Primitive Mythology (The Masks of God, Volume 1)

by Joseph Campbell

Overview

The first volume in Joseph Campbell’s monumental four-volume Masks of God series, originally published in 1959 and now revised with up-to-date science and new illustrations in this Collected Works of Joseph Campbell edition

In this first volume of The Masks of God, the world’s preeminent mythologist explores and illuminates the wellsprings of myth. Showing his exemplary combination of scholarly depth and popular enthusiasm, Joseph Campbell looks at the expressions of religious awe in early humans and their echoes in the rites of surviving primal tribes. Campbell shows how myth has informed our understanding of the world, seen and unseen, throughout time. As he explores and shares archetypal mythic images and practices, he also points to how these concepts inform our personal lives.

Upon completing the monumental Masks of God series, Campbell found that his work affirmed “the unity of the race of man, not only in its biology, but also in its spiritual history.” He likened this unity to a symphony in which various parts create a “great movement.” Perhaps more than ever before, Campbell’s insight is not only illuminating but also inspiring.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608687251
Publisher:	New World Library
Publication date:	12/29/2020
Pages:	528
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.60(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.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Praise for Primitive Mythology and The Masks of God

“A monument of learning, wonder, and wisdom, daringly conceived and brilliantly written by a man who is at home in the Eastern and the Western universe of spirit. . . . In temporal span and spatial scope and in relevance to the needs of its own day, it is unexampled.”
— Henry A. Murray, Harvard University

“[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

Editorial Reviews

A monument of learning, wonder, and wisdom, daringly conceived and brilliantly written.”
— Henry A. Murray, Harvard University

“[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

“One of those history-making syntheses of science and imagination, comparable in its way to The Origin of Species and The Golden Bough.”
— Lewis Gannett, New York Herald-Tribune

From the Publisher