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The Mythic Image
A paperback edition of Campbell's major study of the mythology of the world's high civilizations over five millennia. It includes nearly 450 illustrations. The text is the same as that of the 1974 edition.
Mythologist Joseph Campbell was a masterful storyteller, able to weave tales from every corner of the world into compelling, even spellbinding, narratives. His interest in comparative mythology began in childhood, when the young Joe Campbell was taken to see Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show at Madison Square Garden. He started writing articles on Native American mythology in high school, and the parallels between age-old myths and the mythic themes in literature and dreams became a lifelong preoccupation. Campbell's best-known work is The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), which became a New York Times paperback best-seller for Princeton in 1988 after Campbell's star turn on the Bill Moyers television program The Power of Myth .
During his early years as a professor of comparative religion at Sarah Lawrence College, Campbell made the acquaintance of Indologist Heinrich Zimmer, a kindred spirit who introduced him to Paul and Mary Mellon, the founders of Bollingen Series. They chose Campbell's The Mythic Image as the culmination of the series, giving it the closing position--number one hundred. A lavishly illustrated and beautifully produced study of the mythology of the world's high civilizations, The Mythic Image received a front-cover review in the New York Times Book Review upon publication. Through the medium of visual art, the book explores the relation of dreams to myth and demonstrates the important differences between oriental and occidental interpretations of dreams and life.
Mythologist Joseph Campbell was a masterful storyteller, able to weave tales from every corner of the world into compelling, even spellbinding, narratives. His interest in comparative mythology began in childhood, when the young Joe Campbell was taken to see Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show at Madison Square Garden. He started writing articles on Native American mythology in high school, and the parallels between age-old myths and the mythic themes in literature and dreams became a lifelong preoccupation. Campbell's best-known work is The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), which became a New York Times paperback best-seller for Princeton in 1988 after Campbell's star turn on the Bill Moyers television program The Power of Myth .
During his early years as a professor of comparative religion at Sarah Lawrence College, Campbell made the acquaintance of Indologist Heinrich Zimmer, a kindred spirit who introduced him to Paul and Mary Mellon, the founders of Bollingen Series. They chose Campbell's The Mythic Image as the culmination of the series, giving it the closing position--number one hundred. A lavishly illustrated and beautifully produced study of the mythology of the world's high civilizations, The Mythic Image received a front-cover review in the New York Times Book Review upon publication. Through the medium of visual art, the book explores the relation of dreams to myth and demonstrates the important differences between oriental and occidental interpretations of dreams and life.
568 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1974
37 people are currently reading
1412 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Campbell
423 books6,155 followersJoseph Campbell was an American author and teacher best known for his work in the field of comparative mythology. He was born in New York City in 1904, and from early childhood he became interested in mythology. He loved to read books about American Indian cultures, and frequently visited the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where he was fascinated by the museum's collection of totem poles.
Campbell was educated at Columbia University, where he specialized in medieval literature, and continued his studies at universities in Paris and Munich. While abroad he was influenced by the art of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, the novels of James Joyce and Thomas Mann, and the psychological studies of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. These encounters led to Campbell's theory that all myths and epics are linked in the human psyche, and that they are cultural manifestations of the universal need to explain social, cosmological, and spiritual realities.
After a period in California, where he encountered John Steinbeck and the biologist Ed Ricketts, he taught at the Canterbury School, and then, in 1934, joined the literature department at Sarah Lawrence College, a post he retained for many years. During the 40s and '50s, he helped Swami Nikhilananda to translate the Upanishads and The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. He also edited works by the German scholar Heinrich Zimmer on Indian art, myths, and philosophy. In 1944, with Henry Morton Robinson, Campbell published A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake. His first original work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, came out in 1949 and was immediately well received; in time, it became acclaimed as a classic. In this study of the "myth of the hero," Campbell asserted that there is a single pattern of heroic journey and that all cultures share this essential pattern in their various heroic myths. In his book he also outlined the basic conditions, stages, and results of the archetypal hero's journey.
Throughout his life, he traveled extensively and wrote prolifically, authoring many books, including the four-volume series The Masks of God, Myths to Live By, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space and The Historical Atlas of World Mythology. Joseph Campbell died in 1987. In 1988, a series of television interviews with Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth, introduced Campbell's views to millions of people.
