The Power of Myth

by Joseph Campbell

Bill Moyers (Secondary Author)

Joseph Campbell, who died on October 31, 1987, was the world's foremost authority on mythology, a preeminent scholar, writer, and teacher whose work has had a profound influence on millions. To him, mythology was "the song of the universe, the music of the spheres."

In The Power of Myth, he and distinguished journalist Bill Moyers offer a brilliant combination of wisdom and wit in conversations that range from modern marriage ("Marriage is a relationship. When you make the sacrifice in marriage, you're sacrificing not to each other but to unity in a relationship") to virgin births, from savior figures to heroic figures such as Luke Skywalker from Star Wars ("...By overcoming the dark passions, the hero symbolizes our ability to control the irrational savages within us.")

The Power of Myth is a great summing up of Joseph Campbell's work, sure to stand alongside his two celebrated classics The Hero With a Thousand Faces and The Masks of God and his recent The Atlas of World Mythology.

• ISBN10: 0385247737
• ISBN13: 9780385247733
• Publish Date: 1 May 1988
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Doubleday Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 231
• Language: English

Reviews

[jamiereadthis]

It’s been a few years since I read this but there is just as much great stuff in here this time through. I think this book, these ideas, shaped my brain more than I ever realized. So many of these ideas are just second nature now.

Idealistic and/or swampy in parts but so provoking, challenging, and valuable.

[ladygrey]

This book came highly recommended to me and I knew [a:Joseph Campbell|2938140|Jacob Grimm|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1242997930p2/2938140.jpg] has been highly influential in the modern study of mythology. As an explorer of storytelling I was excited to finally sit down and see what he had to say. What I found was largely disappointing. When he actually spoke about stories and the hero's journey and the role of myth in shaping society it was pretty interesting. But probably 60-70% of the book he spends deep in nature god and pagan myths and Buddhism and Indian myths that I found less relevant to the art and influence of storytelling. And I disagreed with the way he equated Christian myths with all other myths. I agree with [a:C.S. Lewis|1069006|C.S. Lewis|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1211981595p2/1069006.jpg] who said, "The story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth working on us in the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened."

Overall, if I was going to be reading about the philosophy of storytelling I would have rather been reading Lewis or [a:J.R.R. Tolkien|656983|J.R.R. Tolkien|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1199863358p2/656983.jpg] or [a:Madeleine L'Engle|106|Madeleine L'Engle|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1198342840p2/106.jpg] or [a:Frederick Buechner|19982|Frederick Buechner|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-M-50x66.jpg].