ABSTRACT
It is difficult to define the term myth, but R. Walsh offers three lines of thought here: the popular, romantic and sociological modes. Each involves the construction of symbolic universes within which to situate selfhood and its link with human affairs, thus offering 'maps of meaning'. In relation to the unpacking of the concept of the self it is not a matter of assuring the reader of the stability of sameness but of encouraging a sense of the instability and variety of selfhood. The aim of mapping and mything is to meet the demands of identity seeking. In the book of Ecclesiastes the literary genre of autobiography provides a setting for an example of such creative tension at work. The 'original' Qohelet was a nomad insofar as he passed across events, places and through the time of his own life span. Here biblical imagination takes a particular form – that of autobiography, personal voice, future reality, cultural input.
