Myth and tradition: unavoidable ingredients of every historical narrative. An analysis in light of the studies of L. Duch and J. Huizinga

Abstract

This essay aims to establish a dialogue between two renowned authors in philosophical and anthropological themes: Lluís Duch and Johan Huizinga. Duch proposes a reflection on existence itself based on the linguistic and morphological elements used in ancient Greece to explain, narrate, and argue the complexities of the human condition: mythos and logos. In this article, we want to examine Duch's argument and apply it to the study of history. If history, understood as a narrative of the past, is a creation of humans, then it is expected that the historical account has a significant share of mythological elements. To make our hypothesis plausible, we will study the philological bases of the terms in question: mythos and logos, and secondly, approach the topic of history, understanding it - mainly following J. Huizinga - as a spiritual product through which a generation "accounts for its past." In this way, by the end of our work, we hope to have demonstrated that the historical narrative of any time and place contains within it an important mythological element that should not be dismissed but rather demands the attention of philosophers, anthropologists, and historians.