Perhaps defining myth is impossible. Unanimity on an exact definition cannot occur because it will leave out what someone, somewhere, considers important; too loose a definition will lack enough specificity to be useful. Also, a myth nailed down dies, like a pinned butterfly.

I need to begin with Wendy Doniger’s observation, “it's impossible to define myth, but cowardly not to try.” So here goes. Not with a definition – but, instead, with an appreciation.

Myth, like dreams, has been brushed aside as unimportant when in actuality, myth and dreams are the bedrock of what it means to be human.

Right now Homer’s epic poem is everywhere: from Uberto Pasolini’s The Return and Jorge Rivera-Herrans’s EPIC: The Musical to Christopher Nolan’s upcoming The Odyssey (2026) and literary retellings like Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad. This isn’t new. Fascination with Homer’s homecoming epic is centuries—millennia!—old, and its influence so vast it’s impossible to list.