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Great Mythologies of the World
60 lectures: 30 minutes each; 1800 minutes total (30 hours). 2 lectures per disc. 12 lectures (6 discs) per case.
30 pages, Audio CD
First published August 21, 2015
160 people are currently reading
847 people want to read
About the author
Grant L. Voth
15 books31 followersDr. Grant L. Voth is Professor Emeritus at Monterey Peninsula College in California. He earned his M.A. in English Education from St. Thomas College in St. Paul, MN, and his Ph.D. in English from Purdue University.
Throughout his distinguished career, Professor Voth has earned a host of teaching awards and accolades, including the Allen Griffin Award for Excellence in Teaching, and he was named Teacher of the Year by the Monterey Peninsula College Students' Association. He is the author of insightful scholarly books and articles on subjects ranging from Shakespeare to Edward Gibbon to modern American fiction, and he wrote many of the official study guides for the BBC's acclaimed project, The Shakespeare Plays.
Before joining the faculty at Monterey Peninsula College, Professor Voth taught at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University and for several years served as a consultant on interdisciplinary studies programs for the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has led travel-study tours to countries including England, Ireland, France, Greece, and Turkey, and he is a frequent guest lecturer for the internationally acclaimed Carmel Bach Festival in Carmel, California.
Throughout his distinguished career, Professor Voth has earned a host of teaching awards and accolades, including the Allen Griffin Award for Excellence in Teaching, and he was named Teacher of the Year by the Monterey Peninsula College Students' Association. He is the author of insightful scholarly books and articles on subjects ranging from Shakespeare to Edward Gibbon to modern American fiction, and he wrote many of the official study guides for the BBC's acclaimed project, The Shakespeare Plays.
Before joining the faculty at Monterey Peninsula College, Professor Voth taught at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University and for several years served as a consultant on interdisciplinary studies programs for the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has led travel-study tours to countries including England, Ireland, France, Greece, and Turkey, and he is a frequent guest lecturer for the internationally acclaimed Carmel Bach Festival in Carmel, California.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 147 reviews
October 24, 2020
This is a comprehensive 60 lecture series of World mythology. It covers Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the natives of North and South America. In this series, myth is loosely defined as " a story that has meaning or significance beyond the story itself and that carried weight in their cultures investing everyday life with meaning." Thus folklore such as (Arabian Nights) and religious texts like (Book of Job, Bhavagad Gita) are included in the series.,
There are four different lecturers, all specialists in their world areas. While all the lectures were well done, I found the series on East Asian myth (China, Japan, and Korea) truly outstanding. Before listening to these lectures knew little of the myths of this part of the world. The lecturer connected the mythology to the history and culture in a manner that was illuminating.
I highly recommend this series.
There are four different lecturers, all specialists in their world areas. While all the lectures were well done, I found the series on East Asian myth (China, Japan, and Korea) truly outstanding. Before listening to these lectures knew little of the myths of this part of the world. The lecturer connected the mythology to the history and culture in a manner that was illuminating.
I highly recommend this series.
February 12, 2017
***2 Stars***
This audiobook was quite disappointing. There was no sense of direction to the flow of information, and many of the stories had glossed over details. The mythological stories were grouped together by region...and that's about as much cohesion as you're going to get here. There was no following a timeline or a family line or a common theme...just too scatterbrained for my liking.
I was hoping for something meatier.....especially for an audiobook that's 30+ hours!
June 7, 2023
When I first listened to this series five years ago (2018), I used to think myths were beneath me and had no relevance. Now, I know I was wrong. We learn from mythos, logos, and pathos, and now I realize that it is our myths that shape how we see the world before out reason or our feelings. History, for example, is the myth each generation tells itself about the past. When I went to school, the Civil War was about states rights and the Southerner's honor, today we know it was about slavery. Our myths (history) change, but it still shapes who we are. MAGA morons want to make America great again by creating a mythical past and denying gender since it violates their worldview.
I'm adding one star to my rating and making it a four star instead of three star. It still is a difficult series to get through because as with most listeners Aztec, Native American, or Asian myths are so foreign to the listener that it is hard for them to wrap their head around. That's a reflection on me not on the course itself.
The following is my original review from 2018:
Myths are never myths to those who believe.
Our myths are the themes and the images for which the reflective mind orders the pieces that make up the whole by the encoding of our hopes, fears and aspirations. Not all the myths covered kept my interest.
After having listen to these lectures, I don't believe in universal common archetypes (structuralism) that Joseph Campbell advocated could hold any validity at all. Our myths are particular to the culture and to the group that had them and to make our myths more special than they are is just a way to separate us from them and act to divide us. The best is to learn the myths of all cultures, but don't believe your groups myths make you better than others just because it is yours. Patriotism, the belief that your group, culture, clan, or country is superior just because it is yours will lead to division, racism, sexism or bigotry.
I'm adding one star to my rating and making it a four star instead of three star. It still is a difficult series to get through because as with most listeners Aztec, Native American, or Asian myths are so foreign to the listener that it is hard for them to wrap their head around. That's a reflection on me not on the course itself.
The following is my original review from 2018:
Myths are never myths to those who believe.
Our myths are the themes and the images for which the reflective mind orders the pieces that make up the whole by the encoding of our hopes, fears and aspirations. Not all the myths covered kept my interest.
