Palaephatus uses the principles that the world has always operated in the same way and that myths convey some confused element of the truth, and gives the myths the most superficial naturalizing reinterpretation. Gods are banished, not naturalized. Albert Henrichs studies the fluid boundaries between history and myth in the Hellenistic period through a study of human sacrifice. In the Hellenistic period we see a relaxation of the boundary between the human and divine, myth and ritual. Phaenias, for example, foists myth into 'history', making it prose fiction.
Gods increasingly become culture heroes, men become deified.
Thomas Johansen identifies three uses of mythos in Aristotle. First, it is a term of abuse against Herodotos for fanciful stories. Second, it is a term for a false explanatory account. Because such myths are explanatory, they appear in his scientific work and are part of the endoxa. Fritz Graf looks at myths of technology.