Campbell was educated at Columbia University, where he specialized in medieval literature, and continued his studies at universities in Paris and Munich. While abroad he was influenced by the art of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, the novels of James Joyce and Thomas Mann, and the psychological studies of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. These encounters led to Campbell's theory that all myths and epics are linked in the human psyche, and that they are cultural manifestations of the universal need to explain social, cosmological, and spiritual realities.
After a period in California, where he encountered John Steinbeck and the biologist Ed Ricketts, he taught at the Canterbury School, and then, in 1934, joined the literature department at Sarah Lawrence College, a post he retained for many years. During the 40s and '50s, he helped Swami Nikhilananda to translate the Upanishads and The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. He also edited works by the German scholar Heinrich Zimmer on Indian art, myths, and philosophy. In 1944, with Henry Morton Robinson, Campbell published A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake. His first original work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, came out in 1949 and was immediately well received; in time, it became acclaimed as a classic. In this study of the "myth of the hero," Campbell asserted that there is a single pattern of heroic journey and that all cultures share this essential pattern in their various heroic myths. In his book he also outlined the basic conditions, stages, and results of the archetypal hero's journey.
Throughout his life, he traveled extensively and wrote prolifically, authoring many books, including the four-volume series The Masks of God, Myths to Live By, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space and The Historical Atlas of World Mythology. Joseph Campbell died in 1987. In 1988, a series of television interviews with Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth, introduced Campbell's views to millions of people.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
September 4, 2009
I'm delighted to find at last a book by Campbell that I can recommend without hesitation. The format of this book is a superb fit with his jump-around style. In this lavishly and beautifully illustrated book, Campbell takes several core mythological symbols and explores how they have been used in different cultures. Many of the parallels he demonstrates are fascinating and extraordinary, and his gargantuan knowledge of comparative mythology is on full display. Every page contains at least one surprise. Even more than "Hero With a Thousand Faces", this is the work I would single out as Campbell's masterpiece.
March 24, 2017
I cut my intellectual eye teeth reading Joseph Campbell’s (1904–1987) The Hero with a Thousand Faces. It was his introduction to a generic, comparative history of mythology, using the hero myth as a universal example of the origin and history of consciousness, within the individual in traditional to modern cultures. Afterward, Joseph Campbell’s magnum opus, the four volume The Masks of God series provided the outlines of a universal history of mythology from conjectured preliterate beginnings through to the modern myths of Thomas Mann’s and James Joyce’s forays into the complex levels of self in society. In my view, Joseph Campbell’s The Mythic Image bookends the full array of his studies in mythology, by providing a generic cosmological, comparative snapshot of universal myths as portrayed in story and images. It is a massive book weighing nearly 6 ½ pounds in its hardcover edition. Profusely illustrated throughout with many images supported by lengthy captions and integrated into the illustrative text, the volume not only recapitulates Joseph Campbell’s oeuvre, but is meant as a summary of the Bollingen Series of one hundred extensive studies, most of which celebrate an analytical depth psychology of symbols and history, literature and art, critical studies.
The Mythic Image was produced in 1974 and subsequently Campbell went on to make many more popular studies of mythology as it related to modern and postmodern attempts at self-consciousness. His posthumous, 1988 PBS discussions with Bill Moyer, Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth. The PBS documentary remains one of the most popular series in the history of American public television. The Power of Myth, a book based on the six-part series, has become a best-selling introduction to his mythological project. Not to take away from the near universal acclaim of this dialogue about Campbell’s work, I believe that The Hero with a Thousand Faces and The Mythic Image represent a more concentrated and profound summation of his mythical comparativists project.
Unfortunately, Joseph Campbell’s works in their far-flung synthesizing vision have not touched the academic mainstream with its more plodding, particularistic procedures. Though his writings remain popular and are read with enjoyment and profit by any willing to give them a chance, there are far too few academics who explicitly recognize his pioneering into classic ethnographies, and Age of Reason mythographers, and critical literary studies, except a few popularizers of archetypal psychology and new age cosmologies.
