Because he believed there was not one "authentic" version of a myth, rather that they were all manifestations of the same language, he sought to find the fundamental units of myth, namely, the mytheme.
因為他相信，並不存在著一種「真確」版本的神話，而是，這些神話都是同一種語言的所有表現型態，他試圖發現神話的基本單元，即神话素（mytheme）。