Identifying with the infinite, the circle as a symbol, clowns and masks, epiphanies and James Joyce, artistic arrest, the monstrous as sublime, the dance of Shiva, that which is beyond words.
Chapters: The Power of Myth is based on the interviews between Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers that were the basis for the acclaimed television series.
Campbell defines the function of a mythology as the provision of a cultural framework for a society or people to educate their young, and to provide them with a means of coping with their passage through the different stages of life from birth to death.
This is true even though Western society previously learnt from, and was informed by, the mythology of other cultures by including the study of Greek and Roman writings as part of its heritage.
The physical scope of Biblical mythology was limited to the general area of the Middle East but in other parts of the world, Chinese and Aztec religions and cultures emerged as separate and distinct belief systems.
The form and function of mythology in the modern world is the main topic of this chapter and to illustrate his ideas, Campbell recounts aspects of his own earlier life.
He recalls the excitement he felt when he realized that the motifs of creation, death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven, which the nuns were teaching him at his school, also occurred in American Indian myths.
Contemporary rituals are carried out to mark special events in private lives, such as an individual's marriage or enlistment in a branch of the armed forces and on public occasions such as the inauguration of civil and national leaders.
In general, however, Campbell and Moyers reach the conclusion that there is a lack of effective mythology and ritual in modern American society.
They claim that the exclusion of classical studies from the modern educational syllabus has led to a lack of awareness of the mythological foundations of western society's heritage.
This, combined with an increased materialism and emphasis on technology, has led to modern youth in New York becoming alienated from the mainstream of society and inventing their own morality, initiations and gangs.
In a similar fashion, John Wayne is identified as a modern myth and Campbell recalls Douglas Fairbanks as having been a boyhood hero.
At the beginning of this chapter, and in other parts of the book, Campbell states that modern society lacks the stability it previously derived from being educated in the mythology and legends of the Greek and Roman classics.
More recently, when the image of the Earth, taken from the lunar landings, was published, it led to the universal realization that human beings must identify with the entire planet.
[4] The words attributed to Chief Seattle, read by Campbell in the fourth episode of the series, were actually written by Ted Perry for a 1972 ecology film called Home.
Perry adapted the text from newspaper accounts that were, in turn, published years after Chief Seattle delivered the actual speech.