--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/etc/MYTHOLOGY	Mon Aug 13 11:04:06 2007 +0200
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+Reference:    Robert W. Brockway, Myth from the Ice Age to Mickey Mouse
+
+    A collective definition of myth composed of many theories might be
+    framed by the following paraphrase:
+
+    Myths are stories, usually, about gods and other supernatural
+    beings.  They are often stories of origins, how the world and
+    everything in it came to be in illo tempore.  They are usually
+    strongly structured and their meaning is only discerned by
+    linguistic analysis.  Sometimes they are public dreams which, like
+    private dreams, emerge from the unconscious mind.  Indeed, they
+    often reveal the archetypes of the collective unconscious.  They
+    are symbolic and metaphorical.  They orient people to the
+    metaphysical dimension, explain the origins and nature of the
+    cosmos, validate social issues, and, on the psychological plane,
+    address themselves to the innermost depths of the psyche.  Some of
+    them are explanatory, being prescientific attempts to interpret
+    the natural world.  As such, they are usually functional and are
+    the science of primitive peoples.  Often, they are enacted in
+    rituals.  Religious myths are sacred histories, and distinguished
+    from the profane.  But, being semiotic expressions, they are a
+    "disease of language."  They are both individual and social in
+    scope, but they are first and foremost stories.
+
+