After having listen to these lectures, I don't believe in universal common archetypes (structuralism) that Joseph Campbell advocated could hold any validity at all. Our myths are particular to the culture and to the group that had them and to make our myths more special than they are is just a way to separate us from them and act to divide us. The best is to learn the myths of all cultures, but don't believe your groups myths make you better than others just because it is yours. Patriotism, the belief that your group, culture, clan, or country is superior just because it is yours will lead to division, racism, sexism or bigotry.
October 2, 2019
Ancient Europe: Engaging with four major mythological traditions from Ancient Europe -- Greek, Roman, Celtic and Norse -- Dr. Kathryn McClymond delivers a compelling introduction to the quartet that she hopes will push listeners to expand their studies on their own, and I think she has definitely succeeded in pushing me towards the pair of these religions, Roman and Celtic, that I knew very little about.
McClymond approaches these mythologies with an eye to how their stories reflect both their cultures and their behavioural proclivities, which is particularly fascinating with the Romans, whose militarism and fierce early-nationalism illuminates their embracing and reimagining of the mythological systems of others, and also helps to explain their rare homegrown figures, such as Romulus and Remus.
McClymond is strongest, however, when she discusses the mythological reverberations of her topics in our popular culture. There is a burst of excited energy in her voice when she makes these connections -- connections from Wagner to Tolkien to the Avengers (with a hint of how Celtic myths live on in today’s Ireland too), and I imagine that giddiness would be even more amazing in one of her classrooms. It makes me want to sit in on one of her courses in her home University just to see excitement overtake her.
By the end of her Ancient Europe lectures, McClymond begs us to follow some thread she has plucked for us, any thread, and go deeper for ourselves, deeper than she could in her overview. I would be surprised if anyone listening isn’t compelled to do precisely what she says.
The Middle East and South Asia: Remember how I was particularly stoked by Dr. McClymond’s excitement when she was connecting myth to our popular culture? Well, that same excitement popped up again in her second set of lectures.
This time she became giddy when discussing two works she knows may be slightly controversial additions to her discussions of mythology: The Book of Job and One Thousand and One Nights. She makes her case for both wonderfully well, so I think that any controversy about their inclusion can be damned; what matters then is how she reads these texts, what she sees in them and pulls out, and the excitement with which she does it. Once again I find myself wanting to go back to the well of those stories and take another long drink.
I should mention, though, that Job and 1001 were just the highest of the highs in this series. Her discussions of Zoroastrianism, Buddhism (in some of its forms) and the Great Indian Epics were well told, compelling introductions to rich mythological (and philosophical) traditions. It makes me wish I had spent more time with these traditions as a boy, rather than wasting so much time steeped in Catholicism and all that St. Augustine shit.
Africa: Dr. Julius H. Bailey is informative and it’s clear that he loves his subject, but the African section of Great Mythologies is ultimately disappointing because of Dr. Bailey.
The entire reason I came to this lecture series was for the African and American mythologies -- two areas that I wanted an introduction to -- so I entered this section with great excitement after the excellence of Dr. McClymond.
As a source of information, Dr. Bailey gave me a decent introduction and he will spur me on to my own independent studies, but I took very little enjoyment from his lectures. A big reason for that was his stultifying way of speaking (there were lesser reasons too: how obvious it was that he was reading a script, how many stumbles and errors he made, his protestations for the importance of his topic). His delivery made me imagine a dying song bird (I have no real experience with song birds, so I could only imagine such a thing), and as his voice went sing songily on and on, I found myself praying to any god who would listen to make it stop, and cursing Anansi for tricking me into listening to Dr. Bailey.
Asia and the Pacific: Robert André LaFleur is an energy ball, and his knowledge of Asian Mythology is impressive. His range of mythology stretches from China to Japan to Korea to New Zealand to all the Pacific Islands. He is entertaining, informative and passionate about his topic. But what I found most invigorating about his portion of the lectures was his engagement with cultural synthesis vs. colonialism.
The mythologies LaFleur is dealing with all borrow and morph the mythologies of their neighbours, giving birth to new tellings of classic tales or whole new mythos on one hand, and systems of art, government and even etiquette on the other. Culture, in these cases, isn’t something that is appropriated; it is something that is integrated and made one’s own without destroying the source. But LaFleur is also careful to show us the cultural erasure of Colonialism in action (and to call for a constant examination of the Missionaries who recorded tales and the Anthropologists who’ve studied peoples and their mythologies, to uncover their motives, their biases, and their impacts). The discussion is complex, well laid out, and LaFleur -- without ever saying this explicitly -- does a marvellous job of showing readers how oversimplified today’s conceptions of “cultural appropriation” are -- perhaps some of these barriers we place between cultural expressions and people from other cultures is more likely to keep us apart and increase racism than to bring us together and be respectful of one another. It’s worth thinking about either way, and I am glad that LaFleur took us there on his journey.
The Americas -- As with Africa, the other mythologies I was most excited about and was thoroughly disappointed by were from the Americas. And like the African mythologies, the cause was down to the professor. In this case, Dr. Grant L. Voth.
First, his manner was too low energy and way too monotone to excite, which wass a source of personal shock considering how excited I was about his sphere of understanding; second, Voth spent far too much time discussing historical context and theories of meaning behind the myths and too little time discussing the myths themselves. For instance, he gave us a serious overview of the Iroquois League in the Great Lakes region of North America -- its internal and external politics, its economy, its agriculture -- and he talked about how the League itself bled into its mythology, but there was almost nothing of the myths themselves. I already know at least twenty wonderful myths of the region that he never touched upon. It was a void, and that made me supremely suspicious of the areas in the Americas that Voth covered and I know nothing about.
