Myths in Minutes

in Minutes

by Neil Philip

Myths are the greatest stories ever told. Passed down over millennia, the great myths are the templates for all our stories, with their eternal themes of creation and destruction, fate and cunning, heroism and cruelty, sensuality and war.
Retold here are nearly 200 myths--from Prometheus defying Zeus to create man, to the destruction of Troy; from the reign of the sun god Ra in Egypt to the one-eyed, raven-flanked Odin of the icy North; and from valiant battles against Frost Giants and Cyclopes, to the heroic quests for the Golden Fleece and the Holy Grail--all accompanied by commentaries on their origins, common themes, and meanings.
Compellingly written, concise, and with each myth illustrated with an iconic image, Myths in Minutes is the perfect way to understand and enjoy the world's great fables.

Genres: Mythology, Nonfiction, Reference

400 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2017

About the author

Neil Philip is a writer, folklorist and poet. He is married to the artist Emma Bradford, and lives in the Cotswolds, England. Neil loves words, poetry, and the art of storytelling in all its forms. Among his many books are A Fine Anger, Victorian Village Life, The Cinderella Story, The Penguin Book of English Folktales, Mythology (with Philip Wilkinson), The Great Mystery, War and the Pity of War, The New Oxford Book of Childrens Verse, The Tale of Sir Gawain, Horse Hooves & Chicken Feet, and The Adventures of Odysseus. Neil has contributed to numerous journals, including The Times, and Signal: Approaches to Childrens Books, and has also written for stage, screen, and radio. His work has won numerous awards and honours, including the Aesop Award of the American Folklore Society and the Literary Criticism Book Award of the Childrens Literature Association. Outside of the storied world, Neil is passionate about cats, art, music, France, food & wine, and friendship.

Reviews

[Franci · Rating 4 out of 5]

#72 of 2020

[Ayşenur Nazlı · Rating 3 out of 5]

Özetin de özeti bir kitap. Öyle ki bazen cümleler arasındaki bağlantıyı bulamıyorsunuz, kısa olsun diye uğraşıldığı için çok fazla detay uçup gitmiş, bu da anlatılmak istenen bilgiyi verememiş. Yine de vakit geçirmek ve mitolojiye girişin öncesinde hafif bir temel oluşturmak için eğlenceli bir kitap olmuş.

[Betul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dakikalar İçinde serisi tazecik bir seri desek yanlış olmaz. Bir kitapçıda yeni çıkanlar rafında gördüğümde vurulmuştum ve hemen siparişimi vermiştim ✨ Ben mitoloji hayranı olduğum için mitolojisini aldım ama din, psikoloji, antik dünya, büyük fikirler, felsefe, ekonomi gibi bir çok çeşidi daha var 🙌🏻

Kitap “mitoloji nedir?” girişi ile başlayıp “karşılaştırmalı mitoloji” denilen bahsi geçen mitolojilerin ortak öğeleri olan ölüm, tufan gibi konuları genel olarak karşılaştıran bir bölümle sona eriyor. Resmen bir eliniz kadar olan bu eser tam tamına 14 farklı mitolojiye değiniyor. Mısır, Güney Amerika, Kelt, Okyanusya, Hindistan ve daha nicesi.. Bir sayfa efsane-bir sayfa fotoğraf şeklinde her miti kısaca anlatıyor.

#kitapyorumum
Kitap ne kadar kısaca anlatsa da asla sade ve basit bir anlatım beklemeyin. Binlerce yıldır varolan efsaneleri bir sayfada anlatılmasını beklemek hayal perestliği bile aşarmış, ben kendi hayallerimle yıkıldım mesela 🥲 Çünkü mitler çok ağır, yüzeyel, anlaşılması zor aktarılmış bence. Hepsi hakkında bilgi alalım derken ne okuduğunuzu anlamadan kitabı kapatabilirsiniz. Yunan mitolojisi severi olarak Yunan kısmında bile kimi yerlerde zorlandığım oldu. Hatta bazı mitolojileri okuyamadım bile anlayamadığım için 🙊

