The sacred nature of the ancient world

The sacred nature of the ancient world

Karen Armstrong, the historian of Religion, tells us that the Palaeolithic period (c. 20000 to 8000 BCE) was one of the longest and most formative in the biological evolution of humans. Ethnologists and anthropologists claim that these indigenous people were very...
Logos and Mythos: Alternative ways of knowing

Logos and Mythos: Alternative ways of knowing

Karen Armstrong argues that symbolism came more naturally to people in the pre-modern world that it does today. The Greeks referred to two different ways of knowing: Mythos and Logos. Both were essential and neither were superior to the other. Each had its sphere of...
The mythic motif of psychological transformation

The mythic motif of psychological transformation

King Midas is given a second chance and relinquishes his golden-gift; Orpheus is reunited with his beloved by the gods; Prometheus is freed from bondage and able to re-join his people. Joseph Campbell tells us that the happy ending of fairy tales and myth should be...
Orpheus and Infirmitas: the suffering of the gods

Orpheus and Infirmitas: the suffering of the gods

Orpheus was a beautiful musician. He played the lyre and sang wonderful songs that made wild animals tame. The trees swayed towards him, the grass stood up and the whole earth came alive and sang with him. Orpheus was deeply in love with Eurydice but one day a snake...