Synopses & Reviews
An exploration of Eastern mythology as it developed into the distinctive religions of Egypt, India, China, and Japan.
Review
"It is impossible to read this startling and entertaining book without an enlarged sense of total human possibility and an increased receptivity'open-endedness' as Thomas Mann called itto the still living past."
Robert Gorham Davis
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.
Table of Contents
Oriental Mythology
PART ONE: THE SEPARATION OF EAST AND WEST Chapter 1. The Signatures of the Four Great Domains
I. The Dialogue in Myth of East and West
II. The Shared Myth of the One That Became Two
III. The Two Views of Ego
IV. The Two Ways of India and the Far East
V. The Two Loyalties of Europe and the Levant
VI. The Age of Comparison
Chapter 2. The Cities of God
I. The Age of Wonder
II. Mythogenesis
III. Culture Stage and Culture Style
IV. The Hieratic State
V. Mythic Identification
VI. Mythic Inflation
VII. The Immanent Transcendent God
VIII. The Priestcraft of Art
IX. Mythic Subordination
Chapter 3. The Cities of Men
I. Mythic Dissocation
II. Mythic Virtue
III. Mythic Time
IV. The Mythic Flood
V. Mythic Guilt
VI. The Knowledge of Sorrow
PART TWO: THE MYTHOLOGIES OF INDIA
Chapter 4. Ancient India
I. The Invisible Counterplayer
II. The Indus Civilization: c. 2500-1500 B.C.
III. The Vedic