Aiso BY JOSEPH CAMPBELL The Masks of God: Oriental Mythology JOSEPH CAMPBELL The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology The Hero with a Thousand Faces A Skcleton Key to Finncgans Wake THE (WITH HENRY MORTON ROBINSON) EDITED BY JOSEPH CAMPBELL MASKS OF 60D: The Portafale Arabian Nights OCCIDENTAL MYTHOLOGY LONDON SECK.ER & WARBURG : 1965 + + + » + * 4444 + * t »4-*-4t* 4+4-44444 »+•» 4- Copyright (c) 1964 by Joseph Campbell All rights reserved CONTENTS First published in England 1965 by Martin Secker & Warburg Limited » + «4+4+444+44 14 Carlisle Street, Soho Square W. l PART ONE: THE..AGE OF THE The Scripture quotations in this publication are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyrighted 1946 and 1952 by the Di- GODDESS Introduction. Myth and Ritual: East vision of Christian Education, National Council of Churches, and used by permission. and West 9 Chapter 1. The Serpent's Bride 9 The author wishes to acknowledge \vith gratitude ihe 17 generous support of his researches by the Bollingen Foundation i. The Mother Goddess Eve n. 31 The Gorgon's Blood 34 m. Ultima Thule Printed in England by IV. Mother Right D. R. Hillman & Son Ltd 42 Frome Chapter 2. The Consort of the Bull 42 45 i. The Mother of God 54 ir. The Two Queens 72 m. The Mother of the Minotaur iv. The Victory of the Sons of Light PART TWO: THE AGE OF HERDES Chapter 3. Gods and Heroes of the Levant: 1500-500 B.C. 95 i. The Book of the Lord The 95 n. Mythological Age The Age 101 m. of Abraham The Age of 113 iv. Moses 125 Chapter 4. Gods and Heroes of the European West: 1500-500 B.C. Hl i. The Dialogue of North and South H. The 141 W Marriages of Zeus 146 ^.±10 '>' ..G-. »'! '!•< •: ' A . \ +44+44++H+-++ Part One *+M*+*4*4+"»*4++»t» THE AGE OF THE GODDESS +++>+++*+*»+*+*++ Introduction Myth and Ritual: East and West T l he .he geographical divide between the Oriental and Occidental ranges of myth and ritual is the tableland of Iran. Eastward are the two Spiritual provinces of India and the Far East; westward, Europe and Üie Levant. Throughout the Orient the idea prevails that the ultimate ground of being transcends thought, imaging, and definition. It cannot be qualified. Hence, to argue that God, Man, or Nature is good, just, merciful, or benign, is to fall short of the question. One could äs appropriately—or inappropriately-—have argued, cvil, unjust, mer- ciless, or malignant. All such anthropomorphic predications screen or mask the actual enigma, which is absolutely beyond rational con- sideration; and yet, according to this view, precisely that enigma is the ultimate ground of being of each and every one of us—and of all things. The supreme aim of Oriental mythology, consequently, is not to establish äs substantial any of its divinities or associated rites, but to render by means of these an experience that goes beyond: of identity with that Being of beings which is both immanent and transcendent; yet neither is nor is not. Prayers and chants, images, temples, gods, sages, definitions, and cosmologies are but ferries to a shore of experience beyond the categories of thought, to be aban- doned on arrival; for, äs the Indian Kena Upanishad states: "To know is not to know, not to know is to know";1 * and the Chinese Tao Te Ching: "Those who know are still." 2 "Thou art that," declares the Vedic sage;3 and the Japanese: "It is your true seif." * "O thou," states a basic Buddhist text, "who art gone, who art *Numbered rcference noies begin on page 527. 3 CONTENTS CONTENTS vii III. The Night Sea Journey The Polis 157 m. The Prophet of Islam 419 IV. 177 PART THREE: THE AGE OF THE GREAT iv. The GarrÄent of the Law 430 The Garment of the Mysüc Way CLASSICS v. 440 VI. The Broken Spell 453 Chapter 5. The Persian Period: 539-331 B.C. 189 Chapter 9. Europe Resurgent i. 456 I. Ethical Dualism 189 The Isle of Saints n. The 45 II. The Cosmic Fall and Renovation 200 Weird of the Gods 6 in. The King of Kings 213 III. ROMA 473 IV. The Remnant 221 IV. AMOR 490 v. The God of Love 226 504 Chapter 6. Hellenism: 331 B.C-324 237 Condusion. At the Close of an Age 518 A.D. 237 Reference Notes r. The Marriage of East and West n. 527 242 Index Syncretistic and Ethnic Monotheism in. Mystery 253 546 Cult and Apocalypse iv. The Watchers of the Dead 271 Sea Chapter 7. Great Rome: c. 500 B.C.