The Wisdom of the Myths

More than 100,000 copies sold in France A fascinating new journey through Greek mythology that explains the myths' timeless lessons and meaning Heroes, gods, and mortals. The Greek myths are the founding narratives of Western civilization: to understand them is to know the origins of philosophy, literature, art, science, law, and more. Indeed, as Luc Ferry shows in this masterful book, they remain a great store of wisdom, as relevant to our lives today as ever before. No mere legends or clichés ("Herculean task," "Pandora's box," "Achilles heel," etc.), these classic stories offer profound and manifold lessons, providing the first sustained attempt to answer fundamental human questions concerning "the good life," the burden of mortality, and how to find one's place in the world. Vividly retelling the great tales of mythology and illuminating fresh new ways of understanding them, The Wisdom of the Myths will enlighten readers of all ages.

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The Wisdom of the Serpent

The tribal initiation of the shaman, the archetype of the serpent, exemplifies the death of the self and a rebirth into transcendent life. This book traces the images of spiritual initiation in religious rituals and myths of resurrection, poems and epics, cycles of nature, and art and dreaming. It dramatizes the metamorphosis from a common experience of death's inevitability into a transcendent freedom beyond individual limitations. "This is a classic work in analytical psychology that offers crucial insights on the meaning of death symbolism (and its inevitably accompanying rebirth and resurrection symbolism) as part of the great theme of initiation, of which [Henderson] is the world's foremost psychological interpreter. This material is really the next step after the hero myth that Joseph Campbell has made so popular, and provides an understanding of how not to use the hero myth in an inflated way as a psychology of mastery, but as an attainment progressively to be died beyond. [Henderson] is helped by the presence of Maud Oakes, who is a trained anthropologist with exquisite taste in her choice of mythic materials and respect for their original contexts."--John Beebe

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The Concealed Wisdom in World Mythology

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The Myth of Lost

Can a television show provide insight into the meaning of our lives? The Myth of Lost explores a fascinating solution to the mysterious television series and reveals how the show contains startling hidden wisdom that can be used in real life. Can a television show provide insight into the meaning of our lives? The Myth of Lost explores a fascinating solution to the mysterious television series and reveals how the show contains startling hidden wisdom that can be used in real life.

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Unconventional Wisdom

Late deciders go for the challenger; turnout helps the Democrats; the gender gap results from a surge in Democratic preference among women--these and many other myths are standard fare among average citizens, political pundits, and even some academics. But are these conventional wisdoms--familiar to anyone who watches Sunday morning talk shows--really valid? Unconventional Wisdom offers a novel yet highly accessible synthesis of what we know about American voters and elections. It not only provides an integrated overview of the central themes in American politics--parties, polarization, turnout, partisan bias, campaign effects, swing voters, the gender gap, and the youth vote--it upends many of our fundamental preconceptions. Most importantly, it shows that the American electorate is much more stable than we have been led to believe, and that the voting patterns we see today have deep roots in our history. Throughout, the book provides comprehensive information on voting patterns; illuminates (and corrects) popular myths about voters and elections; and details the empirical foundations of conventional wisdoms that many understand poorly or not at all. Written by three experts on American politics, Unconventional Wisdom serves as both a standard reference and a concise overview of the subject. Both informative and witty, the book is likely to become a standard work in the field, essential reading for anyone interested in American politics.

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Myth and Trauma

Explore the ancient wisdom of the world's myths as it applies to one of the most common and most serious problems in the modern world: the separation from who we are. Unresolved psychological trauma can lead to anxiety, depression, addiction, self-sabotage, and even serious physical illness. Forward-thinking doctors, psychologists and healers have in recent decades gained greater understanding of the central role that trauma can play in our lives, and how it can impact our lives without our even realizing what is going on. Many leading doctors in this field describe the effect of trauma as causing us to separate from ourselves -- to suppress important aspects of who we are, even to suppress our essential or authentic self. Although the use of the term trauma in a psychological sense is relatively new, the world's ancient myths can be shown to be dealing with this very subject: note for instance the amazing prevalence of twins in ancient myths from around the world. These twinned pairs do not actually represent two different individuals: they are actually about the very split that takes place when we separate from our own essential self, from whom we can become alienated and whose existence we often bury and suppress, often without even realizing that we are doing so. When we realize that these stories can be conclusively shown to be metaphor, we can begin to see that they are not about ancient figures and events external to ourselves: they are in fact about us. And one of the central truths they want to convey has to do with the effects of trauma, the ways it can separate us from who we are, and most importantly that path towards recovering our lost and suppressed essential self. Myth and Trauma explores the evidence which shows that the world's ancient myths are built on a foundation of celestial metaphor in which characters and events correspond to specific constellations and heavenly cycles, a system which actually underlies the ancient myths of cultures around the globe, on every inhabited continent and island -- and a system which appears to have been designed to impart profound truths we need in our own lives, even in this present day, right where we are.