Sure I enjoyed the Maya and Inca and Aztec legends, but again I feel like Voth barely scratched the surface. What a let down after a mostly excellent series of exciting and illuminating lectures.
Oh well, as I said with Africa, these Great Lectures can always be seen as a source of inspiration for future reading, and all of the professors -- no matter the quality of their lecture -- delivered on that point.
Time to visit the library now that I have some of that inspiration driving me.
McClymond approaches these mythologies with an eye to how their stories reflect both their cultures and their behavioural proclivities, which is particularly fascinating with the Romans, whose militarism and fierce early-nationalism illuminates their embracing and reimagining of the mythological systems of others, and also helps to explain their rare homegrown figures, such as Romulus and Remus.
McClymond is strongest, however, when she discusses the mythological reverberations of her topics in our popular culture. There is a burst of excited energy in her voice when she makes these connections -- connections from Wagner to Tolkien to the Avengers (with a hint of how Celtic myths live on in today’s Ireland too), and I imagine that giddiness would be even more amazing in one of her classrooms. It makes me want to sit in on one of her courses in her home University just to see excitement overtake her.
By the end of her Ancient Europe lectures, McClymond begs us to follow some thread she has plucked for us, any thread, and go deeper for ourselves, deeper than she could in her overview. I would be surprised if anyone listening isn’t compelled to do precisely what she says.
The Middle East and South Asia: Remember how I was particularly stoked by Dr. McClymond’s excitement when she was connecting myth to our popular culture? Well, that same excitement popped up again in her second set of lectures.
This time she became giddy when discussing two works she knows may be slightly controversial additions to her discussions of mythology: The Book of Job and One Thousand and One Nights. She makes her case for both wonderfully well, so I think that any controversy about their inclusion can be damned; what matters then is how she reads these texts, what she sees in them and pulls out, and the excitement with which she does it. Once again I find myself wanting to go back to the well of those stories and take another long drink.
I should mention, though, that Job and 1001 were just the highest of the highs in this series. Her discussions of Zoroastrianism, Buddhism (in some of its forms) and the Great Indian Epics were well told, compelling introductions to rich mythological (and philosophical) traditions. It makes me wish I had spent more time with these traditions as a boy, rather than wasting so much time steeped in Catholicism and all that St. Augustine shit.
Africa: Dr. Julius H. Bailey is informative and it’s clear that he loves his subject, but the African section of Great Mythologies is ultimately disappointing because of Dr. Bailey.
The entire reason I came to this lecture series was for the African and American mythologies -- two areas that I wanted an introduction to -- so I entered this section with great excitement after the excellence of Dr. McClymond.
As a source of information, Dr. Bailey gave me a decent introduction and he will spur me on to my own independent studies, but I took very little enjoyment from his lectures. A big reason for that was his stultifying way of speaking (there were lesser reasons too: how obvious it was that he was reading a script, how many stumbles and errors he made, his protestations for the importance of his topic). His delivery made me imagine a dying song bird (I have no real experience with song birds, so I could only imagine such a thing), and as his voice went sing songily on and on, I found myself praying to any god who would listen to make it stop, and cursing Anansi for tricking me into listening to Dr. Bailey.
Asia and the Pacific: Robert André LaFleur is an energy ball, and his knowledge of Asian Mythology is impressive. His range of mythology stretches from China to Japan to Korea to New Zealand to all the Pacific Islands. He is entertaining, informative and passionate about his topic. But what I found most invigorating about his portion of the lectures was his engagement with cultural synthesis vs. colonialism.
The mythologies LaFleur is dealing with all borrow and morph the mythologies of their neighbours, giving birth to new tellings of classic tales or whole new mythos on one hand, and systems of art, government and even etiquette on the other. Culture, in these cases, isn’t something that is appropriated; it is something that is integrated and made one’s own without destroying the source. But LaFleur is also careful to show us the cultural erasure of Colonialism in action (and to call for a constant examination of the Missionaries who recorded tales and the Anthropologists who’ve studied peoples and their mythologies, to uncover their motives, their biases, and their impacts). The discussion is complex, well laid out, and LaFleur -- without ever saying this explicitly -- does a marvellous job of showing readers how oversimplified today’s conceptions of “cultural appropriation” are -- perhaps some of these barriers we place between cultural expressions and people from other cultures is more likely to keep us apart and increase racism than to bring us together and be respectful of one another. It’s worth thinking about either way, and I am glad that LaFleur took us there on his journey.
The Americas -- As with Africa, the other mythologies I was most excited about and was thoroughly disappointed by were from the Americas. And like the African mythologies, the cause was down to the professor. In this case, Dr. Grant L. Voth.
First, his manner was too low energy and way too monotone to excite, which wass a source of personal shock considering how excited I was about his sphere of understanding; second, Voth spent far too much time discussing historical context and theories of meaning behind the myths and too little time discussing the myths themselves. For instance, he gave us a serious overview of the Iroquois League in the Great Lakes region of North America -- its internal and external politics, its economy, its agriculture -- and he talked about how the League itself bled into its mythology, but there was almost nothing of the myths themselves. I already know at least twenty wonderful myths of the region that he never touched upon. It was a void, and that made me supremely suspicious of the areas in the Americas that Voth covered and I know nothing about.
Sure I enjoyed the Maya and Inca and Aztec legends, but again I feel like Voth barely scratched the surface. What a let down after a mostly excellent series of exciting and illuminating lectures.
