A great scholar and mythologist (1890-1943). Zimmer had a close relationship with Carl Jung with whom he shared an interest in psychic transformation through religious and mythological images and symbols. He was also Joseph Campbell's mentor and in many ways his guru. Zimmer wrote in German, however several of his works have been translated into English and edited by Joseph Campbell including:
Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization (1946)
The King and the Corpse: Tales of the Soul's Conquest of Evil (1948)
Philosophies of India (1951)
The Art of Indian Asia: Its Mythology and Transformations (1955)
Zimmer studied Sanskrit and linguistics at the University of Berlin. He was the Chair of Indian Philology at Heidelburg University when he was dismissed by the Nazis in 1938. After he left Germany, he became a lecturer at Oxford University and died in 1943 while a visiting lecturer at Columbia University in New York. Zimmer was especially well regarded for his deep knowledge of Indian philosophy, art and mythology.
Quote from The King and the Corpse: Like the king, we must become masters over the terrible world of the spirits, for they are within us as well as without. Everything outside ourselves, whether we know it in its proper relationship to us, or whether it remains for us apparently without significance and unrelated to our mind and heart, actually reflects and mirrors our inner selves. This we are meant to learn.
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