In its simplest possible form, a myth is a story. Then what distinguishes a myth from a short story? A myth is simply a story with staying power. Whether it's the topic, the plotline or the characters, something about it stays with us, tells us something essential about ourselves and makes us want to keep telling it and retelling it. What starts as one person's story becomes everybody's story.

This issue includes a variety of types of myth. To begin with, there are fairytales and established legends. These works are more in line with the traditional definition of the myth as ancient story, involving heroes or supernatural beings. The people are larger than life, whether they're Greek heroes or Founding Fathers.

There are also stories about big truths: coming face to face with the realities of love or death, or dealing with devastating natural disasters.

Some works illustrate the myth as social science, where a character, story, theme or object embodies a particular idea or aspect of a culture, whether it's the Taj Mahal or a lighthouse.

Whether they are the stories we tell to each other about ourselves or the stories we pass along from others, mythology is part of our lives. The selections in this issue sometimes deal with big issues and larger than life characters, and sometimes simply ordinary people in challenging situations. Through the magic of the storyteller, these stories are elevated from the ordinary to the mythic.

 

Alyce Wilson, Wild Violet editor