Oh well, as I said with Africa, these Great Lectures can always be seen as a source of inspiration for future reading, and all of the professors -- no matter the quality of their lecture -- delivered on that point.
Time to visit the library now that I have some of that inspiration driving me.
August 26, 2017
I just couldn't get enough of this AMAZING program. It's thirty-one-derful hours long. And I have to say, I didn't want it to end.
This GREAT course covers just about every major mythological system you can think of.
From the western classics e.g. Greek and Roman, to the Norse and Celtic stories, on to Babylonian, Persian and Egyptian, through to the Indian Epics (I really love those), to African mythos, of which I was (of course) unfamiliar, why? because America, and then off to Chinese, Korean, Japanese (which we're off the chain freaky BTW), to Polynesia, Philippines, Native American myths (which I enjoyed even more than I had expected) to the Maya, Aztec and Inca.
I learned a lot and I had a blast listening to the different schooler lecturers do their thing. This course is fully worth the time and $.
If you think you'd be into it, and you're not afraid to learn some surprisingly rad shit, and you have the attention span for a REALLY LONG thing, than go ahead and do it.
I dare ya!
Five Stars!!!
This GREAT course covers just about every major mythological system you can think of.
From the western classics e.g. Greek and Roman, to the Norse and Celtic stories, on to Babylonian, Persian and Egyptian, through to the Indian Epics (I really love those), to African mythos, of which I was (of course) unfamiliar, why? because America, and then off to Chinese, Korean, Japanese (which we're off the chain freaky BTW), to Polynesia, Philippines, Native American myths (which I enjoyed even more than I had expected) to the Maya, Aztec and Inca.
I learned a lot and I had a blast listening to the different schooler lecturers do their thing. This course is fully worth the time and $.
If you think you'd be into it, and you're not afraid to learn some surprisingly rad shit, and you have the attention span for a REALLY LONG thing, than go ahead and do it.
I dare ya!
Five Stars!!!
November 15, 2021
I loved this!
Some presenters were slower than others, one had a kinda boring voice.
For the most part this is extremely intensive and I quite enjoyed it.
I haven't read much Mythology since middle school and then mostly Roman & Greek.
This was informative and interesting.
Some presenters were slower than others, one had a kinda boring voice.
For the most part this is extremely intensive and I quite enjoyed it.
I haven't read much Mythology since middle school and then mostly Roman & Greek.
This was informative and interesting.
June 4, 2021
The first part lectured by Kathryn McClymont, was very interesting, informative, entertaining and it was a pleasure listening. I stopped somewhere in the middle of the African myths, it was simply boring, unstructured texts. At the end of the sentence I could not remember the beginning. I still give 4 stars, because the first part was really good.
December 17, 2024
2024/12/17 Notes:
The audiobook is on Audible Plus until 12/31/2024. I've only listened to 25% of it and doubt I will finish it before the end of this month.
The audiobook is on Audible Plus until 12/31/2024. I've only listened to 25% of it and doubt I will finish it before the end of this month.
May 23, 2019
This is a very ambitious (and long) set of lectures that serve as a grand survey of all (all) the great myths of the world...I suppose we just don't think about the myths that aren't so great?
The lectures are divided between four knowledgeable and well organized lecturers...Profs McClymond, Bailey, LaFleur and Voth (sounds kind of like a law practice). Only Bailey is sub-par on delivery...his was probably the most difficult lecture subject (Africa). Each lecturer provides some historical background, but not enough. We in the West are most familiar with 'our' myths, so they are much easier to consume and assume context...Dr McClymond presentation was clear and effective, India included. After that, the context becomes a bit more cloudy and we (the audio audience) begin to focus more on the actual myths and remain fuzzy on the historical background (for me, that was the whole of Africa)...perhaps I was holding out for the Myth of the Black Panther. Dr Bailey seemed to be reading from a fairly monotonous script, and his material sounded repetitive. Dr LaFleur introduced me to the Far East and Pacifica myths, again with little historical context...except that the Chinese culture seemed to dominate both Korea and Japan. Dr Voth, as always, finished quite well, presenting the little known, but still great, myths (at least to me) of the Americas. Since I had recently listened to Dr Barnhart's Americas lectures, I more easily followed the myth stories.
Time in these lectures is somewhat blended such that one cannot easily tell what are 'original' myths and what are 'borrowed'. This, then, brings me to my takeaway for this course: Taken as a whole, all these myths...no matter the region of the world... represent a type of religion, that at one time was considered the 'gospel'. Notwithstanding the great value in attempting to provide moral guidance, we look at these myths as beliefs that may have been borne of innocence, or at least a poor understanding of the roles of natural science in their daily lives. Therefore, taking that a step further, it is easy for me to conclude that all religions fall into the same mythical category...one that, from some future historical philosopher's point of view, will be considered as just another story made-up by a people who just didn't 'get' it.
Take a chance on these lectures (they are on sale as I type...with a coupon, no less), but try this. Separate the sectional lectures and include a set of lectures that survey the history from which the myths originated (similar to what I did with Dr Voth and Dr Barnhart's lectures). In addition, it will break up a rather long lecture series, and, perhaps, make you more appreciative of those regional myths.
