Maya Deren's Divine Horsemen

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Recommended: A meditation on death poem analysis

The excerpt from Divine Horsemen by Maya Deren opens with an explanation for the existence of myths. Man needed an explanation for his origins and generation after generations stories explaining just that are passed down. However if no one was alive to see the true origins of man, how can myths be created (Deren 23)? Deren explains that the death is a beginning while also an end. Essentially, comprehending the true meaning of death is what allows us to understand being (Deren 23). Many things we consider identifying qualities of one state are actually not definitive or unique to one situation. A dead body for example is still, but so is a sleeping person. A corpse may have some physiological issue that caused their death, but even that is basically

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