Occidental Mythology (The Masks of God, Volume 3)

by Joseph Campbell

Overview

The third volume in Campbell’s monumental four-volume series, The Masks of God, traces the mythological underpinnings of Western religions: the shift from female-centered to male-dominated mythologies

Once upon a time in the West, the focal figure of all mythology and worship was the bountiful goddess Earth. She reigned supreme as the mother and nourisher of life and as the receiver of the dead for rebirth. As Joseph Campbell here elucidates, she was more than a symbol of fertility; she was “a metaphysical symbol: the arch personification of the power of Space, Time, and Matter, within whose bound all beings arise and die.”

How, when, and why did this change? Campbell shows how “the mythologies of the goddess mother were radically transformed, reinterpreted, and in large measure even suppressed by those suddenly intrusive patriarchal warrior tribesmen whose traditions have come down to us chiefly in the Old and New Testaments and in the myths of Greece.”

He goes on to describe the mythological underpinnings of Western religions — Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism — and their historical influence on one another. No one who cares about history, mythology, religion, or past or current events in Western civilization can do without this venerable yet perennially fresh analysis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608687299
Publisher:	New World Library
Publication date:	01/18/2022
Pages:	560
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 5.60(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

Joseph Campbell was an American author and teacher best known for his work in the field of comparative mythology. He was born in New York City in 1904, and from early childhood loved to read about American Indians and frequently visited the American Museum of Natural History, where he became captivated by the museum’s collection of totem poles. From those days onward, Campbell’s interest in mythology grew and deepened. He was educated at Columbia University, where he specialized in medieval literature, and, after earning a master’s degree, continued his studies at universities in Paris and Munich.

Throughout his life, he traveled extensively and wrote prolifically, authoring many books, including the classic The Hero with a Thousand Faces, the four-volume series The Masks of God, Myths to Live By, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space, and the Historical Atlas of World Mythology. Campbell died in 1987. In 1988, a series of television interviews, Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth with Bill Moyers, introduced his views to millions of people.

Table of Contents

About the Collected Works of Joseph Campbell ix

Editor's Foreword to the Collected Works of Joseph Campbell Edition xi

On Completion of the Masks of God xv

Part 1 The Age of the Goddess

Introduction. Myth and Ritual: East and West 3

Chapter 1 The Serpent's Bride 9

I The Mother Goddess Eve 9

II The Gorgon's Blood 17

III Ultima Thule 30

IV Mother Right 33

Chapter 2 The Consort of the Bull 39

I The Mother of God 39

II The Two Queens 41

III The Mother of the Minotaur 50

IV The Victory of the Sons of Light 66

Part 2 The Age of Heroes

Chapter 3 Gods and Heroes of the Levant: 1500-500 B.C. 87

I The Book of the Lord 87

II The Mythological Age 92

III The Age of Abraham 104

IV The Age of Moses 114

Chapter 4 Gods and Heroes of the European West: 1500-500 B.C. 129

I The Dialogue of North and South 129

II The Marriages of Zeus 134

III The Night Sea Journey 142

IV The Polls 160

Part 3 The Age of the Great Classics

Chapter 5 The Persian Period: 539-331 B.C. 171

I Ethical Dualism 171

II The Cosmic Fall and Renovation 181

III The King of Kings 192

IV The Remnant 200

V The God of Love 204

Chapter 6 Hellenism: 331 B.C.-A.D. 324 213

I The Marriage of East and West 213

II Syncretistic and Ethnic Monotheism 217

III Mystery Cult and Apocalypse 228

IV The Watchers of the Dead Sea 243

Chapter 7 Great Rome: c. 500 B.C.-C. A.D. 500 261

I The Celtic Province 261

II Etruria 275

III The Augustan Age 280

IV The Risen Christ 298

V The Illusory Christ 323

VI The Mission of Paul 335

VII The Fall of Rome 341

Part 4 The Age of the Great Beliefs

Introduction. The Dialogue of Europe and the Levant 355

Chapter 8 The Cross and the Crescent 361

I The Magi 361

II Byzantium 366

III The Prophet of Islam 376

IV The Garment of the Law 386

V The Garment of the Mystic Way 394

VI The Broken Spell 405

Chapter 9 Europe Resurgent 409

I The Isle of Saints 409

II The Weird of the Gods 423

III ROMA 439

IV AMOR 451

Conclusion. At the Close of an Age 463

Endnotes 469

Illustration Sources 495

A Joseph Campbell Bibliography 497

Index 501

About Joseph Campbell 541

About the Joseph Campbell Foundation 543

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Praise for Occidental Mythology and The Masks of God series:

“The comprehensiveness of his view is amazing . . . Here is substantial discussion of every single important tradition in the West.”
— Alan W. Watts

“I consider this, as his other books, of outstanding importance and scholarship, clarity and depth. I believe that anyone truly interested in the science of man . . . will find these books a wealth of data, penetratingly analyzed and written in such a way that he has the chance of digesting them in his own manner.”
— Erich Fromm

“Campbell’s masterwork . . . has inspired passages connecting with the luminously permanent, beyond gender, beyond time.”
— The Guardian

“[The Masks of God is] the most comprehensive and the most imaginative treatment we have of a subject that sooner or later must claim every serious reader’s attention.”
— The New York Times