The lectures are divided between four knowledgeable and well organized lecturers...Profs McClymond, Bailey, LaFleur and Voth (sounds kind of like a law practice). Only Bailey is sub-par on delivery...his was probably the most difficult lecture subject (Africa). Each lecturer provides some historical background, but not enough. We in the West are most familiar with 'our' myths, so they are much easier to consume and assume context...Dr McClymond presentation was clear and effective, India included. After that, the context becomes a bit more cloudy and we (the audio audience) begin to focus more on the actual myths and remain fuzzy on the historical background (for me, that was the whole of Africa)...perhaps I was holding out for the Myth of the Black Panther. Dr Bailey seemed to be reading from a fairly monotonous script, and his material sounded repetitive. Dr LaFleur introduced me to the Far East and Pacifica myths, again with little historical context...except that the Chinese culture seemed to dominate both Korea and Japan. Dr Voth, as always, finished quite well, presenting the little known, but still great, myths (at least to me) of the Americas. Since I had recently listened to Dr Barnhart's Americas lectures, I more easily followed the myth stories.
Time in these lectures is somewhat blended such that one cannot easily tell what are 'original' myths and what are 'borrowed'. This, then, brings me to my takeaway for this course: Taken as a whole, all these myths...no matter the region of the world... represent a type of religion, that at one time was considered the 'gospel'. Notwithstanding the great value in attempting to provide moral guidance, we look at these myths as beliefs that may have been borne of innocence, or at least a poor understanding of the roles of natural science in their daily lives. Therefore, taking that a step further, it is easy for me to conclude that all religions fall into the same mythical category...one that, from some future historical philosopher's point of view, will be considered as just another story made-up by a people who just didn't 'get' it.
Take a chance on these lectures (they are on sale as I type...with a coupon, no less), but try this. Separate the sectional lectures and include a set of lectures that survey the history from which the myths originated (similar to what I did with Dr Voth and Dr Barnhart's lectures). In addition, it will break up a rather long lecture series, and, perhaps, make you more appreciative of those regional myths.
April 2, 2016
The lecture series suffers from an uneven and directionless treatment of the subject matter. In the end, there is a lot of information, which for most people could prove excessive with little in the form of conclusions (which is most obvious when the book ends - which just happens to be the last Chapter while it almost could have been any other).
Myths matter. As many anthropologists have rightly argued, myths are what led to the homo sapiens' cognitive revolution. Myths made it possible for small groups to come together to perform team actions that separated our species from other forms of humans and animals. Myths provided common purposes, rationales or collective targets to various societies all the way from pre-historic times to now.
The lecture series spends no time to expand the roles played by myths in our development - at the broad theoretical level or in explaining differences between various cultures. In fact, no explanations are provided on the selection criteria as well - why certain periods are chosen for various different regions.
While various professors allow the series to travel to almost all parts of the world, the selections are almost completely random. For European societies, for example, the discussions are up to the beginning of the common era while almost mysteriously stopping before the rise of the Christianity. In the middle-Eastern sections, the Judaic myths are avoided. However, the Indian section involves discussion on Buddha but the Chinese Daoism and Confucianism are avoided. For some societies, the discussions include myths developed in the early parts of the last millennia while for some others discussions end way before the Common Era.
All the professors have myriads of stories. In most cases, every lecture tries to summarize almost a dozen different tales. One often wonders why as stories zip by. Stories are rarely developed sufficiently for any enjoyment. And they are not analyzed for their meaning to the society around in most cases. The geographical categorization prevents any classifications of myths that permit discussions on their similarities and differences across continents or eras.
Without a doubt, there is a lot of information. In one series, the listeners go around the world to realize how different groups reasoned the creation, death, the misery or injustices of daily lives, the environment, other animals and other vagaries of our existence. The scope of the series is absolutely breathtaking as professors make us travel to almost every corner of the pre-modern worlds.
Myths matter. As many anthropologists have rightly argued, myths are what led to the homo sapiens' cognitive revolution. Myths made it possible for small groups to come together to perform team actions that separated our species from other forms of humans and animals. Myths provided common purposes, rationales or collective targets to various societies all the way from pre-historic times to now.
The lecture series spends no time to expand the roles played by myths in our development - at the broad theoretical level or in explaining differences between various cultures. In fact, no explanations are provided on the selection criteria as well - why certain periods are chosen for various different regions.
While various professors allow the series to travel to almost all parts of the world, the selections are almost completely random. For European societies, for example, the discussions are up to the beginning of the common era while almost mysteriously stopping before the rise of the Christianity. In the middle-Eastern sections, the Judaic myths are avoided. However, the Indian section involves discussion on Buddha but the Chinese Daoism and Confucianism are avoided. For some societies, the discussions include myths developed in the early parts of the last millennia while for some others discussions end way before the Common Era.
All the professors have myriads of stories. In most cases, every lecture tries to summarize almost a dozen different tales. One often wonders why as stories zip by. Stories are rarely developed sufficiently for any enjoyment. And they are not analyzed for their meaning to the society around in most cases. The geographical categorization prevents any classifications of myths that permit discussions on their similarities and differences across continents or eras.
Without a doubt, there is a lot of information. In one series, the listeners go around the world to realize how different groups reasoned the creation, death, the misery or injustices of daily lives, the environment, other animals and other vagaries of our existence. The scope of the series is absolutely breathtaking as professors make us travel to almost every corner of the pre-modern worlds.
July 6, 2019
Großartige Übersicht in fünf Teilen mit je 12 ca. 30-50 minütigen Vorlesungen (also 60 Folgen).
Kathryn McClymond
I. Ancient Europe
II. The Middle East & South Asia
Einziger kleiner Makel. McClymond bezieht sich einige Male auf Joseph Conrad, den ich für einen Blender und potentiell gefährlichen Irrläufer halte.
