[DISTANCE LEARNING: Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA]

Living Myths:
An Introduction to World Mythology
(RS 300, 3 units)
Texts: JOSEPH CAMPBELL AND THE POWER OF MYTH with Bill Moyers1988; Joseph Campbell, THE MYTHIC IMAGE 1974;

Topics:

  1. Introduction to Mythology & the nature of Mythic Thinking.

  2. Myths of the Old Stone Age in Africa, Australia, & Europe.

  3. Myths of the New Stone Age in North America & Oceania.

  4. Myths of the "civilized tribes": Olmec, Mayan, & Aztec.

  5. Myths of the Bronze Age in Mesopotamia & Egypt.

  6. Myths of the Bronze Age in Minoan Crete.

  7. Myths of the early Iron Age: from Old Europe to Greece, & Rome.

  8. Myths of India: from Bronze Age to Iron Age.

  9. Myths of China: from Bronze Age to Iron Age.

  10. Myths of Japan.

  11. Myths of Monotheism: Judaism, Christianity, & Islam.

  12. Myths of the Early Modern World. The return of urban Individualism.

  13. Myths of the Modern World. The secular quest for the Sacred.

  14. Myths of the Postmodern World. Where are we Today?

[Copyright by Lanier Graham 1996]