from essentially sophisticated historical statements,

悠久的历史文献
but as possibly deriving from facts, which have obviously been distorted

但神话传说都是从真实故事发展来的
and misunderstood, misused and so on.

只是人们将其歪曲误解滥用了
But it would be reckless, it seems to me,

但是我认为如果将其置之不理
to just put them aside and not ask yourself the question,

是很草率的你们应该扪心自问
"Can there be something believable at the roof of this?"

"这些神话故事是否有历史研究价值呢"
And just to give you some small defense of that approach,

我可以给你们一个反驳的理由
I always like to ask students,

我总是问学生们
"Suppose we didn't have a single historical record, no newspaper,

"如果没有历史文献报纸和日记
no diaries. You know nothing totally reliable for what happened

那么对于美国十八世纪后期的历史
in the latter part of the eighteenth century in America."

你们将一无所知"
Would we know anything about what happened?

那么我们是否了解那时发生了什么呢