Friedrich Max Muller's Cultural Concept of Metaphor

This paper analyses Muller's concept of metaphor, which he expounded in the eight of his second series of Lectures on the Science of Language (1863). It highlights the central role that metaphor played in Muller's theory of mythology, as well as his critical appraisal of the latter as a form of 'diseased language'. This critical 'deconstruction' of metaphors and mythology was, however, no end in itself but an application of the comparative, 'historical' philology that had clarified the 'genealogical' relationships of (Indo-European) languages and was now to be applied to cultures. Muller's position in the history of metaphor theory is that of an outsider, but his emphasis on the role of metaphor reinterpretation in cultural history remains a challenge for philosophy and linguistics.