Myths to Live By Study Guide & Notes

Myths to Live By Plot Summary

Preview of Myths to Live By Summary:

Myths to Live by by Joseph Campbell is a compilation of his lectures compiled into comparative examination of each of the world's major religions, as well as its lesser-known primitive religions, all of which Campbell calls mythologies. Describing the origins of each, Campbell points out the understandings of each culture's immediate surroundings and how those understandings informed the development of that culture's mythology. As he moves through his examinations, he discusses the purposes the mythologies served within each culture, and whether or not those objectives are still useful in a post-enlightenment, scientific age. His larger purpose throughout is to use the consistencies between each mythology to find the themes common to all of humanity, written on the human mind and there for the purpose of pointing to the divinity common to every member of humanity. His ultimate thesis is that humanity is the mind of the...
(read more)