Phoenix Rising From the Ashes
Origin of This Myth The phoenix is one of the oldest mythological symbols we have, and its origins are genuinely tangled across cultures. The deepest roots appear to lie in ancient Egypt, where the Bennu—a large sacred heron associated with the sun god Ra—was venerated at Heliopolis as a symbol of resurrection and the soul’s […]
The Myth of Sisyphus
Sisyphus was a king of Corinth, legendary for his cunning—so clever and deceitful that he cheated death itself, twice. The first time, he tricked Thanatos, the god of death, into chaining himself up, so that no mortal could die until Ares intervened and freed him. The second time, Sisyphus talked his way back from the […]
The Myth of Amor and Psyche
Psyche is a mortal woman of such extraordinary beauty that the goddess Aphrodite grows jealous and sends her son Eros (Amor) to make Psyche fall in love with something unworthy. Instead, Eros falls in love with Psyche himself and arranges for her to live in an enchanted palace, visited by him only in darkness—she is […]
The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Joseph Campbell’s groundbreaking 1949 work revolutionized our understanding of mythology by revealing the universal pattern underlying heroic narratives across all cultures—the Hero’s Journey—a motif of adventure and transformation that appears in virtually every mythic tradition worldwide. Combining insights from modern psychology with comparative mythology, Campbell outlines the archetypal stages through which heroes must pass: departure […]
In the Beginning
In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World, compiled by Virginia Hamilton with illustrations by Barry Moser, is a thought-provoking collection of twenty-five stories reflecting the wonder and glory of the origins of the world and humankind. With commentary by the author, this acclaimed anthology gathers creation narratives from cultures across the globe, presenting […]