Robert André LaFleur
III. Asia and the Pacific
Vor allem was Mythen des pazifischen Raumes angeht für mich hilfreiche Einführung, weil hier auch die Rolle der europäischen Mythographen kritisch besprochen wird. Die Folgen über das Dreieck China, Korea & Japan allein kann ich allen Interessierten fernöstlicher Kultur sehr empfehlen. Freilich auch eine feine Ergänzung zu meinen Buddhismus-Studien.
Julius H. Bailey
IV. Africa
Ebenfalls sehr hilfreiche Einführung für mich, weil ich mich bisher mit afrikanischen Mythen eher nicht so gut auskenne. Größte Überraschung: Afrika hat irr viele höchst erstaunliche Trickster-Mythen und bietet dolle Kontraste z. B. mit Mythen über Entstehung des Menschen, bei denen keine Götter auftreten.
Grant L. Voth
V. The Americas
Ebenfalls dringend nötige Übersicht für mich.
Rundum sehr empfehlenswert.
Als Zugabe zum Audiobuch gibt es reichlich Begleitmaterialen als PDF mit ausführlichen Zusammenfassungen zu jeder Vorlesung, weiterführenden Fragen, Quellenangaben, Glossar; zusammen fast 500 Seiten! So muss datt!!!
Kathryn McClymond
I. Ancient Europe
II. The Middle East & South Asia
Einziger kleiner Makel. McClymond bezieht sich einige Male auf Joseph Conrad, den ich für einen Blender und potentiell gefährlichen Irrläufer halte.
Robert André LaFleur
III. Asia and the Pacific
Vor allem was Mythen des pazifischen Raumes angeht für mich hilfreiche Einführung, weil hier auch die Rolle der europäischen Mythographen kritisch besprochen wird. Die Folgen über das Dreieck China, Korea & Japan allein kann ich allen Interessierten fernöstlicher Kultur sehr empfehlen. Freilich auch eine feine Ergänzung zu meinen Buddhismus-Studien.
Julius H. Bailey
IV. Africa
Ebenfalls sehr hilfreiche Einführung für mich, weil ich mich bisher mit afrikanischen Mythen eher nicht so gut auskenne. Größte Überraschung: Afrika hat irr viele höchst erstaunliche Trickster-Mythen und bietet dolle Kontraste z. B. mit Mythen über Entstehung des Menschen, bei denen keine Götter auftreten.
Grant L. Voth
V. The Americas
Ebenfalls dringend nötige Übersicht für mich.
Rundum sehr empfehlenswert.
Als Zugabe zum Audiobuch gibt es reichlich Begleitmaterialen als PDF mit ausführlichen Zusammenfassungen zu jeder Vorlesung, weiterführenden Fragen, Quellenangaben, Glossar; zusammen fast 500 Seiten! So muss datt!!!
November 11, 2019
Various University professors share lectures about mythology from around the world. They include context, meaning and variations of the stories and what that reflects and explains about the cultures that they originated in.
Why I started this book: I'm missing college this semester, and I wanted to learn more. Wanted to feel like I was back in a classroom, listening and learning about something new (or very old) and exciting.
Why I finished it: As a rick roirdan reader, I was more familiar with the Greek, Roman and Egyptian mythologies and eager to learn more. I was also surprised at the Native American mythology that I knew, but my African and Asian mythology was weak and it was fun to learn more. Plus this was another great title to listen to when you know that you will have to start and stop, as there are multiple lectures in each of the geographical areas and plenty of natural stopping points.
Why I started this book: I'm missing college this semester, and I wanted to learn more. Wanted to feel like I was back in a classroom, listening and learning about something new (or very old) and exciting.
Why I finished it: As a rick roirdan reader, I was more familiar with the Greek, Roman and Egyptian mythologies and eager to learn more. I was also surprised at the Native American mythology that I knew, but my African and Asian mythology was weak and it was fun to learn more. Plus this was another great title to listen to when you know that you will have to start and stop, as there are multiple lectures in each of the geographical areas and plenty of natural stopping points.
April 26, 2021
This is a MAMMOTH collection of mythologies from the ENTIRE planet! Not one, not two, but FIVE different courses packed into one! 60 lectures!
Sorry for the extreme exclamation but I'm still trying to get over how rich a treasure trove this course is.
The five courses cover different regions of the world - Europe, West and South Asia, Africa, East Asia and the Americas. I wish that I had taken the time to review each individually. Each course offered insights into the respective cultures. The professors did a great job of walking the fine line between narration and analysis
I decided however that I am not going to form opinions on different cultures based on this course, especially for regions whose myths were completely unknown to me. I know the Greek myths and the history of Western Europe so I'm comfortable connecting the stories of Heracles and Achilles with the histories of Alexander and Julius Caesar. But for the other regions, especially Africa, I would like to revisit this course after reading more about pre-colonial African history.
Sorry for the extreme exclamation but I'm still trying to get over how rich a treasure trove this course is.
The five courses cover different regions of the world - Europe, West and South Asia, Africa, East Asia and the Americas. I wish that I had taken the time to review each individually. Each course offered insights into the respective cultures. The professors did a great job of walking the fine line between narration and analysis
I decided however that I am not going to form opinions on different cultures based on this course, especially for regions whose myths were completely unknown to me. I know the Greek myths and the history of Western Europe so I'm comfortable connecting the stories of Heracles and Achilles with the histories of Alexander and Julius Caesar. But for the other regions, especially Africa, I would like to revisit this course after reading more about pre-colonial African history.
