ABSTRACT
Myth, in the usual acceptation of the word, belongs to the realm of the imagination, which as such is distinct from, even opposed to, the world '()f reality. The gods, who are the characters in myth, are for us fabulous beings in whom we do not believe. Criticism of myth goes back to pagan antiquity, to those first Greek thinkers, such as Theagenes and Xenophanes, who lived in the sixth century B.C and al ready found the anthropomorphism of the Homeric gods incompatible with the ideal of deity. But myth is older than Homer and belongs to a world which did believe in the gods. This faith in myth, this re1igious reality of myths, which is al ready overshadowed in Homer, is on the contrary very much alive in primitive mythology, an'd the myths themselves are the proof of it, while explicit confirmation is provided by a number of testimonies furnished by the natives themselves.
