• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Joseph Campbell's Reading List for his Comparative Mythology Class at Sarah Lawrence College:

crossfire

LHP Mercuræn Feminist Heretic ☿
Premium Member
Joseph Campbell's Reading List for his Comparative Mythology Class at Sarah Lawrence College:

Ovid's Metamorphoses
Homer's Odyssey
Frazer, Sir James George The Golden Bough
Durkheim, Emile. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
Levy-Bruhl, Lucien. How Natives Think
Freud, Sigmond:
⦁ The Interpretation of Dreams
⦁ Three contributions to the Theory of Sex
⦁ Totem and Taboo
⦁ Moses and Monotheism
Jung, Carl Gustav:
⦁ The Integration of Personality
⦁ The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life (Translated and explained by Richard Wilhelm, with a forward and commentary by Jung)
⦁ The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Forward by Jung)
Coomaraswammy, Ananda. The Dance of Siva
The Bhagavad Gita
Okakuru Kazuko. The Book of Tea
Watts, Alan. The Way of Zen
Herrigel, Eugen. Zen in the Art of Archery
Lao-Tze. Tao Te Ching
Sun-Tzu. The Art of War
Confucius.
⦁ Analects
⦁ The Great Digest and Unwobbling Pivot
Chiera, Edward. They Wrote in Clay: The Babylonian Tablets Speak Today
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. The Birth of Tragedy
Bible, New Testament: Book of Luke
Aeschylus. Prometheus Bound
Euripides.
⦁ Hyppolytus
⦁ Alcestis
Sophocles. Oediups Tyrannus
Plato.
⦁ Phaedrus
⦁ Symposium
The Koran
The Portable Arabian Nights
Beowulf
Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson
Poetic Edda
The Mabinogion
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. Grimm's Fairy Tails
Adams, Henry. Mont Saint Michel and Chartres
Boas, Franz. Race, Language, and Culture
Mann, Thomas. "Tonio Kroger"
Thompson, Stith. Tales of the North American Indians
Opler, Morris Edward. Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians
Benedict, Ruth. Patterns of Culture
Stimson, John E. Legends of Maui and Tahaki
Melville, Herman Typee: The Library of America
Frobenius, Leo, and Douglas C Fox. African Genesis
Radin, Paul. African Folktales and Sculpture
Deren, Maya. Divine Horsemen
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
I wonder how long this course is, as that is such a massive reading list there is no way to meaningfully read more than a small bit off each one, creating the full collection of sourced material that would be covered in an intro class. Are there links to better clarify how this is incorporated into a single class (as indeed many classes will spend an entire semester on just a few of any of those given selections).
 

exchemist

Veteran Member
I wonder how long this course is, as that is such a massive reading list there is no way to meaningfully read more than a small bit off each one, creating the full collection of sourced material that would be covered in an intro class. Are there links to better clarify how this is incorporated into a single class (as indeed many classes will spend an entire semester on just a few of any of those given selections).
Yeah, dons are always doing this. These reading lists are always far too long to be completed by anyone. The best you can do is read half a dozen and maybe find summaries of some others. (I presume he doesn't intend the students to read Beowulf in the original :confused: My mother had to do that at Oxford in the 1950s, as part of the English degree and it meant practically learning a new language!)
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
Yeah, dons are always doing this. These reading lists are always far too long to be completed by anyone.
I had a couple like that, but they only overshot by a book or two. I list like that would be more comparable to everything I read that was assigned by either one of these two particular teachers I had over enough classes for a minor in the subject.
 

Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
Joseph Campbell's Reading List for his Comparative Mythology Class at Sarah Lawrence College:

Ovid's Metamorphoses
Homer's Odyssey
Frazer, Sir James George The Golden Bough
Durkheim, Emile. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
Levy-Bruhl, Lucien. How Natives Think
Freud, Sigmond:
⦁ The Interpretation of Dreams
⦁ Three contributions to the Theory of Sex
⦁ Totem and Taboo
⦁ Moses and Monotheism
Jung, Carl Gustav:
⦁ The Integration of Personality
⦁ The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life (Translated and explained by Richard Wilhelm, with a forward and commentary by Jung)
⦁ The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Forward by Jung)
Coomaraswammy, Ananda. The Dance of Siva
The Bhagavad Gita
Okakuru Kazuko. The Book of Tea
Watts, Alan. The Way of Zen
Herrigel, Eugen. Zen in the Art of Archery
Lao-Tze. Tao Te Ching
Sun-Tzu. The Art of War
Confucius.
⦁ Analects
⦁ The Great Digest and Unwobbling Pivot
Chiera, Edward. They Wrote in Clay: The Babylonian Tablets Speak Today
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. The Birth of Tragedy
Bible, New Testament: Book of Luke
Aeschylus. Prometheus Bound
Euripides.
⦁ Hyppolytus
⦁ Alcestis
Sophocles. Oediups Tyrannus
Plato.
⦁ Phaedrus
⦁ Symposium
The Koran
The Portable Arabian Nights
Beowulf
Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson
Poetic Edda
The Mabinogion
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. Grimm's Fairy Tails
Adams, Henry. Mont Saint Michel and Chartres
Boas, Franz. Race, Language, and Culture
Mann, Thomas. "Tonio Kroger"
Thompson, Stith. Tales of the North American Indians
Opler, Morris Edward. Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians
Benedict, Ruth. Patterns of Culture
Stimson, John E. Legends of Maui and Tahaki
Melville, Herman Typee: The Library of America
Frobenius, Leo, and Douglas C Fox. African Genesis
Radin, Paul. African Folktales and Sculpture
Deren, Maya. Divine Horsemen
Thanks for this.
 

