Mythos (film)

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Mythos
Mythos Covers 2008.png
Mythos (Collected Works of Joseph Campbell)
Also known as The Shaping of Our Mythic Tradition
Genre Documentary, Mythology
Format VHS, DVD
Created by Joseph Campbell
Developed by Mythology, Ltd.
Directed by Robert Walter
Presented by Susan Sarandon
Starring Joseph Campbell
Country of origin United States
Language(s) English
No. of seasons 4
No. of episodes 20 (10 released)
Production
Executive producer(s) David M. Fox
Producer(s) Bill Free
Running time 20 hrs (10 released)
Production company(s) Joseph Campbell Foundation
Distributor Unipix/Acorn Media
Broadcast
Original channel PBS
Picture format NTSC
Chronology
Related shows Transformations of Myth Through Time, The Hero's Journey
External links
Website

Mythos is a multi-part documentary that consists of a series of lectures given by Joseph Campbell. Campbell conceived of the original lectures, filmed over the last six years of his life, as a summation of what he had learned about the human mythic impulse, in terms of psychology, ethnology and comparative mythology—what he called "the one great story of mankind."[1]

Contents

[edit] Transformations: A False Step

After Campbell's death and the posthumous celebrity brought by the airing in 1988 of The Power of Myth, the filmmakers who had recorded the lectures quickly cobbled together a much-abridged, hastily edited series for PBS entitled Transformations of Myth Through Time. An even-more-highly redacted version was briefly released under the title The World of Joseph Campbell.[2]

[edit] Mythos Emerges

Campbell's estate, represented by his widow Jean Erdman and, eventually, by the Joseph Campbell Foundation (JCF), asked that these versions, which were unlicensed and did not accurately represent Campbell's thoughts, be pulled from the market, and proposed the production of a twenty-hour television series in four parts that followed Campbell's original vision more closely: Mythos.

Volume One of Mythos was released in 1999. Volume Two was released in 2000. Both parts are narrated by Susan Sarandon.

After these initial releases, the original distributor, Unipix, promptly went bankrupt, and production on the series halted. [3]

The JCF rerealeased the first two volumes in 2007 and 2008 in conjunction with Acorn Media as part of the Collected Works of Joseph Campbell series; they plan to release the remaining two volumes in 2009-2010.[4]

[edit] Mythos Episodes

[edit] Mythos: Vol. 1, The Shaping of Our Mythic Tradition (1999)

  • Mythos - 1.1: Psyche & Symbol - The psychological impulse for and response to myth
  • Mythos - 1.2: The Spirit Land - How myths awakened American Indians to the mystery of life.
  • Mythos - 1.3: On Being Human - The emergence of myth in early hunter-gatherer societies
  • Mythos - 1.4: From Goddesses to God - The gradual shift from the Goddess to male, warlike deities
  • Mythos - 1.5: The Mystical Life - Non-biblical mythic strains that helped shape the Western spirit

[edit] Mythos: Vol. 2, The Shaping of the Eastern Tradition (2000)

  • Mythos - 2.1: The Inward Path - The core myths of the great Asian religions
  • Mythos - 2.2: The Enlightend One - The Buddha and enlightenment, East and West
  • Mythos - 2.3: Our Eternal Selves - Yoga and transcendence
  • Mythos - 2.4: The Way to Illumination - Kundalini yoga and the seven chakras
  • Mythos - 2.5: The Experience of God - Tibetan Buddhism and the spiritual journey that is death

[edit] Mythos: Vol. 3, The Shaping of the Western Tradition (2011)

  • Mythos - 3.1: Love as the Guide - The Arthurian romances, including Tristan and Iseult
  • Mythos - 3.2: The Path of the Heart - Parzival and the Grail Quest
  • Mythos - 3.3: Beyond Time and Space - The Romantic philosophers
  • Mythos - 3.4: Between Pairs of Opposites - Thomas Mann and The Magic Mountain
  • Mythos - 3.5: Into the Well of Myth - The Joseph novels and modern myth

[edit] Mythos: Vol. 4 (In Production)

This volume will explore the mythic underpinnings of the novels of James Joyce.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Mythos page on JCF.org
  2. ^ The Transformations of Myth Through Time and Mythos: from JCF.org
  3. ^ The Transformations of Myth Through Time and Mythos: from JCF.org
  4. ^ Mythos page on JCF.org; accessed 3.12.09

[edit] External links

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