Ned Rifle's Reviews > The Hero With a Thousand Faces

Joseph Campbell has done a lot of good work in this book and others. Unfortunately the good of the work was research. His theories themselves (not so much the pattern-spotting as his rather shallow interpretation of the material, which is basically glorified self-help) are very easy to ignore. Read him to steal his stories and then regale your friends with them, much embellished, if need be; the beauty of these stories is that they speak directly. Also get as many of the books he references as you can, or if you are precious with your time, just make notes of them. I have yet to track down enough of these.

Here is one African creation myth (which may be from The Power of Myth):

Originally everyone dwelt within the earth and knew no other way until, one day, a rope dropped down. Everyone gaily clambered up it. The last to do so was an incredibly fat person. As this mass began to climb the rope snapped, and so people were forever cut off from the earth.


One day a Rakshasa approached Shiva and demanded his wife, Parvati. Shiva politely informed the lout that Parvati was his wife and that he was,obviously, Shiva. The Rakshasa did not seem much affected by this news and simply demanded anew. Shiva now lost patience and created a monstrous creature, designed to eat the intruder. At the sight of this fearsome beast the Rakshasa fell to his knees and begged for mercy, which Shiva duly, and graciously, granted. The Rakshasa fled. Now, though, the newly-made beast spoke-up, complaining, understandably that it was ravenous since, after all, it had been created hungry in order to better facilitate its inevitable task. On hearing this reasonable complaint Shiva instructed the creature to eat itself, which it duly did.


I may, in time, add more that I have told from time, to time.