Theorizing about Myth

Since the Romantic Movement myth has no longer been regarded as inferior historiography or as allegory of nature in the sense that myths pertain to stories of gods personifying natural occurrences such as lightning, thunder, and rain. From a cross-cultural anthropological perspective myth is “true history” because it is “sacred history”, not only by reason of it contents but also because of the concrete sacral forces which it sets going. However, its “truth” has no origin in logic, nor is it of a historical kind. This article theorizes about myth by exploring it as folklorist “art” and investigating different types of ancient interpretation and the relationship between myth and history. It focuses on myth's function as model for behaviour and present-day theories of interpreting myths in an existential manner. The article advocates a post-modern, non-positivistic hermeneutical approach to myth interpretation, similar to an “abductive” interpretation of metaphor.