Myth and Symbol I : Symbolic phenomena in ancient Greek culture, (International Symposium at the University of Tromso, June1998), (Papers from the Norwegian Institute at Athens 5), 2002, 332 p. -

The present volum is the result of a joint effort of a group of scholars who felt the need to discuss the nature of what is commonly labelled "myth", all being actively engaged in the interpretation of concrete expressions of ancient, mostly Greek, culture. Despite the fact that two centuries of scholary debate have passed and wonderful progress has been made in interpreting specific manidestations of "myth" during the last 25 or so years, there still exists a palpable reluctance to define "myth" in a clear and concise way. A recently held congress on the theme of ancient myth did not address the problem at all. It is within this situation we felt the necessity to address the crucial question of definition within a comparative framework. The result was a symposium held at the University of TromsØ in 1998. It was not our aim to endorse once more some ethnocentric belief in the universisal existence of a category of tales, "myth", but on the contrary, so discuss the problem and examine the various assumptions and questions that have dominated the study of "Greek myths".