Summary of Joseph Campbell's Myths to Live By

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#1 I have selected and arranged a baker's dozen of talks on mythology that I gave between 1958 and 1971. The topics and titles I owe to the fertile mind of Dr. Johnson E. Fairchild, the chairman of The Forum, who kept that blithesome institution running for nearly 25 years.

#2 The medieval concept of the earth was that it was a flat, floating dish surrounded by a boundless cosmic sea, in which there were all sorts of dangerous monsters. The more seriously considered medieval concept was that the earth was a solid, stationary sphere in the center of a Chinese box of seven transparent revolving spheres, in each of which there was a visible planet.

#3 The medieval view of the universe was that it was perfectly ordered, and the Christian Empire was an earthly reflection of the order of the heavens. The entire southern hemisphere was believed to be water, with the Mountain of Purgatory rising out of it.

#4 When Columbus set out to explore the world, he believed that it was a flat disk surrounded by a ocean. When he reached the northern coast of South America, he noticed that the quantity of fresh water there was enormous. He believed that the fresh waters were coming from a river of Paradise, which was pouring into the southern sea from the base of the great antipodal mountain.

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eBook: 21 maja 2022