Once upon a time in the West, the focal figure of all mythology and worship was the bountiful Goddess Earth. She reigned supreme as the mother and nourisher of life and as the receiver of the dead for rebirth. How, when, and why did this change? As Campbell here elucidates, She was more than a symbol of fertility; she was "a metaphysical symbol: the arch personification of the power of Space, Time, and Matter, within whose bound all beings arise and die."
Campbell shows how the mythologies of the goddess were radically transformed, reinterpreted, and in large measure suppressed "by those suddenly intrusive patriarchal warrior tribesmen whose traditions have come down to us chiefly in the Old and New Testaments and in the myths of Greece."
Campbell goes on to describe the mythological underpinnings of Western religion - Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism - and their historical influence on one another. No one who cares about history, mythology, or past or current events in the lands from whence we came can do without this venerable yet remarkably contemporary analysis.
