Hamlet's Mill

Hamlet's Mill: An Essay Investigating the Origins of Human Knowledge and Its Transmission Through Myth (Hamlets molen: een essay die de oorsprong onderzoekt van menselijke kennis en het doorgeven daarvan via de mythe, eerste publicatie door Gambit, Boston, 1969) door Giorgio de Santillana (1902-1974) professor wetenschapsgeschiedenis aan de MIT) en Hertha von Dechend (1915-2001, een wetenschapper aan de Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität) is een non-fictie werk over geschiedenis en vergelijkende mythologie, met name over archeoastronomie.

Het gaat met name over de bewering van de ontdekking van de axiale precessie in de megalithische tijd en het coderen van deze kennis in mythologie.

Het boek werd na publicatie zwaar door academici bekritiseerd. Barber & Barbers When They Severed Earth from Sky: How the Human Mind Shapes Myth (2024) waardeerde het boek voor het pionierswerk in mythografie.

Bronnen, noten en/of referenties

Dit artikel of een eerdere versie ervan is een (gedeeltelijke) vertaling van het artikel Hamlet's Mill op de Engelstalige Wikipedia, dat onder de licentie Creative Commons Naamsvermelding/Gelijk delen valt. Zie de bewerkingsgeschiedenis aldaar.

↑ Puhvel 1970, p. 2009: "The cowed reviewer is soon reduced to wondering whether mere critical prose should even be expended on something that obviously solicits the suspension of disbelief." Leach 1970: "As will presently be apparent, my reaction to this book is hostile – so before my prejudices get out of hand, let me try to explain what it is all about." White, Jr. 1970, p. 541: "De Santillana has served us well once more by underscoring a pioneering idea, but von Dechend's implementation of that idea will prevent many scholars from recognizing its validity."
↑ Davidson, H. R. Ellis (1974). Reviewed Work: Hamlet's Mill by Giorgio de Santillana, Hertha von Dechend. Folklore 85 (4): 282–283.
↑ Gresseth, Gerald K. (1971). Reviewed Work: Hamlet's Mill: An Essay on Myth and the Frame of Time by Giorgio de Santillana, Hertha von Dechend. The Journal of American Folklore 84 (332): 246–247. DOI: 10.2307/538998.
↑ Payne-Gaposchkin 1972, p. 206: "Hamlet's Mill is hard to classify. It recalls Charles Venables's assessment of Maggie Shand: "You ... are such a mixture of the practical and the emotional that you escape out of [the] hand like a trout." In what follows I shall try to explain why, after several readings, I place it in Category (2); the authors have not proved their point."
↑ Barber, Elizabeth Wayland, Barber, Paul T. (2006). When They Severed Earth from Sky: How the Human Mind Shapes Myth. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-12774-3.

[1] Puhvel 1970, p. 2009: "The cowed reviewer is soon reduced to wondering whether mere critical prose should even be expended on something that obviously solicits the suspension of disbelief." Leach 1970: "As will presently be apparent, my reaction to this book is hostile – so before my prejudices get out of hand, let me try to explain what it is all about." White, Jr. 1970, p. 541: "De Santillana has served us well once more by underscoring a pioneering idea, but von Dechend's implementation of that idea will prevent many scholars from recognizing its validity."

[2] Davidson, H. R. Ellis (1974). Reviewed Work: Hamlet's Mill by Giorgio de Santillana, Hertha von Dechend. Folklore 85 (4): 282–283.

[3] Gresseth, Gerald K. (1971). Reviewed Work: Hamlet's Mill: An Essay on Myth and the Frame of Time by Giorgio de Santillana, Hertha von Dechend. The Journal of American Folklore 84 (332): 246–247. DOI: 10.2307/538998.

[4] Payne-Gaposchkin 1972, p. 206: "Hamlet's Mill is hard to classify. It recalls Charles Venables's assessment of Maggie Shand: "You ... are such a mixture of the practical and the emotional that you escape out of [the] hand like a trout." In what follows I shall try to explain why, after several readings, I place it in Category (2); the authors have not proved their point."

[5] Barber, Elizabeth Wayland, Barber, Paul T. (2006). When They Severed Earth from Sky: How the Human Mind Shapes Myth. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-12774-3.