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The Wisdom of Religious Commitment

By exploring a practical, rather than propositional, understanding of religious belief, this book provides a new construct through which to view philosophy of religion. Terrence W. Tilley shifts the focus of debate from the justification of rational belief to the exercise of wisdom in making or maintaining a commitment to religious practices. It is through practices, Tilley concludes, that religious belief is formed. After analyzing the strengths and limitations of the modern approaches, Tilley applies the concept of wisdom to the process of making a religious commitment. Wisdom, as explored by Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas, and John Henry Newman, may be thought of as the bridge between intellectual and moral virtues. Roughly, it can be described as the ability to put intellect into action in a context. Because wisdom is a virtue requiring concrete display, the book discusses the wisdom of commitment to specific religious practices of a range of traditions. These examples demonstrate the issues and complexities involved in the wisdom of making a religious commitment. This important challenge to contemporary philosophy of religion will be of special interest to students and teachers of theology and philosophy of religion.

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The Wisdom of African Mythology

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The Wisdom of American Indian Mythology

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The Wisdom of George Santayana

A survey of the influential—and prolific—modern philosopher In dozens of books, magazine articles, and essays, George Santayana infused his philosophy with exquisite language, wit, and subtle humor, prompting one authority to state that he “writes philosophy more beautifully than any other thinker since Plato.” The Wisdom of George Santayana makes accessible both his ideas and his oft-quoted aphorisms on a variety of subjects including naturalism, creative imagination, and spirituality without dogma. Organized by books and essays, and highlighting key words and themes, this compilation is an excellent introduction to the man and his work.

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The Rise of Modern Mythology 1680 1860

Presents literary excerpts and readings which analyze and debate the origin, interpretation and validity of mythological theories

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The Wisdom of Mao

Beyond the Little Red Book: China’s revolutionary leader and his philosophy In this collection of essays, China’s Chairman Mao Tse-Tung explains the interpretation of Marxism-Leninism ideology that became known as Maoism. This philosophy fueled the Chinese Revolution and the massive social and economic changes Mao instituted as the nation’s leader. From examining the way contradictions can cause great shifts within a society, to the necessity of guerilla-based revolution, Mao mixes his philosophical positions with the history of the Chinese people. Featured works include Relation Between Knowledge and Practice, Between Knowing and Doing, The Universality of Contradiction, The Place of Antagonism in Contradiction, China’s Historical Characteristics, The Politics of New Democracy, The Economy of New Democracy, The Culture of New Democracy, and more.This collection offers a detailed insight into the mind of the most important figure in twentieth-century Chinese history.

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Chinese Mythology

In Chinese Mythology, Anne Birrell provides English translations of some 300 representative myth narratives selected from over 100 classical texts, many of which have never before been translated into any Western language. Organizing the narratives according to themes and motifs common to world mythology, Birrell addresses issues of source, dating, attribution, textural variants, multiforms, and context. Drawing on exhaustive work in comparative mythology, she surveys the development of Chinese myth studies, summarizes the contribution of Chinese and Japanese scholars to the study of Chinese myth since the 1920s, and examines special aspects of traditional approaches to Chinese myth. The result is an unprecedented guide to the study of Chinese myth for specialists and nonspecialists alike.

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Classic Mythology

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Origin of Language and Myths

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A Journey In Southern Siberia The Mongols Their Religion and Their Myths

