ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of Mircea Eliade's and Rene Girard's respective theories on religious/sacred myths with a view toward clarifying and contrasting the different aspects of sacred myths. Anthropological theories focus on the role of myth in providing a communal frame of reference and meaning for particular societies. Psychological theories, particularly those of Carl Jung, presuppose a universal significance to myth and their function in psychological development. In terms of the study, Eliade and Girard reflect positive and pejorative aspects of myth respectively. For Eliade, myth mediates the sacred meanings surrounding the foundations of the cosmos particularized to specific cultural groups. For Girard, myths are about the origin of a culture, but it is a violent origin. For Eliade, myths of traditional societies are cosmogenic in that they recount the original act of creation of the universe or the origin of some created reality that the followers consider to be sacred.
