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Le maschere di Dio - Mitologia primitiva
Mitologia primitiva è il primo volume della tetralogia di Joseph Campbell, Le maschere di Dio. Quest’opera monumentale, un caposaldo nell’ambito della mitologia comparata, rappresenta l’esito degli studi condotti dal grande mitologo americano sulla base delle scoperte avvenute in ambito archeologico e antropologico, delle nuove prospettive aperte nei campi della simbologia comparata, della religione e della filosofia, nonché grazie all’applicazione della scienza dell’inconscio agli studi di preistoria, mitologia, folclore, etnologia, letteratura, storia dell’arte e filologia. Quello che finalmente si poteva dimostrare era che, oltre a quella biologica, l’uomo ha una storia spirituale unitaria. Lo studio comparato delle mitologie consentiva infatti di riconoscere alcuni temi comuni a tutte le comunità umane di ogni luogo e il furto del fuoco, il diluvio, la terra dei morti, la nascita verginale e la risurrezione dell’eroe, ripresi nelle liturgie, interpretati da veggenti, poeti, teologi o filosofi, illustrati in arte, magnificati nelle canzoni, sperimentati estaticamente in visioni sovrannaturali, sviluppati e amplificati attraverso mille variazioni.
Questo volume, cui seguiranno Mitologia orientale, Mitologia occidentale e Mitologia creativa, è dedicato allo studio delle risorse dell’uomo «Scandagliando le caverne degli artisti (maghi di Cro-Magnon); ancora più a fondo, le tane dei cannibali delle ère glaciali, che divoravano i cervelli crudi dei loro nemici; e, più oltre ancora, esaminando gli enigmatici resti scheletrici calcarei di quelli che ora sembrano essere stati pigmei cacciatori, simili a scimpanzé nelle pianure del Transvaal primitivo, noi potremo trovare segreti non soltanto delle culture più sviluppate dell’Oriente e dell’Occidente, ma anche delle nostre stesse aspettative più intime, delle nostre reazioni spontanee e delle nostre paure ossessive».
Questo volume, cui seguiranno Mitologia orientale, Mitologia occidentale e Mitologia creativa, è dedicato allo studio delle risorse dell’uomo «Scandagliando le caverne degli artisti (maghi di Cro-Magnon); ancora più a fondo, le tane dei cannibali delle ère glaciali, che divoravano i cervelli crudi dei loro nemici; e, più oltre ancora, esaminando gli enigmatici resti scheletrici calcarei di quelli che ora sembrano essere stati pigmei cacciatori, simili a scimpanzé nelle pianure del Transvaal primitivo, noi potremo trovare segreti non soltanto delle culture più sviluppate dell’Oriente e dell’Occidente, ma anche delle nostre stesse aspettative più intime, delle nostre reazioni spontanee e delle nostre paure ossessive».
590 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 2, 2022
About the author
Joseph Campbell
368 books6,380 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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