Joseph Campbell famously compared mythology to a kangaroo pouch for the human mind and spirit: "a womb with a view." In Myths to Live By, he examines all of the ways in which myth supports and guides us, giving our lives meaning. Love and war, science and religion, East and West, inner space and outer space - Campbell shows how the myths we live by can reconcile all of these pairs of opposites and bring a sense of the whole.

"Joseph Campbell made the power of story undeniable through the power of his own storytelling. Editor Evans Lansing Smith here collects Campbell writings on Arthurian legends that make events like Merlin's death and the Lady of the Lake retrieving Excalibur not just vibrant but also central to the mythologist's thinking. Three cornerstones of Campbell's celebrated scholarship are found here. The Arthurian myths opened the world of comparative mythology...