000001 Mythology can be approached as a collection of artefacts reminding us of humanity's inability to tolerate not knowing. That alone makes it worth studying attentively, with respect for every detail.

The unknown is not merely uncomfortable. Without an explanation, it may become a threat.
An abstract explanation, however, is rarely enough. It needs a plot and a genre. Causes must lead somewhere; actions must have consequences. The crueller the storyline, the clearer its consequences may appear. And consequences are perhaps the most desirable knowledge when facing the unknown: they offer the comforting belief that it has been understood, conquered, and defeated.
What follows is a simple instruction: tell it and retell it until the end of time.

Yet mythology and its imagery offer an almost inexhaustible source of fantasies, delusions, and escapism. That in itself is fascinating.

The project "Ancient Legends" feeds on this source without expectations and ignores its promises. Existing myths, legends, ancient texts, and puzzles provide the material, even as their original conclusions are rejected. Their plots may be displaced, combined, contradicted, or turned inside out.

The opportunity is to dive into Conceptual Hyper Mannerism—to sip the sweet potion while retaining the ability to spit it out before the poison entwined within reaches the brain.

The myth remains recognisable. But nothing more.

The Mythology on Its Own 

Mythology on Its Own
A myth has to be followed. Otherwise, there is no way to recognise what is happening—or what has supposedly happened.
The plot provides the structure that keeps its events intelligible. Everything else is considerably less secure.

A myth rarely survives its retelling intact. Every teller inevitably becomes an interpreter. Meanings shift, details take on new weight, characters change their functions, and historical needs interfere with whatever was inherited. What appears to contain ancient wisdom may owe its apparent certainty to whoever happens to be telling the story.
Once told, however, the mythology is on its own.

There is no fundamental truth within it to protect it from another interpretation. Its vulnerability is precisely what makes it so accommodating. The course of events may be continued beyond a traditional ending, interrupted before a promised resolution, deprived of its moral, or confronted with consequences conveniently left outside the story. Its elements may be displaced, contradicted, or forced into another relation.

The chapter “Mythology on Its Own” makes unrestricted use of this vulnerability. It enjoys the aesthetics mythology provides while refusing its claims to mysterious or sacred knowledge. Its imagery may be seductive; its logic may be ridiculous. There is no reason not to enjoy both.