>Sorry, absolutely wrong. The word "myth", by definition, means
>something untrue or not provable.
Your definition is incomplete. Secondly even if it were untrue or not provable (which does not make something untrue), how does this make the statement "the Orlanthi believe their myths _are_ the truth" absolutely wrong. If one were to say that the bible was myth, it doesn't prevent Christians from believing that it is true.
>I'm 99% with Garreth on this - knowing a culture's myths does not
>tell you its behavior.
If you are with Garreth, could you mind explaining why I should not use myths to infer cultural behaviour (like for example, the Orlanthi should not be presumed to use storm magic for their battles) because myths have no value other than as psychological descriptors?
>Everybody go read Elaine Pagel's
>fantastic "Adam, Eve and the Serpent" to see how the Western World's
>main myth has generated so incredibly many diverse meanings and
>interpretations. And almost nobody goes around not eating apples.
So? As I said before, one needs to only consider the interpretation a particular culture uses to infer its behaviour.
--Peter Metcalfe
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