The power of The Mythic Image is the subtlety and depth of analysis as joined to a universal arc of the cosmic-frame of human experience. A study of the photographs with their commentaries and integration into the narrative text provides a nearly unique integration of image and story that gives one a deeply poetic and meditative push into the depths of one’s own mystery of human being as the mingled fresh waters of the stream and dream of life into the salty depths of ocean and immortality. Though I’ve often felt that Joseph Campbell never quite gave the holistic grasp of moska or liberation it’s dizzying due, he encapsulates many levels of the mysteries of experience. In every moment a birth, it seems a window and a door into eternity that teases the clown into the trickster of creation and suffers the hero into the sacrifice of every life, a tragedy and a well-worn sleep.
The Mythic Image was produced in 1974 and subsequently Campbell went on to make many more popular studies of mythology as it related to modern and postmodern attempts at self-consciousness. His posthumous, 1988 PBS discussions with Bill Moyer, Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth. The PBS documentary remains one of the most popular series in the history of American public television. The Power of Myth, a book based on the six-part series, has become a best-selling introduction to his mythological project. Not to take away from the near universal acclaim of this dialogue about Campbell’s work, I believe that The Hero with a Thousand Faces and The Mythic Image represent a more concentrated and profound summation of his mythical comparativists project.
Unfortunately, Joseph Campbell’s works in their far-flung synthesizing vision have not touched the academic mainstream with its more plodding, particularistic procedures. Though his writings remain popular and are read with enjoyment and profit by any willing to give them a chance, there are far too few academics who explicitly recognize his pioneering into classic ethnographies, and Age of Reason mythographers, and critical literary studies, except a few popularizers of archetypal psychology and new age cosmologies.
The power of The Mythic Image is the subtlety and depth of analysis as joined to a universal arc of the cosmic-frame of human experience. A study of the photographs with their commentaries and integration into the narrative text provides a nearly unique integration of image and story that gives one a deeply poetic and meditative push into the depths of one’s own mystery of human being as the mingled fresh waters of the stream and dream of life into the salty depths of ocean and immortality. Though I’ve often felt that Joseph Campbell never quite gave the holistic grasp of moska or liberation it’s dizzying due, he encapsulates many levels of the mysteries of experience. In every moment a birth, it seems a window and a door into eternity that teases the clown into the trickster of creation and suffers the hero into the sacrifice of every life, a tragedy and a well-worn sleep.
August 18, 2011
i will continue to keep this near me as a guide for the study of the conscious and unconscious self and culture. Highly recommend.
November 11, 2015
Прекрасная книга, даже жаль, что дочитал её. Лучшего обзора по всем мифологиям мира с проведением параллелей, аналогий, анализом причин возникновения тех или иных элементов различных традиций я не встречал. Превосходный стиль изложения и множество иллюстраций, с собственными, иногда многостраничными пояснительными комментариями. Рекомендую всем, кто интересуется мифологией и философией религий. Разбираются многочисленные заимствования в христианстве и приводятся примеры истоков заимствований, поэтому исследователям и критикам христианства книга может показаться особенно интересной. Также разбираются элементы буддизма, иудаизма, индуизма и мифологий почти всех народов мира.
February 2, 2008
This is an amazing book on imagery and dreams which are at the root of mythology. I imagine everyone who has written, or thought about writing a screenplay, has this book on the shelf--421 black and white illustrations.
April 17, 2008
Campbell's ability to capture the vast mythological histories of varying cultures continually amazes me. This book has it all, including a plethora of illustrations and art. I could re-read for a lifetime and never remember it all!
January 10, 2017
I think that the value of this book is the beauty of the images and how much they are accesible thanks to the text. I like Joseph Campbell works, and I can reccomend this book to the ones who wants a tour trought some of the most recurrent image in mythologi.
December 28, 2017
To książka na miarę Campbella, tak pełna, tak erudycyjna, tak nafaszerowana wiedzą, że trudno ją w kilku zdaniach podsumować. Trudno rzec, czy tu tekst pełni główną rolę, czy ogromna ilość ilustracji, reprodukcji i zdjęć ukazujących motywy wspólne dla religii świata. Po przeczytaniu w głowie kłębi się od myśli, obrazów, toposów, mam nadzieję, że to się jakoś uporządkuje. Eseistycznym stylem Campbell przekazał to, co w jego teorii monomitu najważniejsze: wspólnotę wszystkich wierzeń oraz fascynację snem.
