Students have long struggled, often in vain, with the rules of Latin grammar. The structure of sentences in Latin seems strange to the mind of an Indo-European native speaker. Also, Latin’s heavy use of gerundive and absolute constructions: all those verbal nouns entail a very different pattern of thinking than goes on in modern Indo-European languages.
If we can interpret ancient myths correctly, they could lead us to more accurate and penetrating views of the history of the solar system. They might teach us about the forces at work and explain anomalies bequeathed to us by a long-hidden past. But how can we interpret these myths, the products of minds so far removed from ours? How do we know which interpretation is correct, if any? Are we doomed to speculate without ever achieving certainty?
Here we will interpret two Bronze Age myths to illustrate the high scientific value such myths might contain. We will also see how easy it can be to understand a myth once the right interpretation becomes available.