Joseph Campbell Biography

Joseph Campbell Biography


  1. Are myths lies? NO! People live by them.
  2. "God is a metaphor for a mystery that transcends all categories of truths." - Campbell
    • All truth comes from aesthetic
  3. James Joyce
    • Ulysses: Retells Odyssey in Roman perspective- see The Odyssey
    • One day of Ulysses in Ireland
    • Mythological themes for modern vision
    • Writes in a stream of consciousness - everything he thinks about
    • Finnegan's Wake: very difficult to understand; contains mythological material
  4. Carl Jung
    • Influenced Campbell: "myths are like dreams"
    • Universal symbols through mythology: myth, dream, art
    • Everything from one source of energy: I myth of the world
  5. What does material mean to life?
    • Female POV: POV of life
    • Campbell retold Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach
      1. Campbell worked on his Ph.D. in Arthurian legends
      2. Medieval novel of the authentic life: Romanticism: you can change your life; try to find the holy grail
      3. Inauthentic life: Love and marriage are chosen for you; you learn to love everyone
      4. Physical and marriage are consummation of love
  6. Hero With 1000 Faces
    • Hero personified as mythology; journey through world
    • With a hero, you have the key to the muses: Apollo’s 9 female companions: tied to art, dreams, myth
    • Inner world (response) and outer world (scholarship)
  7. Follow Your Bliss: Push of existence; integrity of life
  8. Terminal Moraine
    • Accumulation of rubble when glacier falls
    • Mythology today is a rubble friend from one time particular religion; relate own religion to a particular area.