Mythologies of the Primitive Hunters and Gatherers
By Joseph Campbell
An image-rich reference work that uses charts and maps as well as text by the renowned scholar of world mythology to explore the development of myths across time and place.
Quotations from this Title
From the Pyrenees to Lake Baikal, the evidence now is before us of a Late Stone Age mythology in which the outstanding figure was the Naked Goddess. And she can already be recognized in a number of her better-known later roles: as Lady of the Wild Things, Protectress of the Hearth, Consort of the Moon-bull, who dies to be resurrected––with herself thereby a personification of the mystery of the moon, which has the power to shed its shadow (as the serpent sloughs its skin) to appear reborn. Not a few of her images suggest pregnancy: she was almost certainly a patroness of childbirth and fecundity. [share]