How do you build a myth?
I like to think the stories we have today from the ancients have more complicated versions that preceded them. At some point, somebody sitting around a campfire said, “Hey, here’s a story about a guy who’s incredibly strong!” or “Hey, this father and son build wings and take off into the sky, and it ends horribly!” or “There’s this garden, and this snake tricks this man and woman into something they should never do.” And somebody else takes that seed and embellishes, and maybe there are multiple versions, but the stuff that really matters remains. The man is the son of a god; somebody flies too close to the sun; the man and woman are kicked out. It takes centuries, but the story is whittled down into the primal, the essential. You recognize those stories from the nuggets I’ve given you. Doesn’t everybody?
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