World Mythology

I had to purchase this book for one of my college classes. It takes mythology and breaks it into shorter form stories that are very easy to comprehend as well as provide context. Great read

If you are interested in mythology, astronomy or wish to understand human nature, you need this book! It has everything! Gilgamesh, the Iliad and the Odyssey, and so much more!

I just want to take a moment to recommend this book...this was a wonderful read, with a continuity between excerpts that helped me to both enjoy the flow and become aware and intrigued by the similarities of so many of the threads between times and places. I wasn't bored for a moment, and that's saying a LOT for a book that is over 500 pages!! Can't say enough about it. THANK YOU to the author!

I had to buy this for my college mythology class. It's a nice enough text, with many stories from many different cultures. Before each culture, we learn a little about the people and how their stories came about, which I thought helped me understand the stories more. My personal favorites were the Egyptian myths and the Greek myths, of which there were many. It also includes classics like 'King Arthur', 'Beowulf', and 'The Illiad'. It was interesting to note the similarities and differences between the cultures and their stories, many of which were being created at the same time years ago- but many miles apart.As for the flaws this book has, there is one major one. While I'm sure the translators translated to the best of their ability, if I had to read "flooded their hearts" one more time, I think I would scream. Okay I get it, they're happy, filled with joy, ecstatic, delighted.... but really? "Flooded"? So maybe that was the literal translation, but couldn't the editors have changed it a few times so that the readers didn't die from the repetition?Overall I would recommend this book, especially if you're interested in mythology. Just be aware that there are many different interpretations of myths, and the ones that are in this book may not be the most well known. Additionally I'm not sure if they cut out some parts because they knew this would be a school text. If you know the story of Osiris and Isis, you know that there was one piece of his body that a fish ate... that part of the myth isn't in this book- I guess because they deemed it unappropriate? There is a newer edition out however, which isn't exactly better than this one. At the very least, I had hoped they didn't use the word "flooded" so much in that one... But sadly not so. The new version is the same, with some additional stories included like: "Esfandyar", "Chi Li", "Jason and the Golden Fleece" among others. (If you need the newer version for class, you could still get away with buying the cheaper 2nd edition and then just copying certain stories from a fellow classmate's book. The newer is $43 with this one being around $13!)(Originally reviewed for "Kathleen's Book Reviews")

i love books and this was great information

This was perfect! Thank for the quick shipping and the care to the product.

A few typos and mixed facts/names here and there but very few. It is a good read and great for first time mythology learning. It reads as smoothly as a bed time story.

The title is something of a misnomer. This is a fine collection of ancient myths found throughout world history. However, it is intellectually dishonest because the author fails to recognize some of the most powerful myths in human history --namely those found in the Bible and Koran. Sure the book would have been huge, but at leasty a treatise or an explaination for exclusioon would have been appropriate. Furthermore, exclusion of modern myth is suggestively written off as just being repetitive or not existent in our far more sophisticated and complex world. I'll admit that modern myth is scarce, but it exists and is just as important.Myth is an important mirror for humans to see their own reflection and learn about their journey through metaphor. This book does a fine job covering ancient myth from various cultures; however, exclusion of the most influential myths and a nod to some modern classics was a serious oversight.