December 14, 2024
On the one hand, this is incredibly interesting, and the kind of thing teenage me lived for.
On the other hand, I have some serious issues with it.
- The first male narrator is not great, to say the least. A stilted narration is a death knell for non-fiction. Not great.
- The first section (European mythology) is absolutely riddled with inaccuracies. (Celts are the Irish and the English? How are us Scots meant to feel about our heritage being unceremoniously removed? Can't speak for the Welsh, but not sure they'd appreciate it either...). Having a heap of inaccuracies doesn't help me have faith in the rest of the book!
- The Native American section has several misquoted idioms. It makes the author look stupid. Again, not helpful for trust in the rest of the text...
But for all that, still entertaining. I just wouldn't look at it as source information and suggest doing further research on any of the topics that interest you. Whatever you do, don't quote this one in a uni essay! 😆
On the other hand, I have some serious issues with it.
- The first male narrator is not great, to say the least. A stilted narration is a death knell for non-fiction. Not great.
- The first section (European mythology) is absolutely riddled with inaccuracies. (Celts are the Irish and the English? How are us Scots meant to feel about our heritage being unceremoniously removed? Can't speak for the Welsh, but not sure they'd appreciate it either...). Having a heap of inaccuracies doesn't help me have faith in the rest of the book!
- The Native American section has several misquoted idioms. It makes the author look stupid. Again, not helpful for trust in the rest of the text...
But for all that, still entertaining. I just wouldn't look at it as source information and suggest doing further research on any of the topics that interest you. Whatever you do, don't quote this one in a uni essay! 😆
June 12, 2022
I broke with my usual practice of listening to a Great Courses book straight through and listened to this volume a few lectures at a time over the course of a year. The reason for that is that this book actually manages to give an overview of the basic myths of several dozen cultures, breaking them up mostly by geographic region, and the similarities between so many of the myths made them tend to blur together when I listened to too many at a time. It’s really quite remarkable how similar so many of the world’s myths are at their root. And in the same vein, it is also remarkable that there are so many distinctive differences.
When you get a book on myths, there is usually a great deal of focus on one particular mythos—Greek, Norse, Celtic, etc. In this book, the most any culture gets are a couple of lectures. The authors keep moving throughout their region, picking up new stories and showing what links them to others and also what makes them distinctive. It’s really a wonderful collection.
When you get a book on myths, there is usually a great deal of focus on one particular mythos—Greek, Norse, Celtic, etc. In this book, the most any culture gets are a couple of lectures. The authors keep moving throughout their region, picking up new stories and showing what links them to others and also what makes them distinctive. It’s really a wonderful collection.
January 21, 2022
The best thing about this lecture series was how diverse the mythology covered in it was. It touches on myths from all over the world, though it does feature Greek and Roman myth more heavily than any other, and some cultures are notoriously absent (for example, I don't think Slavic myth was mentioned at all). The thing I liked least was how non-diverse the lecturers were. I was less than thrilled with hearing about, for instance, Incan myths from a white man, Indian myths from a white woman, or Chinese myths from a different white man. I appreciated that they all seemed to try to see the myth through the lens of the culture that it belonged to, but it still felt wrong. It was worth it for the overview, but I'll get my deeper look at these mythologies elsewhere.
September 6, 2020
A fascinating, inspiring, and at times whirlwind tour. I wish the African section had a more dynamic lecturer -- it felt stilted, very much like he was reading a script -- but as I was most familiar of course with European and Middle Eastern traditions, I found all three other sections (Africa, East Asia/Oceania, and the Americas) especially engrossing. I'm going to need to listen to all of those again at some point, just so I can actually take in more of the detail. But even more, I need to track down a number of the source references for further reading...
December 28, 2018
I listened to this book over many months. Since it is 31 hrs long. It was so worth it if you enjoy understanding mythology. The four narrators are actually subject matter experts which made it for me, more enjoyable. They really do cover the majority of the world's mythologies and dig into the similarities and differences across cultures and even with in the same culture.
February 13, 2018
This was really a very interesting survey of international mythology - loved the Spider Tales of Africa (Thanks Aunt Nancy🕷).
January 17, 2019
I really loved most of this, but the narrator for the Africa section was painful. Bad to the point that I had to skip most of that lecture series.
September 27, 2021
Took me awhile to finish it, but I did!! Very informative!!
November 26, 2023
4.5/5 The reason why it didn''t get a 5/5 is because is glossed over Noirish and Celtic mythology .
March 30, 2025
This book serves as an overview for world mythologies and provides a ton of recommendations for further reading (which I can't wait to look into). I already knew I was interested in Maya, Aztec, and Inca cultures. After having read this, however, I'm now also interested in learning more about the Hopi, ancient Japan, and The Bambara. Great Mythologies of the World is well organized and respectful. If you need an introduction or a refresher on mythology and the peoples they originate from; or if you like to think deeply about spirituality, life, death, and purpose- this is a great book.
December 21, 2019
This audiobook was structured perfectly for my commute to work, as each lecture was broken into approximately 30 minute segments and focused exclusively on a particular regional or cultural sub-group and their corresponding myth traditions ("myth traditions" here to be broadly defined by the lecturers as effectively any story told by a people's to convey a moral lesson).
The series was broken into four buckets of about 15 lectures each: classical Western Civilization, Africa, Asia and the Pacific region, and the Americas. Each bucket of lectures was given by a different professor, and provided cultural and historical context to a brief summary of various stories, so didn't focus so much on the content of the story, as much as the context of the time and groups that created the story.
