ABSTRACT
Ä an initial definition of myth I am content to borrow the one recently pub--lished by Alan W. Watts: "Myth is to be defined as a complex of stories-some no doubt fact, and some fantasy-which, for various reasons, human beings regard as demonstrations of the inner meaning of the universe and of human life.ni This definition has the negative advantage of avoiding any connotation oE "untrue" or "unhistorical" as a necessary part of the meaning, and the positive advantages of stressing both the narrative character and the transcendent reference of myth. These two latter properties, however, need to be qualified with some care, lest they involve us in undue limitations of the myth concept.
