A Blog on Mythology and occasionally on Reality.


This is a Blog on Mythology, both Indian and World and especially the analysis of the myths.

In effect, the interpretation of the inherent Symbolism.


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Thursday, October 18, 2012

Quote from Campbell

"The 'common element' in mythology is, of course, the human psyche, which is a function of the human body ...

"Myth, like dream, is an expression of the human imagination thus grounded in the realities of the psyche and, like dream, reflecting equally the influences of a specific social environment (nomadic hunting-and-gathering tribe; settled agricultural sib, city state, or nation; vagrant desert horde; or militaristic empire), which, in turn, is linked to a landscape.

"The common ground, or element, of all mythology is consequently the biology of Homo sapiens, whereas the differentiating factors are (1) geography and (2) the cultural stage horizon. For it is a fact that every mythological system has taken shape within a given geographical horizon, conditioned not only by the landscape from which its imagery is derived, but also by the limits of the body of information according to which all appearances in that only known world are interpreted."

Joseph Campbell, Historical Atlas of World Mythology, Volume II: The Way of the Seeded Earth--Part 1: The Sacrifice, p. 29

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