Rating: 
Summary: ancient and universal
Review: Primitive Mythology is the first book in Campbell's great and sweeping study of myth in the world, starting from his neo-romantic viewpoint of myth as a necessary (and currently missing) factor in life. He embarks on a globally comparative and ultimately reconciliatory survey of kinds of myth and their relative societal roles. Please note that there is a fair amount of debate as to both the accuracy and ethics of trying to mine the universal from global myth in this fashion, but however you come down in that particular debate, The Masks of God is, on its own terms, a monumental achievement.
Rating:
Summary: A true mythic masterpiece
Review: The master of Comparative Mythology delves into the themes, that underlie the art, beliefs and literature of the Western Soul. The third volume explains why the Western culture is so much different from the Eastern Way.It enables the reader to step back and review his/her own culture from a more objective point of view. In the West, it is about the monotheistic belief, about God and Man as a seperate being. Therefore occidental myths establishes a means of relationship between God to Man and vice versa. He also shows up, why Christianism, Judaism and Islam are so similar and the fight over the "true God" is so ridiculous. If you haven't read the first two volumes "Primitive Mythology" and "Oriental Mythology", go for them first!
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Brilliant
Review: This is Joseph Campbell's masterpiece. He delves into myths from neolithic times long before the mythology of the Celts, the Greeks or the Babylonians. This book offers myths that even the very well read are unaware of because they are so obscure. Campbell nevertheless tells these myths with all the insight and genius for which he is so justly famous. Indeed, in this reader's opinion this book shows that Campbell is perhaps one of the most intelligent American thinkers, standing on par with the best of Europe such as Freud and Nietzsche (who are major influences on Campbell). Primitive Mythology ranges at will over the entire world, drawing comparisons between the myths of the Polynesians, the Mayans, the Shamans of Siberia and the cave painters in Lascaux. The telling of these myths is illuminated with apt discussions of modern thinkers and shot through with Campbell's own syncretistic philosophy of life based on his vast knowledge of the world's wisdom stored in its myths. This book is absolutely brilliant and will be read for centuries throughout the world.
Rating:
Summary: wonderful, but dense, text book on mythology.
Review: This is the first of the four volume set on various mythologies across the globe. It tells of the origins of religions focusing on primitive cultures and anthropolical data.
Rating:
Summary: A massive effort
Review: This last volume of the Masks of God is a huge book that spans the efforts of artists to interpret the myths from early troubadour poems to Finnegan's Wake. Just for the books it added to my reading list, this book was valuable. The idea of the book that has stayed with me the most since I read it is the idea that an artist neither accepts myth as historical fact, nor rejects it as useless, but moves somewhere between those two extreme poles to mine its history. The book is dense, and not always easy to read. It took me a long time to pick through it-- particularly in sections with pages of quotations-- but it was ultimately quite rewarding. Being only an amateur student of religion and mythology, I am ill-equipped to judge the merits of its scholarship.
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