Her mitolojiyi ele alması kitabı kapsamlı bir eser yapmış. Eğer mitoloji hakkında bilginiz varsa sırf koleksiyon için alınabilir. Ya da araştırıyorum açar bakarım diyorsanız.. Ama mitoloji başlangıcı için uygun bir eser olacağını düşünmüyorum, acı söz 🙈

Kitaplarla ve sevgiyle kalın,
Betül 💖

[J · Rating 1 out of 5]

Still reading this while I do the review since it is so hard to tackle the computer with my little cat.

For the actual book pages, the reader basically just needs to cut the number of pages in half since half of the book are illustrations whether artwork replicas of some sort or black-and-white photographs thus taking all color out of the book. Readers who are into art will recognize some of these pieces, which may or may not have captions providing the reader with a bit more information.

The book does include in the back a list of Key Source Texts, which is basically a listing of any old text that includes the information such as The Book of the Dead, the Epic of Gilgamesh and also the Popul Vah just to pick out a few names. This list provides a date for the time of the source as well as a small blurb providing the reader with just a bit more information.

For the rest of the book, although divided into various regional areas for the stories, they aren't clearly delineated that you can just open it instead of looking at the Table of Contents. What the book does that I do like is that after providing the reader with some of the more commonly accepted mythoi they do then provide a few pages to some of the minority groups.

The rest of the stories are basic mythic stories and people that are everyday fare so if you are into the subject there won't be as much new learning as one may hope for. And although the book doesn't tackle the Judeo-Christian-Muslim beliefs, they do put more emphasis on Ancient Greek mythoi itself. And I would have also moved the chapter on comparative mythoi to be the first chapter instead of the last.

But the main reason why I am going with one star even while still reading the book is that the author cannot choose who to put in charge of the sun - Apollo or Helios although the right answer would be the latter. Some of the creational characters such as Nyx aren't even provided their names but just what they were meant to portray and then the fact that they slipped while mentioning that Leto had the twins Aphrodite and Apollo... um, Neal you do know this is common-base information all over the web so that mistake shouldn't have slipped past.

And if this is the type of work they have for Ancient Greek, which is the most well-known of any mythoi system out there, than what is to hold the rest of the lesser-known information to a higher standard than it?

[Marie En Liberté · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent pour défricher des mythes de cultures du monde entier et nous donner envie d'aller plus loin dans les découvertes

[Leanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 rounded down

A good reading experience but it was very long and I think too much was added to call it "myths in minutes".

[Ulas Ergin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kisa tutalim derken sıkıcı ve akmayan bir metin ortaya cikmis, begenmedim, yinede Misir, Yunan,Roma, Iskandinav mitlerini tek kitapta toplanmis olarak bulmak avantaji var.

[Marc Livingstone · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic little edition of myths which collect tales and stories from a wide variety of societies and cultures including the traditional Greek, Norse and Egyptian but also providing more uncommon myths such as African, Oceanic and Hindu epics.

They are well presented (including accompanying art) and easy to understand for new readers while they are still enthralling for those of us more aquainted with mythology. There was a really interesting section on mythology and comparative mythology!

a great read overall!

[Tom Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting concept, easily read and informative, would be great as a gift or to sit on your bedside table for those historically-inclined.

[Ava Van den Bergh · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘Myths in Minutes’ gives a large, inclusive summary of myths worldwide. The myths themselves are told very superficially, but that’s understandable as it’s more of an overview rather than an in-depth retelling. However, it’s shortened to the point of taking away the ‘story’ aspect. It made them quite boring and ultimately forgettable.

That said, the artwork and photo’s accompanying each myth adds a nice touch. I also appreciated that the book begins with a short explanation of what mythology entails. The chapter on comparative mythology at the end was interesting, though again very limited. It also lacked an introduction to what comparative mythology was, which would be helpful for those with no prior knowledge.