November 7, 2017
The book starts with Vishnu the cosmic dreamer. And proceeds to connect various myths where the world as a dream is the central motif. The first chapter was the best of them all. Campbell is the best when it comes to connecting myths from various regions and religions of both primitive and oriental. A good book on the language of myths.
February 24, 2018
Campbell combina en su libro el texto propiamente dicho, las imágenes (reproducciones de obras de arte, esculturas, bajorrelieves, objetos arqueológicos) junto a las explicaciones a pie de página de estas imágenes para dar idea de una unicidad presente en todas las mitologías y en todas las religiones, una unicidad que admite la explicación de difusión geográfica por una parte, por otra la de la existencia de arquetipos psicológicos jungianos y quizá de forma más adecuada, la de la existencia de una forma común de considerar lo sagrado y lo divino que se manifiesta de manera similar a lo largo de todo el mundo.
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July 21, 2024A cornucopia. Thought provoking primer.
December 21, 2008
I really was not sure how to rate this book. It is a very interesting book but it is mainly images of mythic figures throughout the ages and cultures and brief explanations of their significance. Read this if you want to delve into comparative mythology, or if you are an art history major.
December 8, 2007
Campbell is right!
People tend to believe in myths.
People tend to believe in myths.
September 9, 2009
Campbell says, "Follow your bliss!" This has meaning for me; although I prefer this stunning line from Mark Strand: "Each moment is a place you've never been."
May 22, 2025
Love a book that is mostly pictures of incredible ancient artwork! A must read for anyone interested in religious artwork of all kinds.
September 13, 2023
Rather than write a review of this man's life work, I'd rather just cite the various posts I've written about him in the past:
• Monomyth Definition: A Defense of The Hero’s Journey
• Hindu Monotheism : The Upanishads and Vedanta
• Follow Your Bliss : Results of Joseph Cambell’s Advice
• The New
Hero: Tolkien and Subversion
• Joseph Campbell Religion :: Did Joseph Campbell Believe in God?
• Joseph Campbell Religion :: Did Joseph Campbell Believe in God?
• Was Joseph Campbell atheist?
And because I like having fun, the Zero with 1,000 Faces
Mark: Got a new lighting rig and arrangement that I want to test out, but I need something that changes and moves around a bunch. You up for a challenge?
Lancelot: [silence. I’m thinking…]
Mark: Day… in the… studio?
Lancelot: New lighting set up?
Mark: Yeah, it’s–
Lancelot: What if I tapped into my old thespian and modeling skillset and tried to give you as many faces as possible?
Mark: So… you’d… wait. Like trying to get me to mix it up as you mix it up?
Lancelot: Yes. You’ll keep me on my toes, making sure the faces are all different. I’ll keep you on your toes so you switch your style.
Mark: Sounds fun.
Lancelot: We’ll call it… [Dr. Evil voice] THE ZERO WITH 1000 FACES.
Mark: [Quiet for awhile, then:] Okay.
Well we got into the studio and I brought exactly four billion props and costumes.
• Monomyth Definition: A Defense of The Hero’s Journey
• Hindu Monotheism : The Upanishads and Vedanta
• Follow Your Bliss : Results of Joseph Cambell’s Advice
• The New
Hero: Tolkien and Subversion
• Joseph Campbell Religion :: Did Joseph Campbell Believe in God?
• Joseph Campbell Religion :: Did Joseph Campbell Believe in God?
• Was Joseph Campbell atheist?
And because I like having fun, the Zero with 1,000 Faces
Mark: Got a new lighting rig and arrangement that I want to test out, but I need something that changes and moves around a bunch. You up for a challenge?
Lancelot: [silence. I’m thinking…]
Mark: Day… in the… studio?
Lancelot: New lighting set up?
Mark: Yeah, it’s–
Lancelot: What if I tapped into my old thespian and modeling skillset and tried to give you as many faces as possible?
Mark: So… you’d… wait. Like trying to get me to mix it up as you mix it up?
Lancelot: Yes. You’ll keep me on my toes, making sure the faces are all different. I’ll keep you on your toes so you switch your style.
Mark: Sounds fun.
Lancelot: We’ll call it… [Dr. Evil voice] THE ZERO WITH 1000 FACES.
Mark: [Quiet for awhile, then:] Okay.
Well we got into the studio and I brought exactly four billion props and costumes.
