Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Joseph Campbell

Quote by Joseph Campbell

“My definition of mythology is "other people's religion", which suggests that ours must be something else. My definition of religion, then, is "misunderstood mythology" — and the misunderstanding consists in mistaking the symbol for the reference. So all the historic events that are so important to us in our tradition should not be important to us in any way except as symbols of power within ourselves.”

Quote by Joseph Campbell

Book:The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Create image

Work

The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell

Joseph Campbell was an American writer, scholar, and mythologist, renowned for his studies of world mythology. His work, 'The Hero with a Thousand Faces', has had a profound impact on modern culture, widely used in literature, film, and psychology fields. more

You May Also Like

“Norse mythology hints at Odinic cults, with Odin being worshipped through a combination of ecstatic and seemingly shamanistic rituals. From the eddic poem The Sayings of the High One ( Hávamál ), he is said to have hanged himself in a sacrificial ritual on a tree. Barely surviving this ordeal, Odin gains arcane knowledge, including the use of runes, the ancient Scandinavian alphabet sometimes used for magical purposes. In the poem, Odin chants : I know that I hung on the wind-swept tree all nine nights with spear was I wounded and given to Odin, myself to me, on that tree which no one knows from which roots it grows. Bread I was not given, no drink from the horn, downwards I glared; up I pulled the runes, screaming I took them, from there I fell back again. - excerpt from Jesse L. Byock's Introduction and Notes, of Sturluson's Prose Edda.”

KnowledgeMythMythologyRebirthSagaOdinNorse MythologyScandinavian MythEdda
Book:The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology
Create image

“Under the root *( of the Ash Yggdrasil ) that goes to the frost giants is the Well of Mimir. Wisdom and Intelligence are hidden there, and Mimir is the name of the well's owner. He is full of wisdom because he drinks of the well from the Gjallarhorn. All-father went there and asked for one drink from the well, but he did not get this until he gave one of his eyes as a pledge. As it says in The Sibyl's Prophesy : Odin, I know all, where you hid the eye in that famous Well of Mimir. Each morning Mimir drinks mead from Val-Father's pledge. Do you know now or what ? ( The Sibyl's Prophesy. 28 )”

KnowledgeIntelligenceMythMythologyOdinNorse MythologyYggdrasilScandinavian Myth
Book:The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology
Create image