Abstrakt
This study shows the culturally reflexive properties of mythological narratives by describing the dynamism stemming from the simultaneous inclusion of various types of temporality and the specific usage of space. The basic premise is that any symbolical system/culture contains antithetical principles which are nevertheless held simultaneously-as in the case of ancient Egypt's "positional succession" phenomenon.
These cultural paradoxes are both a source of discomfort to the system (as they show its incongruence and thus contingency) and a source of alternative symbolical layout, and thus of great power (because they transcend the given social structures). Certain cultural phenomena, myth being one of them, facilitate both coping with these paradoxes and utilizing their transformative potential.
To exemplify how exactly such a process occurs, I offer an analysis of the papyrus d'Orbiney, also known as the Tale of Two Brothers, subsequently identifying it as a "ring-composition." Consequences of such an identification in relation to the reflexive quality of mythological narratives are then discussed.