Imagination and the Power of Storytelling

Chapter I provides a road map for the book. It delineates the approach to conceive of myth as a system of knowledge (episteme) and as an expression of cognitive and cultural experience. With its explanatory and orientating functions myth constitutes reality myth and represents one way of worldmaking (Nelson Goodman). By drawing on insights from cognitive sciences and cognitive narratology the book argues for conceiving of myth as conceptual metaphor that was translated into text, image, and ritual performance with these media informing and complementing each other. Particular attention is given to political mythmaking which situates myth in the institutional context of the palace and temple with their scholarly circles.