мабонское
The myths give both storyteller and audience the chance to engage with human stories in an exaggerated setting so that they're more interesting, more exciting, more dangerous, more tragic and more amazing. Throughout, though, they are fundamentally human stories.
This approach also helps me understand why so many overlapping, contradictory versions of the same myth can co-exist. The myths are no longer central; the teller and audience are, so it is natural for the people to adapt the myths to tell the stories they need to tell. No one is trying to find the single unchanging standard for behavior; the multiplicity of myths encourages us to adapt our responses to the situation, just as the storyteller working on the fly might have to alter the ending to fit the narrative corner she backs herself into. What matters is that the story works, that it's good enough, that it fits its context.
The most encouraging thing about this approach to the myths, though, is that because we're telling them, we can change them. They grow with us over time. And that's important, because my favorite myth is the myth of progress.
Mabon - the myth of progress