Myths to Live By

Joseph Campbell

Penguin Publishing Group, Feb 1, 1993 - Social Science - 288 pages

"There is no one quite like Joseph Campbell. He knows the vast sweep of man's panoramic past as few men have evern known it." -The Village Voice

What is a properly functioning mythology and what are its functions? Can we use myths to help relieve our modern anxiety, or do they help foster it? In Myths to Live by, Joseph Campbell explores the enduring power of the universal myths that influence our lives daily and examines the myth-making process from the primitive past to the immediate present, retuning always to the source from which all mythology springs: the creative imagination.

Campbell stresses that the borders dividing the Earth have been shattered; that myths and religions have always followed the certain basic archetypes and are no longer exclusive to a single people, region, or religion. He shows how we must recognize their common denominators and allow this knowledge to be of use in fulfilling human potential everywhere.

What people are saying

MYTHS TO LIVE BY

User Review  - Kirkus

Campbell, author of The Masks of God and a respected mythologist, conceived these essays originally as lectures for Cooper Union's Forum series. They still resonate with echos of the hall as he ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - millsge - LibraryThing

Very few understand myth as does Campbell. Even fewer love myths as he does and even less understand how trenchant mythic truth really is. Read this book and attempt to live by these myths and you will affect society more than you can imagine.

Contents

• The Impact of Science on Myth: 3
• The Emergence of Mankind: 21
• The Importance of Rites: 44

About the author

Joseph Campbell was interested in mythology since his childhood in New York, when he read books about American Indians, frequently visited the American Museum of Natural History, and was fascinated by the museum's collection of totem poles. He earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees at Columbia in 1925 and 1927 and went on to study medieval French and Sanskrit at the universities of Paris and Munich. After a period in California, where he encountered John Steinbeck and the biologist Ed Ricketts, he taught at the Canterbury School, then, in 1934, joined the literature department at Sarah Lawrence College, a post he retained for many years. During the 1940s and '50s, he helped Swami Nikhilananda to translate the Upanishads and The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. The many books by Professor Campbell include The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Myths to Live By, The Flight of the Wild Gander, and The Mythic Image. He edited The Portable Arabian Nights, The Portable Jung, and other works. He died in 1987.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Myths to Live By
• Author: Joseph Campbell
• Contributor: Johnson E. Fairchild
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 1993
• ISBN: 0140194614, 9780140194616
• Length: 288 pages
• Subjects: Literary Criticism / Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology; Philosophy / History & Surveys / General; Social Science / Folklore & Mythology