ABSTRACT
There is a clear-cut divide between nineteenth-and twentieth-century theories of myth. In the nineteenth century myth was taken to be the `primitive' counterpart to science, which was assumed to be entirely modern. Myth originated and functioned to do for primitive peoples what science now did for moderns: account for all events in the physical world. One could not consistently hold both kinds of explanations, and moderns, who were de®ned as scienti®c, were logically obliged to abandon myth. The rise of science thus spelled the death of myth.