THE Buriats whose myth-tales I have collected, and whose beliefs, modes of worship, and customs I have studied at their source and describe in this volume, are Mongols in the strictest sense of the word as men use it. They inhabit three sides of Lake Baikal, as well as Olkhon its only island. The place and the people are noteworthy. Lake Baikal is the largest body of fresh water in the Old World, being over four hundred miles long and from twenty-four to fifty-six miles broad, its total area covering about thirteen thousand square miles. The Buriats living west of that water, and those inhabiting the sacred island of Olkhon, are the only Mongols who have preserved their own race religion with its primitive usages, archaic beliefs, and philosophy, hence they are a people of great interest to science. The region about that immense body of water, Lake Baikal, is of still greater interest in history, for from the mountain land south of the lake, and touching it, came Temudjin, known later as Jinghis Khan, and Tamerlane, or Timur Lenk (the Iron Limper), the two greatest personages in the Mongol division of mankind. From the first of these two mighty man-slayers were descended the Mongol subduers of China and Russia. Among Jinghis Khan's many grandsons were Kublai Khan, the subjector of China, together with Burma and other lands east of India; Hulagu, who destroyed the Assassin Commonwealth of Persia, stormed Bagdad, and extinguished the Abbasid Kalifat; and Batu, who covered Russia with blood and ashes, mined Hungary, hunting its king to an island in the Adriatic, crushed German and other forces opposed to the Mongols at Liegnitz, and returned to the Volga region, where he established his chief headquarters. Descendants of Jinghis Khan ruled in Russia for two centuries and almost five decades. In China they wielded power only sixty-eight years. From Tamerlane, a more brilliant, if not a greater, leader than Jinghis, descended the Mongols of India, whose history is remarkable both in the rise and the fall of the empire which they founded. These two Mongol conquerors had a common ancestor in Jinghis Khan's great-great-grandfather, Tumbinai; hence both men were of the same blood and had the same land of origin,—the region south of Lake Baikal. That Mongol power which began its career near Baikal covered all Asia, or most of it, and a large part of Europe, and lasted till destroyed by Russia and England. The histories of these struggles are world-wide in their meaning; they deserve the closest study, and in time will surely receive it. When the descendants of Jinghis Khan had lost China, the only great conquest left them was Russia, and there, after a rule of two hundred and forty-four years, power was snatched from them. The Grand Moguls, those masters of India, the descendants of Tamerlane, met with Great Britain, and were stripped of their empire in consequence.

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Approaches to Greek Myth

Since the first edition of Approaches to Greek Myth was published in 1990, interest in Greek mythology has surged. There was no simple agreement on the subject of "myth" in classical antiquity, and there remains none today. Is myth a narrative or a performance? Can myth be separated from its context? What did myths mean to ancient Greeks and what do they mean today? Here, Lowell Edmunds brings together practitioners of eight of the most important contemporary approaches to the subject. Whether exploring myth from a historical, comparative, or theoretical perspective, each contributor lucidly describes a particular approach, applies it to one or more myths, and reflects on what the approach yields that others do not. Edmunds's new general and chapter-level introductions recontextualize these essays and also touch on recent developments in scholarship in the interpretation of Greek myth. Contributors are Jordi Pàmias, on the reception of Greek myth through history; H. S. Versnel, on the intersections of myth and ritual; Carolina López-Ruiz, on the near Eastern contexts; Joseph Falaky Nagy, on Indo-European structure in Greek myth; William Hansen, on myth and folklore; Claude Calame, on the application of semiotic theory of narrative; Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood, on reading visual sources such as vase paintings; and Robert A. Segal, on psychoanalytic interpretations.

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Celtic Myth and Religion

This book provides a comprehensive overview of Celtic mythology and religion, encompassing numerous aspects of ritual and belief. Topics include the presence of the Celtic Otherworld and its inhabitants, cosmology and sacred cycles, wisdom texts, mythological symbolism, folklore and legends, and an appreciation of the natural world. Evidence is drawn from the archaeology of sacred sites, ethnographic accounts of the ancient Celts and their beliefs, medieval manuscripts, poetic and visionary literature, and early modern accounts of folk healers and seers. New translations of poems, prayers, inscriptions and songs from the early period (Gaulish, Old Irish and Middle Welsh) as well as the folklore tradition (Modern Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish, Breton and Manx) complement the text. Information of this kind has never before been collected as a compendium of the indigenous wisdom of the Celtic-speaking peoples, whose traditions have endured in various forms for almost three thousand years.

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Men Against Myths

Greenbaum argues that post-Civil War capitalist mythology justified government facilitation of corporate interests. The progressive challenge redirected government to serve the larger commonwealth and, thus, transformed ordinary lives. Gilded Age mythology, resurrected in the 1980s, restored corporate domination and economic inequity. Through his extensive analysis of the lives of six prominent Progressives, Greenbaum seeks to contravene contemporary mythology.

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Great Myths of Aging

Great Myths of Aging looks at the generalizations and stereotypes associated with older people and, with a blend of humor and cutting-edge research, dispels those common myths. Reader-friendly structure breaks myths down into categories such as Body, Mind, and Living Contexts; and looks at myths from “Older people lose interest in sex” to “Older people are stingy” Explains the origins of myths and misconceptions about aging Looks at the unfortunate consequences of anti-aging stereotypes for both the reader and older adults in society

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