Summary of Joseph Campbell's Myths to Live By

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 I have selected and arranged a baker's dozen of talks on mythology that I gave between 1958 and 1971. The topics and titles I owe to the fertile mind of Dr. Johnson E. Fairchild, the chairman of The Forum, who kept that blithesome institution running for nearly 25 years.

#2 The medieval concept of the earth was that it was a flat, floating dish surrounded by a boundless cosmic sea, in which there were all sorts of dangerous monsters. The more seriously considered medieval concept was that the earth was a solid, stationary sphere in the center of a Chinese box of seven transparent revolving spheres, in each of which there was a visible planet.

#3 The medieval view of the universe was that it was perfectly ordered, and the Christian Empire was an earthly reflection of the order of the heavens. The entire southern hemisphere was believed to be water, with the Mountain of Purgatory rising out of it.

#4 When Columbus set out to explore the world, he believed that it was a flat disk surrounded by a ocean. When he reached the northern coast of South America, he noticed that the quantity of fresh water there was enormous. He believed that the fresh waters were coming from a river of Paradise, which was pouring into the southern sea from the base of the great antipodal mountain.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822501768

IRB Media

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Insights on Joseph Campbell's Myths to Live By

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I have selected and arranged a baker's dozen of talks on mythology that I gave between 1958 and 1971. The topics and titles I owe to the fertile mind of Dr. Johnson E. Fairchild, the chairman of The Forum, who kept that blithesome institution running for nearly 25 years.

#2

The medieval concept of the earth was that it was a flat, floating dish surrounded by a boundless cosmic sea, in which there were all sorts of dangerous monsters. The more seriously considered medieval concept was that the earth was a solid, stationary sphere in the center of a Chinese box of seven transparent revolving spheres, in each of which there was a visible planet.

#3

The medieval view of the universe was that it was perfectly ordered, and the Christian Empire was an earthly reflection of the order of the heavens. The entire southern hemisphere was believed to be water, with the Mountain of Purgatory rising out of it.

#4

When Columbus set out to explore the world, he believed that it was a flat disk surrounded by a ocean. When he reached the northern coast of South America, he noticed that the quantity of fresh water there was enormous. He believed that the fresh waters were coming from a river of Paradise, which was pouring into the southern sea from the base of the great antipodal mountain.

#5

The end of the authority of the old mythological systems was marked by the 1492 voyage of Columbus. The earth was beginning to be systematically explored, and the old, symbolic, mythological geographies were being discredited.

#6

The Old Testament, which is the basis of all the Jewish legends of Creation, Exodus, and the Conquest of Canaan, was not written by God or anyone named Moses, but was compiled from various dates and authors after the period of Ezra.

#7

The peoples of all the great civilizations have been prone to interpret their own symbolic figures literally, and so to regard themselves as favored in a special way. The polytheistic Greeks and Romans, Hindus, and Chinese all thought of their own gods as superior.

#8

The loss of myths, which are the supports of societies, leads to uncertainty and disequilibrium. Without them, life becomes difficult, and people are left with nothing to hold on to.

#9

The traditional view of myth is that it is a record of events that happened a