November 5, 2025
The author's impressive culture illustrates pre-scientific cognition. The book's diverse and voluminous imagery celebrates the variety of the world. However, I am skeptical that cultural similarities are best explained by generic archetypes. Many similarities stem from cultural inheritance or pure chance, neither of which fully address the emergence of images and their specific meanings.
While the book describes images as objects, I suspect cognitive processes combined with stimuli might better explain cross-cultural similarities. As people strive to make sense of common surroundings, they often converge on similar symbols. Just as all languages must contain words for concepts like water and food, it is unsurprising to find materialized words for more abstract things.
While the book describes images as objects, I suspect cognitive processes combined with stimuli might better explain cross-cultural similarities. As people strive to make sense of common surroundings, they often converge on similar symbols. Just as all languages must contain words for concepts like water and food, it is unsurprising to find materialized words for more abstract things.
February 11, 2024
Campbell’s breadth of knowledge on mythologies is huge. His writing style can be beautifully poetic but also sometimes meandering and very dense, which makes it difficult to keep up with. Still, once he gets to the point he is trying to make, it’s reliably brilliant.
I noticed that his ideas and mythological/symbolic comparisons are bit too guided by Hinduism and Buddhism, which makes me feel it’s not as universal as he presents it. Still, it’s Campbell so you will always find fresh ideas that can directly impact your spiritual/psychological outlook.
I noticed that his ideas and mythological/symbolic comparisons are bit too guided by Hinduism and Buddhism, which makes me feel it’s not as universal as he presents it. Still, it’s Campbell so you will always find fresh ideas that can directly impact your spiritual/psychological outlook.
January 22, 2023
This is a wonderful summary of various mythic images around the globe. From Egypt to Indian to Mayan to Buddhist. A grand overview that allows the reader to decide where to delve deeper. My one issue is that at time the sentences and paragraphs seem to jump around randomly leading to some confusion-at least on my part!
June 20, 2019
As the title indicates, the book is an advance study of "The Mythic Image."
January 31, 2020
This book is one of the great book I've ever read. I recommend it to everyone.
April 12, 2020
We are all connected and splendjd art
September 15, 2024
Interesante, como casi todo lo de campbell, aunque no termino por gustarme del todo el tema. Saque, eso si, el nombre de mi perra: Tara.
September 19, 2024
Fun read with great visuals, good to skim as the book isn’t ordered chronologically.
June 20, 2025
incredibly insightful
January 16, 2021
Un racconto dettagliato e minuzioso sulla storia e i miti antichi dell'umanità.
Sebbene la narrazione a volte si spinga oltre la mera analisi di dati storici e si inerpichi per tortuosi sentieri, costellati da ipotesi e similitudini tra religioni e riti pagani, il libro è ricco di spunti e nozioni che consentono al lettore, di costruirsi un ampio campo di ragionamento e conoscenze riguardo ad avvenimenti e cause che, a partire dalle origini del mondo in poi, hanno fortemente influenzato la vita, i comportamenti, le azioni e decisioni che hanno contribuito inevitabilmente, a realizzare la storia degli uomini
Sebbene la narrazione a volte si spinga oltre la mera analisi di dati storici e si inerpichi per tortuosi sentieri, costellati da ipotesi e similitudini tra religioni e riti pagani, il libro è ricco di spunti e nozioni che consentono al lettore, di costruirsi un ampio campo di ragionamento e conoscenze riguardo ad avvenimenti e cause che, a partire dalle origini del mondo in poi, hanno fortemente influenzato la vita, i comportamenti, le azioni e decisioni che hanno contribuito inevitabilmente, a realizzare la storia degli uomini
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May 7, 2017As I've learned from Joseph Campbell (amongst others), any book, or object, regarded from the proper perspective may be transformative for the perceiver. However, some books are more readily transformative than others -- this book is a lightning rod. Campbell's incredible mind analyzes, unpacks, compares, and explains countless images from myriad cultures. The hundreds of pictures & illustrations of mythic images coupled with the associated narrative myths (when available) engender this book with hallowed qualities -- it is a treasure to behold. Campbell deftly organized the book, and the argument he substantiates throughout is well worth weighing and considering. Mythic images are more varied, clarified, deepened, and even more beautifully mysterious than ever to me after this absorbing book.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews