Myths, as time-honoured narratives of divine origin containing valuable knowledge for interpreting and dealing with the world, are not discarded or replaced, but revised. This means that each new revision adds new patches to a product that already exists as a patchwork.
Significance, based on divine origin, leads to long tradition and constant reworking
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Long tradition leads to general cultural valence (beyond specific religious significance) and to further revisions
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Resulting in the existence of different variants of a mythical narrative = polymorphy of mythical narratives
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Resulting in the combination of different layers within one specific narrative variant = polystratic nature of single mythical narrative variants
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Resulting in inhomogeneities and inconsistencies in mythical narrative variants, causing significant challenges for the analysis and understanding of myths
Further reading: C. Zgoll 2019, 316-339; 2020, 52-60.
References:
Zgoll, C. 2019, Tractatus mythologicus. Theorie und Methodik zur Erforschung von Mythen als Grundlegung einer allgemeinen, transmedialen und komparatistischen Stoffwissenschaft, Mythological Studies 1, Berlin / Boston. (Open Access: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110541588)
Zgoll, C. 2020, Myths as Polymorphous and Polystratic Erzählstoffe: A Theoretical and Methodological Foundation, in: A. Zgoll / C. Zgoll (ed.), Mythische Sphärenwechsel. Methodisch neue Zugänge zu antiken Mythen in Orient und Okzident, Mythological Studies 2, Berlin / Boston, 9-82. (Open Access: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110652543-002)