To modern man, the word 'myth,' while retaining a certain fascination even outside classical circles, has quite an ambivalent appeal: to denounce some opinion or attitude as 'myth' means to reject it as irrational, false, and potentially harmful; at the same time, 'myth' has a nostalgic ring, indicative of some meaningful reality hidden or lost in the depths of the past or of the psyche, which might be resuscitated as an antidote to a present that seems both rational and absurd.