Edmund Dulac: Gods and Mortals in Love

The re-interpretation of myths is essential if they are to survive. They are handed down from one generation to another like certain stories that are transmitted orally. In the process, they are constantly embellished or they lose their meaning. In any case, they are altered by every narrator. The great myths are not very many in number. Racine, Goethe, Shakespeare, knew very well why their use was so effective: myth is like a key that opens the most unsympathetic soul to writing (or visual art). I have always preferred myth to history, because history consists of truths which turn into lies, while myth consists of lies which turn into truths! ~Jean Cocteau