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
I've been reading Campbell since my undergrad studies in anthropology back in the 1960's, and, imo, he's top-shelf all the way. Thanks for the list.
 

PureX

Veteran Member
For those who may be interested, there is a video series with Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyer called, "The Power of Myth". I am sure it's still around and available in most libraries. And it is an excellent introduction to the phenomenon of mythology, and to interpreting myths. And there is a book by the same name. Every time I come across a theist, or atheist, arguing about "what God said" in the Bible or Koran, or whatever, I want to slam that book upside their heads, because it's clear they have no idea at all what those myths are for, or about.
 
Last edited:

crossfire

LHP Mercuræn Feminist Heretic ☿
Premium Member
I wonder how long this course is, as that is such a massive reading list there is no way to meaningfully read more than a small bit off each one, creating the full collection of sourced material that would be covered in an intro class. Are there links to better clarify how this is incorporated into a single class (as indeed many classes will spend an entire semester on just a few of any of those given selections).
Joseph Cambell's lectures are available on Spotify, which will give you an idea about the Comparative Mythology course.
 

exchemist

Veteran Member
Wow, your mom went to Oxford? What an accomplishment.
That's where my parents met - and where I studied chemistry, too. But it was far easier to get in, back in the late 1940s/ early 50s, or even in the 70s when I was there. Competition for the best UK universities has grown enormously since then, partly due to all the foreign students they can attract nowadays. It's become a real global marketplace now. Even so, my son will have a pop at the old place next year to read history, though neither of us is counting on it. (Other options are Durham, St. Andrews, Bristol and Birmingham.)
 

Left Coast

This Is Water
Staff member
Premium Member
Joseph Campbell's Reading List for his Comparative Mythology Class at Sarah Lawrence College:

Ovid's Metamorphoses
Homer's Odyssey
Frazer, Sir James George The Golden Bough
Durkheim, Emile. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
Levy-Bruhl, Lucien. How Natives Think
Freud, Sigmond:
⦁ The Interpretation of Dreams
⦁ Three contributions to the Theory of Sex
⦁ Totem and Taboo
⦁ Moses and Monotheism
Jung, Carl Gustav:
⦁ The Integration of Personality
⦁ The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life (Translated and explained by Richard Wilhelm, with a forward and commentary by Jung)
⦁ The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Forward by Jung)
Coomaraswammy, Ananda. The Dance of Siva
The Bhagavad Gita
Okakuru Kazuko. The Book of Tea
Watts, Alan. The Way of Zen
Herrigel, Eugen. Zen in the Art of Archery
Lao-Tze. Tao Te Ching
Sun-Tzu. The Art of War
Confucius.
⦁ Analects
⦁ The Great Digest and Unwobbling Pivot
Chiera, Edward. They Wrote in Clay: The Babylonian Tablets Speak Today
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. The Birth of Tragedy
Bible, New Testament: Book of Luke
Aeschylus. Prometheus Bound
Euripides.
⦁ Hyppolytus
⦁ Alcestis
Sophocles. Oediups Tyrannus
Plato.
⦁ Phaedrus
⦁ Symposium
The Koran
The Portable Arabian Nights
Beowulf
Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson
Poetic Edda
The Mabinogion
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. Grimm's Fairy Tails
Adams, Henry. Mont Saint Michel and Chartres
Boas, Franz. Race, Language, and Culture
Mann, Thomas. "Tonio Kroger"
Thompson, Stith. Tales of the North American Indians
Opler, Morris Edward. Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians
Benedict, Ruth. Patterns of Culture
Stimson, John E. Legends of Maui and Tahaki
Melville, Herman Typee: The Library of America
Frobenius, Leo, and Douglas C Fox. African Genesis
Radin, Paul. African Folktales and Sculpture
Deren, Maya. Divine Horsemen

How Natives Think intrigues me.
 

shunyadragon

shunyadragon
Premium Member
I took undergraduate Anthropology many years ago, but learned most from Joseph Campbell by independent study. Thank you for the list!

I would include Gilgamesh.
 
Top