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Title: Mythology: The Illustrated Anthology of World Myth and Storytelling by C. Scott Littleton ISBN: 1-57145-827-1 Publisher: Thunder Bay Press Pub. Date: September, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.98 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Good overview of mythology
Comment: This massive coffee-table style book gives a good overview of some of the major mythologies in the world. Overall, it has both good and bad points, with the good generally outweighing the bad.
The good points include the wide range of mythological stories that are related. While Greek mythology - certainly the most well-known and influential in Western culture - gets more space than any other culture (over one hundred pages), there is plenty of space dedicated to the whole world of mythology: Egyptian, Babylonian, Norse, Chinese, Indian and Japanese amongst them. A wide range of illustrations and photos help tell the stories.
Although wide-ranging, I think there are some noticeable gaps, both within specific sections (for example, no story of Eros and Psyche in the Greek myths) and significant types of myths that are neglected. It would have been interesting to see a little about the Arthurian legends, which are a big part of British mythology. The other thing that is missing is any sort of comparisons. While many cultures had creation and flood stories, there is little direct commentary on the similarities or differences. It would have also been interesting to see some discussion on parallels between myths and the stories of the Bible.
Of course, this book is big enough as it is, and editing decisions needed to be made. While this book suffers from the flaw of incompleteness, it does not have flawed writing, which makes it a good book although (literally) not a light read.
Rating: 5
Summary: This book is HUGE
Comment: Full color photographs and beautiful artwork adorn each and every page of this massive collection. This book covers nearly every religous culture of the ancient world including: Sumerian, Egyptian, Greek, Celtic, Nordic, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Native American, Mesoamerican, South American, African, Aboriginal, and Polynesian. Worth far more than what Amazon is selling it for. A terrific reference for all those studying ancient history or comparitive religion.
Rating: 5
Summary: GODS AND MONSTERS AND HEROES AND HUMANS
Comment: Yes, this is a "coffee table book." And yes, it is huge and heavy. But then, it would have to be to cover so much material and to include so many beautiful illustrations.
Before I get into the "meat" of the book, I'd like to discuss the illustrations. It is difficult to imagine the amount of study and research it must have taken to find these illustrations. They range from thousand year old papyrus illustrations to frescoes to ancient pottery, to antique stone and jade carvings to statuary and on and on. They come from a myriad of ancient cultures and sources. If there were no text in MYTHOLOGY, it would be worth owning just for the art work.
But text there is! The text is broken down by geographical area, and by culture within that area. Also included, are maps where appropriate. For instance, the locations of the labors of Herakles (Hercules to the Romans) which I will discuss further later.
From the standpoint of depth of detail, this is not a scholarly reference. Rather, it is the work of good story tellers, for, after all, the ancient myths were good stories. By this I mean that the book is aimed at the layman (like me), and wherever you open it at random, you will find a great tale of ancient gods, monsters, giants, heroes, and just plain humans. These tales have come down through time, some predating the advent of writing.
MYTHOLOGY opens with a general discussion of mythology, comparing myths with magic mirrors which reflect the hopes and fears of ancient civilizations, and often, those of our civilization, today. Mythological tales, we are told, form the basis of much of the world's literature, philosophy and religion.
As I mentioned, MYTHOLOGY makes wonderful reading, last night I opened it randomly to the section on Herakles and spent a wonderful half an hour or so reading about Herakles and his labors, the lustiness of some gods, the pettiness of others, and the good and the deceitful sides of men. All that in thirty minutes.
Pick a mythological character be he god or monster, hero or human, and the chances are good that you will find him here.
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Title: Parallel Myths by J.F. Bierlein ISBN: 0345381467 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 11 October, 1994 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: World Mythology by Roy Willis ISBN: 0805049134 Publisher: Owl Books Pub. Date: 15 October, 1996 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: Primal Myths : Creation Myths Around the World by Barbara C. Sproul ISBN: 0060675012 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 12 December, 1979 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C. by Samuel Noah Kramer ISBN: 0812210476 Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press Pub. Date: April, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: World Mythology by Donna Rosenberg ISBN: 0844257672 Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Books Pub. Date: 11 January, 1994 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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