The author of the article deals with specific features of literary myth concerning intertextuality, and mainly the issue of identification of hypotext in literary texts rewriting the mythological narrative. Providing works of the three writers as an example - André Gide, Jean Lorrain, Paul Valéry - the author points out the French literature tendency (( fin de siècle }} to ambiguous oscilation between the creation of the myth itself and its interpretation beyond the scope of one comprehensive artistic discourse.