[55] is the transcendent realm: God^a. Second: divine attributes and divine actions. Then, in the immanent realm, there are also three levels: divine manifestations, sacramental realities, and sign-symbols (sings which have become symbols). So we have six levels, and in these levels you will usually find anything belonging to religious symbols. We come now to the way in which these symbols appear in actual religion. They do not appear in isolation. It is not so, that here is a symbol, and there is a symbol, but they appear in combination, and a combination of symbols is called a myth^b. So we come now to this very important term in religious language, and perhaps also in other forms of language--you can also speak of political myths, and of historical myths. The English word "myth^c" is a translation of the Greek μυθος [mythos], which means "story of the gods," in the later [use?] of the term. Myths are stories of the gods. The gods, in all mythology, are individualized figures: Zeus, Apollo, Dionysius, Hera, Aphrodite, etc. They are sexually differentiated, like human beings. They come from each other, and all together form an original chaotic state of things. They are related to each other in love and hate. They produce the earth, and man upon it. They act in time and space against each other, with man, and against man. They participate in human greatness and human misery. They produce creative and destructive works through man. They give to man cultural and religious traditions. They defend the sacred rites. They help and threaten the human race. They are especially interested in some families, tribes or nations. They have epiphanies and incarnations. They establish sacred places, rites and persons. They create a cult. But they themselves are under the command and threat of a fate (fatum, ειμαρμενη) [heimarmene]*, which is beyond everything, even the gods. Now this is mythology. I gave you this according to the pattern of Greek mythology^d, but you will find very similar things in all mythologies. Many of these characteristics are found everywhere. Usually the mythological gods are not equals, but there is a hierarchy among them, as in aristocratic societies. On the top of this hierarchy is a ruling god, as in Greece: Zeus. Or there is a trinity of ruling gods, as In India. Or a duality, as in Persia. And there are savior-gods who mediate between *cf. Helmut Koester, Introduction to the New Testament, Vol. I, pp. 158f. (Phila.: Fortress Press, 1982). (Ed.)