Arthur’s talk is called, “The Mythology of Groundhog Day and the film Groundhog Day“
Our holiday Groundhog Day may seem merely to be simple, trivial fun, but it has a profound mythological underpinning of which most people are unaware. So too does the Bill Murray film Groundhog Day, whose makers understood this mythology and worked it into the film. The myths, which go back to the ancient classical world, are about rebirth and personal transformation. I will argue that the myths underlying the holiday involve the hibernation of that most mythical creature, the bear; oracles and divination (including about the weather); and legendary caves in which historical and legendary people reportedly became enlightened and transformed (e.g., Pythagoras, Zalmoxis, Epimenides, and Apollonius of Tyana). This presentation will explain the underlying mythology and then show how it was used to great effect in this film about spiritual transformation. And you will learn the mythological reasons why a sunny Groundhog Day, when the critter sees his shadow, portends more winter. This presentation is based on the Groundhog Day chapter of my new, peer-reviewed book, The Mythology of our Seasonal Holidays, to be published by Palgrave Macmillan.
About Arthur
Arthur George is a mythologist, cultural historian, blogger, and winemaker; formerly he was an international lawyer. He has written the award-winning The Mythology of Eden (2014) about the mythology of the biblical Eden story, and before that the leading and award-winning history of St. Petersburg, Russia, entitled St. Petersburg: the First Three Centuries. His newest book, The Mythology of America’s Seasonal Holidays: The Dance of the Horae, will be published by Palgrave Macmillan in September. He has a mythology blog, frequently speaks at scholarly conferences, institutes, JCF Roundtables, and other audiences on mythological topics, and authors articles on the same. He is currently finishing a book about the mythology of wine, which will be published this autumn.