C.S. Lewis said myths are lies breathed through silver. Who said something similar first?

Question

I know I read something similar from an earlier source but I cannot remember who it was.

Answer 1

Lewis and Tolkien on myths

Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and a friend were discussing the nature of Myths while on a walk in 1931...

Lewis explained to the other two his belief that though they have
a certain power, myths are 'lies and therefore worthless, even though breathed through silver.'

'No,' said Tolkien. 'They are not lies.'

At that moment, Lewis later recalled, there was 'a rush of wind
which came so suddenly on the still, warm evening and sent so
many leaves pattering down that we thought it was raining.
We held our breath.'

...We have come from God, Tolkien argued, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God.

And this is how Tolkien understood his own Middle Earth, as 'a splintered fragment of the true light.'

(Daniel Kennelly, 'Tolkien: Man and Myth' book review)

Answer 2

Somebody with a prejudice against myths...try some rational-minded fool with no sense of art.

I don't know who said it, but a lot of people were really down on superstitions, myths, legends, fairy tales, all those forms of traditional folk wisdom that are both entertaining and informative.

Age of Reason. Whatever. If art is irrational, I'll take art over reason anytime.

Answer 3

You said it last week. Don't you remember?