Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
No. NOT LIKE TELEPHONE! The analogy is bankrupt because it puts forward the idea that changes which occur within the transmission of ancient myths is always unintentional, and often prone to produce nonsense. People took these stories far too seriously to allow them to change or develop incidentally.
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I didn't intend to imply that changes to myths across cultures were purely unintentional. What I meant with the telephone metaphor is that there may have been an "original" Mesopotamian flood myth but it was changed and adapted over centuries as different cultures modified the story, so in the end the base myth is relatively unchanged (a great flood -- which may or may not have been an actual historical event -- is sent by the god(s) to destroy civilization) but specific details and characters vary greatly depending on the region and culture re-telling the story.