SOURCE: Sienkewicz, Thomas J. “The Greeks Are Indeed Like the Others: Myth and Society in the West African Sunjata.” In Myth and the Polis, edited by Dora C. Pozzi and John M. Wickersham, pp. 182-202. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1991.

In the following essay, Sienkewicz discusses similarities between the Sunjata and Greek myths, particularly in addressing the “tension between diversity and unity.”

The mark Greek mythology has left on Western thought and culture is undeniable and indelible. The use of Greek myths as standard themes and points of reference for Western artists, writers, and poets, and the survival and flourishing of Greek mythology in the modern world, have been interpreted by some as a sign of the universality of Greek mythology, of its unique adaptability to different and changing social and cultural needs.

This view of Greek mythology as both unique and universal among the world's mythologies...