Transformations of Myth Through Time

For Joseph Campbell this book is fairly accessible. It's apparently a companion book to a series of programs he did for PBS near the end of his life. Because it's an overview of myth from the earliest times up through the medieval Grail stories it did help me finally see some of the points that Campbell was making in other writings of his that I had previously read. However one needs to take the conclusions in the first part of the book with a grain of salt as our discoveries in the last twenty years about early man and even the beginnings of civilizations have changed some expert's opinions about the lives of these peoples. Also the text seemed to, at times, refer to illustrations that may have been used in the TV lecture but didn't show more make it into the book. Still, not a bad starting point to learn about Campbell's views on mythology. show less

First, I would like to make it clear that I did enjoy this book. The essays were both interesting, and informative - they gave a lot of food for thought. They were taken from a documentary (if I'm not mistaken, Mythos I and Mythos II?) shown on PBS some years ago. This book contained a good deal of artwork and pictures, going hand in hand with what Campbell was discussing - being printed in black and white, a bit of the artistic grandeur was lost.

I didn't give the book a higher rating, simply because I had some difficulty with the way the book was put together. Beyond the fact that the physical copy I was reading was falling apart in a few places, I felt that the transcription could have been edited better. Some of the essays went off show more in different directions and were a little bit hard to follow. Furthermore, the book could have been arranged in a bit more of a coherent manner. show less

Kind of obtuse at times, but pretty interesting in spots.

Joseph Campbell opens a window into the history of man's spirituality and puts it all in perspective.

This is the complete telecourse that was broadcast on PBS for Joseph Campbell's Transformations of Myth Through Time. It was removed from the PBS catalog due to questions regarding illustrative materials used by Prof. Campbell. Some extremely rare material was removed along with the offending unauthorized photographs, however. One of these sections deals with an occult ritual that was ONLY pictured on an elaborate solid gold punch bowl from the Greco-Roman period that was housed in the British Museum and during the second world war was replicated in sterling silver. The original gold item was sent to Russia for "safe keeping" and disappeared after the war. The one secretly produced by an employee of the British museum remains and show more Campbell had it "drawn" from the original to better see the details in the figures. It remains an almost unknown treasure of an early occult vessel. This is a very valuable and under appreciated research set. The original tapes have evidently been "retired" by PBS and even the large loose leaf teachers manual accompanying them no longer exists in any form according to PBS.

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Thirteen lectures on various myths by Joseph Campbell.

Book Description: HarperCollins Publishers Inc 1991. Transformations of Myth Through Time 30 December 1998 Paperback, 263 pages, B&w Photographs and Illustrations HarperCollins Publishers Inc New York, NY, USA ISBN 0060964634 Dimensions in millimeters: 235 x 189 x 19 Dimensions in inches: 9.25 x 7.44 x 0.75 By Joseph Campbell