Occidental mythology - Joseph Campbell

The Masks of God is the summation of Joseph Campbell's lifelong study of the origins and function of myth. In this volume, Occidental Mythology, Campbell examines the themes that underlie the art, worship and literature of the Western world. Occidental Mythology traces European consciousness from the Levantine earth-goddesses of the Bronze Age and the subsequent tribal invasions that shaped Judaic and Greek myth before examining the influence of Persia, Rome, Islam and Christian Europe on ancient beliefs. The Masks of God traces mankind's history as a search for meaning through ideas, themes and quests of culture and religion.

Joseph Campbell was interested in mythology since his childhood in New York, when he read books about Native Americans, 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.
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Campbell has become the rarest of intellectuals... a serious thinker who has been embraced by popular culture.
. - Newsweek

One cannot but admire the width and diversity of Joseph Campbell's scholarship. Campbell's great gift is for fluent and engaging exposition.
. - New Society

Looks at the myths, rituals and legends of the Western world... The human race is united not just biologically but also spiritually, by ... continually recurring themes, subjects and stories... It is an extremely thorough contribution to our knowledge of the origins of the legends, themes and symbols which are integral to modern culture, both Eastern and Western.
. - Tribune

Campbell's words carry extraordinary weight, not only among scholars but among a wide range of other people who find his research down mythical pathways relevant to their lives today.
. - Time

Campbell's masterwork... has inspired passages connecting with the luminously permanent, beyond gender, beyond time.
. - The Guardian