The Masks of God
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"Jung's idea of the "archetypes" is one of the leading theories, today, in the field of our subject. It is a development of the earlier theory of Adolf Bastian..." (The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology) "The watchword, therefore, was soma sema, “the body, a tomb.” And a system both of thought and of practice, exactly paralleling that of Indian asceticism, was ..."--Masks Of God Primitive Mythology by Joseph Campbell |
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The Masks of God (1959 - 1968) is a four-volume book by Joseph Campbell. The volumes cover mythology from around the world, from ancient to modern. Where The Hero with a Thousand Faces focused on the commonality of mythology (the “elementary ideas”), the Masks of God books focus upon historical and cultural variations the monomyth takes on (the “folk ideas”). In other words, where The Hero with a Thousand Faces draws perhaps more from psychology, the Masks of God books draw more from anthropology and history. The four volumes of Masks of God are as follows: Primitive Mythology, Oriental Mythology, Occidental Mythology, and Creative Mythology.
The book is quoted by proponents of the Christ myth theory. Campbell writes, "It is clear that, whether accurate or not as to biographical detail, the moving legend of the Crucified and Risen Christ was fit to bring a new warmth, immediacy, and humanity, to the old motifs of the beloved Tammuz, Adonis, and Osiris cycles."