The temporal rough terrain of myth

If the religious myth is associated with the sacred and the denial of time, prophecy is, at first glance, ambivalent: it belongs both to the realm of the sacred and that of the profane. However, because of its intertwining with timelessness, as the analysis of Judaism shows, prophecy ends up better defined in connection with the eternal or repetitive, as opposed to the unique, linear time that religious myths antagonize. Nonetheless, one should distinguish between religious myths and profane myths, as one should differentiate between sacred prophecies and profane ones. such a distinction can be more fruitful than the difference between myth and history. The profane myth, like the religious one (like any language) uses signs, yet with other meanings. Furthermore, unlike the religious myth, the profane myth is sort of impregnated with time: it comes and goes rather too quickly.