Myths to Live By [Paperback]

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? InMyths to Liveby, 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.Myths to Live By Foreword
Preface
I. The Impact of Science on Myth
II. The Emergence of Mankind
III. The Importance of Rites
IV. The Separation of East and West
V. The Confrontation of East and West in Religion
VI. The Inspiration of Oriental Art
VII. Zen
VIII. The Mythology of Love
IX. Mythologies of War and Peace
X. Schizophrenia - the Inward Journey
XI. The Moon Walk - the Outward Journey
XII. Envoy: No More Horizons
Reference Notes
IndexJoseph 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 Scl£.