The book is organized by geography, but aside from the table of contents there is no clear indication of chapters. Visually there is no differentiation between chapter titles or subtitles, which made it difficult at times to tell when you’d moved on to a new mythology. The only clue is a small note by the page number.

As expected (given its popularity), the chapter on Greek mythology is the most extensive. However, I did notice an error: the author mentions Aphrodite and Apollo as the twins of Leto and Zeus, when it should be Artemis and Apollo. It’s a minor mistake, but considering these are some of the best-known gods, it made me question the accuracy of other myths I wasn’t already familiar with.

I read this book like any other, which ended up being a little overwhelming, as there are so many names and stories with minimal context. I’d recommend treating this more like a trivia calendar, maybe read a myth or two per day. That way, you can enjoy it in small pieces and maybe take the time to look up more information independently.

[Paul Groos · Rating 2 out of 5]

For anyone who knows some mythology the way this book deals with them is too superficial. And for anyone who doesn’t, this book is … too superficial. This extremely short form way of telling them makes the stories very uninteresting, since everything but the gist of tales has been stripped from them. So they are not a nice read. And because the stories have been boiled down to their bare bones they offer nothing new to a reader with some mythological knowledge. The book simply offers a lot of stories, is ok to skim through (which I started doing after a hundred pages or so), might be useful to look up the occasional story, but is quite unattractive to pick up, not in the last place because the bland black and white pictures.
I can find nothing factually wrong with it (as far as I can tell, which is quite far): there are no silly mistakes, no wrong information). It’s just … useless.

[Batuhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Birkaç kere okunması gereken bir kitap. Azteklerde yaratılış kısmında "Tlaltecuhtli'in insanların kalbini yemek istediği için çıkardığı sesler geceleri hâlâ duyulabilir." Bu nasıl bir metin ben neden duymuyorum mitolojide böyle birşey var mı yazar trol mü geçiyor anlamadım. Aztek tanrısı Tezcatlipoca'yı ilk gördüğümda robot Titan sandım. Kitapta Türk, Moğol, Pers mitolojisi gibi diğer mitolojilerde olsaymış iyi olurmuş. Okyanusya kıtasını bile dolu dolu anlatırken kocaman Asya kıtasını Çin hariç boş bırakması olmamış. Kitabın resimler ile desteklenmesi güzel olmuş. Mitolojiler arasından en çok Antik Yunan, Babil ve İskandinavya mitolojisini sevdim. Neredeyse tüm mitolojilerde Tufan olayından bahsetmiş oldukça ilginç.

[Madi Harbauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the book and it was nice to have some refreshers of the myths that I knew. However, the myths that I didn’t know definitely needed more context. I don’t think you could know nothing about mythology and then just pick this book up. I do think it is a cool book though and I did learn more than I had already know but a lot of this stuff won’t stick in my brain because I didn’t have the right mindset/context to take in the information.

I absolutely loved all the pictures though! That was definitely the greatest part of the book, they were so pretty and cool to look at!

[Haze Prado · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so excited when I saw this on my fave thrift bookstore and happy to own another book about mythology even though it's a bit pricey.

But I was disappointed with the very limited information of every myth that are included in this book. The format was not engaging and it's so easy to forget the characters because there's not enough build up for me to be interested. Thought of giving it a lower rate if not for the lush illustrations in every page.