-c. 500 291 A.D. 291 l. The Celtic Province 307 n. Etruria 313 m. The August an Age 334 IV. The Risen Christ 362 v. The Illusory Christ 375 VI. The Mission of Paul 383 VII. The Fall of Rome PART FOUR: THE AGE OF THE GREAT BELIEFS Introduction. The Dialogue of Europe and the Levant 397 Chapter 8. The Cross and the Crescent 402 i. The Magi n. 402 Byzantium 407 Axis Mundi; c. 1600-1350 B.C. 12 ILLUSTRATIONS « Figure444*44444444* 1. From King t t M Gudea's M M Votive Cup: The Serpent Figure 13. Mycenaean Ivory: The Two Queens^and the Lord; Sumer, c. 2025 B.c. (The Louvre) King; Mycenae, c. 1300 B.C. (National Museum, Figure 2. ElamiteILLUSTRATIONS Pottery Design: The World Tree; Susa, Athens) 48 Sassanian Period (The Louvre) Figure 14. Early Red-figured Vase Painting: Demeter, Triptoiemus, and Persephone; Boeotia, 5th cen-tury Figure 3. Akkadian Cylinder Seal: The Serpent Lord En- •H--4 + 444444 +t MMt M444M + 44444 B.C. (Former National Museum, Berlin) 49 throned; Teil Asmar, c. 2350-2150 B.C. Figure 15. Mycenaean "Signet Ring of Nestor": The Tree Figure 4. Syro-Hittite Cylinder Seal: Gilgamesh at the of Eternal Life; Pylos, c. 1550-1500 B.C. 51 Figure 5. Figure 16. Sumerian Terra-cotta Plaque: Moon-Bull and Lion-Bird; c. 2500 B.C. (University Museum, Babylonian Cylinder Seal: The Garden of Im- Philadelphia.) 55 mortality; c. 1750-1550 B.C. (Museum of The Figure 17. Cretan Caraelian Bead Seal: Minotaur and Man- Hague) 13 Lion: c. 1400-1100 B.C. (Heraklion Museum) 60 Figure 6. Sumerian Cylinder Seal: The Goddess of the Figure 18. Cretan Gold Bead Seal: The Sacrifice; c. 1400- Tree; c. 2500 B.c. (British Museum) 14 1100 B.C. 61 Figure 7. Votive Taolet: Demeter and Plutus; Eteusis, c. Figure 19. Mycenaean Gold Signet Ring: The Goddess of 5th Century B.C. (Uffizi Gallery, Florence) 15 the Double Ax; c. 1550-1500 B.C. 71 Figure 8. Votive Tablet: Zeus Meilichios; The Piraeus, Figure 20. Cretan Fai'ence Statuette: The Serpent Goddess; 4th Century B.C. (Former National Museum, Knossos, c. 1700-1580 B.C. (Heraklion Mu Berlin) 18 seum) 150 Figure 9. Vase Painting: The Tree of the Hesperides; Figure 21. Cretan Limestone Statuettes: The Serpent God source and date unknown 21 dess; Knossos, c. 1700-1580 B.C. (Heraklion Figure 10. Early Red-figured Vase Painting: Zeus against Museum) 151 Typhon; c. 650 B.C. (Munich Museum) 23 Figure 22. Greco-Etruscan Black-figured Vase: The Judg- Figure II. Early Red-figured Vase Painting: Aphrodite with mcnt of Paris; c. 6th Century B.C. (The Louvre) 161 Erotes; c. 5th Century B.C. (Former National Figure 23. Mithraic Marblc Group: Mithra Tauroctonus; Museum, Berlin) 28 Italy, 3rd Century A.D. (British Museum) 257 Figure 12. Cretan Signet Ring: The Goddess of the World Figure 24. Mithraic Marble Image: Zervan Akarana; Ostia, Mountairi; Knossos, c. 1400 B.c. 45 Italy, dedicated 190 A.D. (Vatican) 262 Figures 25 and 26. Amulets Bearing Jewish Symbols: law, äs Anguipede; 2nd-lst centuries B.c. 274-275 Figure 27. Gallo-Roman Altar, "Le Pilier des Nautes": . Esus, from beneath Notre-Dame de Paris; 14— 37 A.D. (Cluny Museum, Paris) 306 4 OCCIDENTAL MYTHOLOGY INTRODUCTION 5 gone, who art gone to the yonder shore, who at the yonder shore tide and was followed by the victories of Rome. However, hast disembarked: Enlightenment! Hail!" 8 even in the earllest Roman period, a countcr-current of Levan- In the Western ranges of mythological thought and imagery, on tine mjthologies flowing west had bcgun to make itself feit. Dur- the other hand, whether in Europe or in the Levant, the ground of ing the Carthaginian wars, in 204 B.C., the cult of the Phrygian being is normally personified äs a Creator, of whom Man is the Magna Mater was introduced formally to the city. Stoicism also creature, and the two are not the same; so that here the function of carried a Levantine-Oriental strain, and at the height of Roman myth and ritual cannot be to catalyze an experience of ineflable power, in the period of the Antonines, the Persian syncretic cult identity. Man alone, turned inward, according to this view can of Mithra became the chief religion of the empire. Christianity experience only his own creatureiy soul, which may or may not followed, after which the European empire feil, and Levantine be properly related to its Creator. The high function of Occi- Byzantium assumed both its name and its role äs the New or Sec- dental myth and ritual, consequently, is to establish a means of ond Rome. Next, Mohammed's revelation burst upon the world, in relationship—of God to Man and Man to God. Such means are 622 A.D., and through the following millennium bade fair to be- furnished, furthermore, by institutions, the rules of which cannot be come the ultimate religion of mankind—until, once again, the tide learned through any scrutiny of nature, whether inward or with- turned.