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Myths of the world: A thematic encyclopedia
Divided into mythological themes, rather than in A-Z format, this reference book relates each myth to its culture and period of origin, and has detailed cross-referencing and indexing. It is intended to appeal to the serious student and general reader alike, whether they are seeking information on a particular mythological concept, or on a culture, or on an individual character. Michael Jordan is the author of "Gods of the Earth" and "Encyclopedia of Gods".
- GenresMythology
302 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1993
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About the author
Michael Jordan
23 books6 followersMichael Jordan was born in Lancashire, England, in 1941. He studied Natural Sciences at London University, and went on to become a successful BBC television presenter of wildlife programs in the 1980s. His love of writing began at about that time, when his focus of interest switched to ancient religions and cults, for which today he is best known as a non-fiction author. He has a current list of 26 published works.
In 2001 he wrote a highly controversial book, published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, Mary, the Unauthorised Biography, about the origins of the Marian cult, which was subsequently sold worldwide in various languages.
Michael's first venture into fiction writing, The Seventy Ninth Heresy, evolved from his years of research into the field of ancient religions and their origins.
Currently he lives in Devon.
In 2001 he wrote a highly controversial book, published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, Mary, the Unauthorised Biography, about the origins of the Marian cult, which was subsequently sold worldwide in various languages.
Michael's first venture into fiction writing, The Seventy Ninth Heresy, evolved from his years of research into the field of ancient religions and their origins.
Currently he lives in Devon.
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February 25, 2018
I took this rather pretentiously titled volume out of the library in the hope of finding some interesting or useful information, but was rather disappointed.
I suppose I should have been warned by the slimness of the book; a book that size cannot really be called an "encyclopedia", and indeed it wasn't. A more appropriate title might have been "anthology" -- a selection of myths that appealed to the author, categorised by particular themes.
Of course it is not possible to do justice to myths of the world in one short volume, but it could easily have been doubled in size without making it too unwieldy.
The accounts of the myths were also less than satisfactory. They were somewhat woodenly told. There were several ancient Greek and Roman "classical" myths, but I felt I learnt more about them from the 3-5 line descriptions in Pears Cyclopaedia. Chinese gods seemed to be a better bet for Chinese mythology.
Michael Jordan also appeared to suffer from a strong anti-Christian bias. He included about 3-4 Christian myths, but lumped them in with gnostic ones, which are utterly different, and the selection seemed pretty unrepresentative too. There was a section on dragon myths, but it did not include the Christian story of St George and the dragon, which is probably one of the most widespread, being popular from England to India, and from Murmansk to Ethiopia. Perhaps he regarded it as a legend rather than a myth, but there are many instances of overlap between them, and I think the story has enough overlap to allow it to be included in a book that claims to be an "encyclopedia" of myths.
The book was published a year or two before Google made web searches so much easier, so most of what the book can tell you can be found more easily and more comprehensively by searching the Web, but a good encyclopedia of myth would still be useful, because the problem with web searches is that you don't always know what to look for.
I suppose I should have been warned by the slimness of the book; a book that size cannot really be called an "encyclopedia", and indeed it wasn't. A more appropriate title might have been "anthology" -- a selection of myths that appealed to the author, categorised by particular themes.
Of course it is not possible to do justice to myths of the world in one short volume, but it could easily have been doubled in size without making it too unwieldy.
The accounts of the myths were also less than satisfactory. They were somewhat woodenly told. There were several ancient Greek and Roman "classical" myths, but I felt I learnt more about them from the 3-5 line descriptions in Pears Cyclopaedia. Chinese gods seemed to be a better bet for Chinese mythology.
Michael Jordan also appeared to suffer from a strong anti-Christian bias. He included about 3-4 Christian myths, but lumped them in with gnostic ones, which are utterly different, and the selection seemed pretty unrepresentative too. There was a section on dragon myths, but it did not include the Christian story of St George and the dragon, which is probably one of the most widespread, being popular from England to India, and from Murmansk to Ethiopia. Perhaps he regarded it as a legend rather than a myth, but there are many instances of overlap between them, and I think the story has enough overlap to allow it to be included in a book that claims to be an "encyclopedia" of myths.
The book was published a year or two before Google made web searches so much easier, so most of what the book can tell you can be found more easily and more comprehensively by searching the Web, but a good encyclopedia of myth would still be useful, because the problem with web searches is that you don't always know what to look for.
Displaying 1 of 1 review