[Burak Ö · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kutsal alıntı olarak bilinen mitolojilerin tarihsel sürecini anlatan geniş yelpazeye kısa kısa değinen bir eser. Alt başlıklar olarak verilen mitler:
Antik Mısır Mitleri
Mezopotamya Mitleri
Antik Yunan Mitleri
Antik Roma Mitleri
Kelt Mitleri
İskandinavya Mitleri
Kuzey, Orta ve Güney Amerika Mitleri
Afrika Mitleri
Okyanusya Mitleri
Çin Mitleri
Japonya Mitleri
Hindistan Mitleri

Dinler Mitolojilerin sistemleştirilmiş halleri olduğundan ortak hikayeleri mevcut. Örneğin ''Büyük Tufan'' gibi. Büyük Tufan;
Mezopotamya Mitleri (64)
Kuzey Amerika Mitleri (242)
Meksika ve Orta Amerika Mitleri (260)
Hindistan Mitleri (378)
Ya da insanların kilden (toprak, çamur) yaratılması gibi.

Çok fazla hikaye olduğundan daha da detaylandırılması bu seriyi aşardı. Oyunlarda ve filmlerde gördüğümüz kahramanların mitolojik yönlerinin kısa anlatımında vakit geçirilebilecek bir kitap.

[Ayşe buse · Rating 1 out of 5]

yani başlangıç için iyi ama çok az detaylandırılmış, hangi mitolojiye ilginiz olduğunu anlamanız için okuyabilirsiniz.

[Elif Nur · Rating 3 out of 5]

Çok farklı mitolojik olayları barındırıyor kitap.Çok detay verilmeden kısaca anlatılmış.Ben mitoloji ile çok ilgilenmediğim için yeterli oldu.

[Pia G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

kelt mitlerine (sayfa 160) kadar bilindik şeylerden bahsediyor; gerisini sevdim ama.

[Hiko · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Dəqiqələr içində mif" desə də, 2 ilə ancaq oxuyub bitirə bildim...😅 Ən çox kelt və Cənubi Amerika mifləri maraqlı gəldi. 👌💯

[Ali Çalışkan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bad translation...

[Victoria-Melita Zammit · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a child I was obsessed with mythology, and that carried on into my teenager years. I still actually really enjoy learning about new myths and I can rattle off a good portion of Greek and Egyptian gods. I aim on reading as much as I can about Norse mythology (eventually…I have a few books I can read in my possession already). But what this book did for me and my interest in mythology is reignite it as an adult.
This book is tiny and fits in the palm of your hand, but don’t be fooled – it’s a sizeable book. Myth in Minutes really does what it claims in the title – the aim of the book is to give you a two minute read on each page about different myths from around the world, centring on different parts of the world. It goes through every continent and every major mythological ecosystem from that continent, but also introduces other minor stories that most people might not have heard of before. I know that I didn’t know as much about African and Asian mythology before I read this book.
One of the best parts about this book are the beautiful photographs that accompany each page of the book. Some pottery art, wall inscriptions, paintings, this book has it all to help you imagine and contextualize the stories that it tells you.
Honestly, I don’t have much else to say about this book, but I do highly recommend it if you’re interested in learning about myths from all over the world. It’s a quick read and also makes a brilliant coffee table book that you can have in your home or in your office if you have one of those fancy waiting rooms.

[Amanda [Novel Addiction] · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is cool if you just want the briefest overview of lots of different mythologies. But honestly, I would have been pretty confused a lot of the time if I didn't already know some of the stories. It's like the author would add in a random fact in the middle of a sentence, and it just didn't fit.. or made the sentence more confusing.

But overall, interesting.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a wonderful quick reference book. It provides only the briefest entry for different characters, events, and stories. If you are looking for more specific details about a mythical character this book is not for you.

[Sarmed Aziz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't a storybook. More like a concise encyclopedia of myths and should be treated as such. With that out of the way, there's a wealth of myths from all over the world in bite-sized segments in this book.

[Petra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I generally love this series, but when you have a myth, a story, with 5 different participants and 5 different things happening to all of them, one small page is not even remotely enough. Mythology just doesn't seem to be a suitable topic for the "In-Minutes" concept.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Does it what it says on the tin. Best parts are the segments on non-European mythology.

[Hanane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just about enough myths to get you going!
A great, brief introduction to mythologies around the world and the perfect guide to gods and goddesses.