Herder’s Idea of a New Mythology

Abstract

This paper analyses the two texts, in the original German, where Herder reflects on the idea of a new mythology: On the New Use of Mythology (1767), and Iduna, or the Apple of Rejuvenation (1796). I explain how in the first essay the author presents the main characteristics of what he calls «heuristic use» or «new use» of mythology; and how in the second he shows that also the study of Nordic myths can provide us with new elements to create imaginative poetry. Comparing these two texts, we will be able to assess Herder’s contribution to a relevant subject in the history of aesthetics and to better understand its later development in thinkers of early German Romanticism such as Höderlin, Friedrich Schlegel and Schelling.

Keywords: Herder, new mythology, poetry, aesthetics, Romanticism.