Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 1 (Greek and Roman).djvu/55

Rh the prophesying were facts, and none could prove that any other than Apollo was responsible for them. To believe that he actually was responsible fed the fancy, and without fancy there was no zest in life. The souls of the departed were said to be gathered together in a dark realm beneath the earth. For to what other place could they have disappeared after burial or cremation? No god or hero was represented by a myth-maker as initiating any movement simultaneous with the narration of the myth. The reason for this is now obvious; such a statement would be so open to the scrutiny of contemporaries that criticism and the fear of criticism would destroy the illusion and the charm which the story might otherwise possess.

(d) The most generally recognized characteristic of myth is the fact that it is a product of the imagination, and so, popularly though erroneously, the mythical is regarded as the exact equivalent of the imaginary. Nevertheless, since the special function of the imagination is to create, it is not to be expected that all its creations must conform to the attested experience of mankind or to what we may estimate as probable. It is for this reason that most of the details of the myths relate to the improbable, but the probable and improbable alike were held to be true by the people among whom the legends had currency.

We may now sum up the results of our analysis with a working definition:

A myth is a statement, or a virtual statement as implied in a symbol, an attribute, or an epithet, accepted as true by its original maker and his hearers, and referring to the eternal nature and past acts of beings greater than man, and frequently to circumstances which are to us improbable or impossible. 2. The Origin of Myth.—It is no more possible to detail one and all the impulses, singly or in classes, which have given rise to myth than it is to discover and give the full tale of all the fountain-heads of a great river. Yet we find that we can