Title: THE MYTH OF THE MAGUS
Author: E.M. Butler
Publisher: MacMillan
City: New York, LondonYear: 1948 (First Edition)Binding Style: Hardcover
Pagination: 275, followed by IndexIllustrated: Yes
Book Details + Condition: First edition (1948) of E.M. Butler's THE MYTH OF THE MAGUS. In overall good condition: minor shelf wear; small dent to front board; faded title to spine; browning to endpapers and inside boards; former owner stamp on end paper and top & bottom edges; binding is tight and solid; interior is otherwise clean and free of interior marking. Dust jacket remains uncut, with the original price still present; there is browning to it as well and some wear to edges. It is protected with a Mylar plastic cover. Please see pictures for further detail. The Magus, a legendary magician of
superhuman powers, is an archetype central to myth and religion across many
cultures. Identifying its anthropological origins in ancient rituals performed
by a shaman or wizard to ensure the prosperity of his tribe, E.M. Butler goes
on to trace its subsequent development in pre-Christian religious and mystic
philosophers, in medieval sorcerers and alchemists, and finally in the
eighteenth- and nineteenth-century occult revival. From Zoroaster to Solomon,
Merlin to Faust, Cagliostro to Rasputin, legends of the Magus are explored and
where possible compared with the historical record in this fascinating account,
first published in 1948, of one of the major figures in religious and occult
mythology.
