ABSTRACT
For Mircea Eliade, myth is religious myth. Whenever Eliade points to mythic behavior, he is directing us to certain kinds of rehgious behavior. In chapter 7, myth will be seen to have an irreducibly religious structure and function. In chapters 8 and 9, mythic time will be viewed as sacred time and mythic history as sacred history. Not all religious phenomena, of course, may be subsumed under the category of "myth." Eliade also investigates nonmythic religious data. Eliade has a particular interest in religious symbolism and its symbolic expression in religious myths. In chapters 5 and 6, all religious expressions will be seen to be necessarily symbolic, but myth will be interpreted as a specific type of religious symbolic expression.
