at the time it was created, or a deeper level of signification to an event. As I have noted before, I really dislike the confusion caused by the use of "myth" by people who mean "misconception" or "falsehood" -- especially because I wrote a thesis on the myth of the mother. Obviously, mothers exist and are not falsehoods. Our understanding of what a mother represents, symbolizes, *means* is affected by multiple layers of understanding, belief, feeling, etc. That is why it is a myth. There are myths of animals raising young in many different cultures. Sometimes the reasons for it are common patterns is cosmogenic or creation myths: they are a response to the question of who gave birth to the first human being. It is interesting that for some peoples the attempt to figure out how the first baby got there was less important than explaining who took care of him or her. Other peoples don't have this problem because the first human being is an adult. In that case, the or one of the first human(s) are usually mothers who give birth to others. In other cases, they come out of geographical settings in which children sometimes did get lost. (My dh had a "brother" like this who looked nothing like the other people in his village; when two "matching" adults came through months later it was a bittersweet reunion.) Another interpretation, according to scholars like Bruno Bettleheim, would be that the myth has been created out of our subconscious fear of being abandoned by those we love -- think of the number of fairy tales that have mothers die, leave, get separated from children, etc. Similarly, twins are often separated or abandoned because of some contest of good and evil. The tender care of animals is a comforting thought for children, a solution to a psychic problem we all deal with in different ways. Again, it is relevant to note that breastfeeding is so symbolic of nurturing, caring, survival. On the other hand, >The lyrics to the song "Lady Madonna" was part of this website (no longer >there) but part of the lyrics is ""lady madonna baby at your breast, wonder how >you manage to feed the rest." Lady Madonna may represent the prostitute, the >Lupa-the she-wolf. The question of how to feed babies and be sexually >available is inherent in the question--or at least to my way of thinking. > I do not read the meaning of that line the same way, although I know that the madonna/whore conception is widespread in feminist criticism. For me, the song suggested that the baby on the breast was the only one who was sure of being fed. The other children did not have enough food to eat, nor did the adults, perhaps. Food security and good nutrition is only guaranteed while breastfeeding is taking place. Jo-Anne Elder-Gomes, PhD (women's writing, including a comprehensive exam on mythopoeic criticism that I never realized would be so transportable) *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html