Occidental Mythology (the Masks of God, Volume 3)

The third volume in Campbell's monumental four-volume series, The Masks of God, traces the mythological underpinnings of Western religions: the shift from female-centered to male-dominated mythologies

Once upon a time in the West, the focal figure of all mythology and worship was the bountiful goddess Earth. She reigned supreme as the mother and nourisher of life and as the receiver of the dead for rebirth. As Joseph Campbell here elucidates, she was more than a symbol of fertility; she was "a metaphysical symbol: the arch personification of the power of Space, Time, and Matter, within whose bound all beings arise and die."

How, when, and why did this change? Campbell shows how "the mythologies of the goddess mother were radically transformed, reinterpreted, and in large measure even suppressed by those suddenly intrusive patriarchal warrior tribesmen whose traditions have come down to us chiefly in the Old and New Testaments and in the myths of Greece."

He goes on to describe the mythological underpinnings of Western religions -- Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism -- and their historical influence on one another. No one who cares about history, mythology, religion, or past or current events in Western civilization can do without this venerable yet perennially fresh analysis.


Author: Joseph Campbell
Publisher: New World Library
Published: 01/18/2022
Pages: 560
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.70lbs
Size: 8.60h x 5.70w x 1.70d
ISBN13: 9781608687299
ISBN10: 1608687295
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Folklore & Mythology
- Body, Mind & Spirit | Goddess Worship
- Religion | Christianity | History

About the Author
Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) is widely credited with bringing mythology to a mass audience through his phenomenally popular Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth PBS series with Bill Moyers.