This essay considers Patočka’s notions of the relationship between literature and myth. It seeks to demonstrate that the question of how the relationship between myth in pre-modern literature (ancient and medieval) differs from that in modern literature is answered by Patočka’s ideas about the revelation of the “substantial” or “existing as a whole” in literature. In this context, the essay emphasizes the impact of Heidegger’s conception of the work of art on Patočka’s thinking about literature. Furthermore, the essay demonstrates the nature of the relationship between literature and myth by means of Patočka’s concept of the three “movements of life.” It is in literature, that the movement of truth, that is, the search for the individual meaning of life (as opposed to the collective meaning of life), is realized. Finally, the essay shows that Patočka emphasizes that in literature the movement of truth suppresses the movements of acceptance and self-prolonging. In myth, by contrast, the dimensions of the movements of acceptance and of self-prolonging come to the fore and the movement of truth is concealed by the “ontological metaphor.”