Although I found some of the lecturers presentation styles more engaging than others, I found the overall book to be quite interesting. As with any survey type book that covers a wide spread, I'll need to come back to it occasionally to remember key stories, but the format certainly lends itself to that.
The series was broken into four buckets of about 15 lectures each: classical Western Civilization, Africa, Asia and the Pacific region, and the Americas. Each bucket of lectures was given by a different professor, and provided cultural and historical context to a brief summary of various stories, so didn't focus so much on the content of the story, as much as the context of the time and groups that created the story.
Although I found some of the lecturers presentation styles more engaging than others, I found the overall book to be quite interesting. As with any survey type book that covers a wide spread, I'll need to come back to it occasionally to remember key stories, but the format certainly lends itself to that.
May 23, 2022
DNF.
I listened to the first 14 lectures and, frankly, while nothing was wrong with the information, the tone, angling, and presentation weren't my taste. Very American.
I listened to the first 14 lectures and, frankly, while nothing was wrong with the information, the tone, angling, and presentation weren't my taste. Very American.
November 4, 2022
This is both too long and too short. Overall its ambition is too big and execution is too limited. Each of the areas deserved at least 50% more coverage which would have made the course unwieldy. Conversely they could have cut back to bare minimums as a setup to separate courses on each area. By trying to be all things to all people they missed the mark. Sometimes this was reflected in individual sections that got lost on the way to the point.
October 22, 2022
Uneven, with some good and some awkward lectures
this is basically five courses each consisting 12 lectures. the last sets about American and some parts of the Asian lectures did a good job by going beyond just retelling the stories. others were problematic, as they reek of orientalism. Uneven as the first two professors tell the stories and tries to find themes.
The first prof takes too many knowing condescending pauses.. like "it is always a man.." without contextualising or exploring why it is important. Worst offence is looking at other religious contexts as myth without turning the same eye on themselves. Christian mythology is completely ignored, as if it is not myth, implying it as the truth.
a grating aspect in the discussion of Hindu mythology spent a good chunk of time of only 2 lectures discussing how Hindu beliefs are creating trouble in contemporary cultural context. While not untrue, this isn't the space to discuss it, unless the course is titled socio political implications of world religions. why is there no comparable exploration of how religious fervor caused the crusades or the conflict between catholic and protestant mythologies? isn't it funny how Indian revivalism of Hindu mythology is concerning, while American Christian extremism or the conflict in Israel isn't? I'm not saying that every mythology course should be political or apolitical. but it is important to be fair and apply the same approach to all aspects of the field.
Even prof Voth, who is usually quite engaging and objective makes awkward assertions like, a medicine pole is an object of religious significance similar to those collected by people in the 16th century. As if contemporary crucifixes are decorative toys. This implicit and explicit bias of western professors digressing that their religion is real and the others are just myths is infuriating.
There seems to be a free hand given to professors, and instead of a rigorous exploration of the topic that you find in the great courses on scientific topics, you end up getting a broad and generic discussion of whatever the professor likes.
this is basically five courses each consisting 12 lectures. the last sets about American and some parts of the Asian lectures did a good job by going beyond just retelling the stories. others were problematic, as they reek of orientalism. Uneven as the first two professors tell the stories and tries to find themes.
The first prof takes too many knowing condescending pauses.. like "it is always a man.." without contextualising or exploring why it is important. Worst offence is looking at other religious contexts as myth without turning the same eye on themselves. Christian mythology is completely ignored, as if it is not myth, implying it as the truth.
a grating aspect in the discussion of Hindu mythology spent a good chunk of time of only 2 lectures discussing how Hindu beliefs are creating trouble in contemporary cultural context. While not untrue, this isn't the space to discuss it, unless the course is titled socio political implications of world religions. why is there no comparable exploration of how religious fervor caused the crusades or the conflict between catholic and protestant mythologies? isn't it funny how Indian revivalism of Hindu mythology is concerning, while American Christian extremism or the conflict in Israel isn't? I'm not saying that every mythology course should be political or apolitical. but it is important to be fair and apply the same approach to all aspects of the field.
Even prof Voth, who is usually quite engaging and objective makes awkward assertions like, a medicine pole is an object of religious significance similar to those collected by people in the 16th century. As if contemporary crucifixes are decorative toys. This implicit and explicit bias of western professors digressing that their religion is real and the others are just myths is infuriating.
There seems to be a free hand given to professors, and instead of a rigorous exploration of the topic that you find in the great courses on scientific topics, you end up getting a broad and generic discussion of whatever the professor likes.
November 24, 2018
Type: Audible
Length: 31 hours 36 minutes
An incredibly brief but informative journey around the world!
This was a great series of lectures of mythology from around the world. I wouldn't say it is the most in depth, but it covers so many cultures that it surprised and entertained me.
As someone who has read a lot of Greek, Roman, some other European and Egyptian mythology there was nothing surprising. I have heard all these before and in more depth, so it was a disappointment. However, this is an overall view so of course they would skim the surface not dig deep.
The beauty of this was in the other Middle Eastern myths, Southeast Asian myths and African myths. I am sure they are much like the Greek and Roman mythology covered. They are probably the very basic myths and not connected well between then. However, they were brand new to me and have inspired me to check them out closer.
The one problematic area were the Native American myths. Most of them were great, I enjoyed listening to them. The problematic myth though involved what seemed to be a tale about a child watching her father be with what seems to be a two-spirit or possibly transgender lover and in the end that lover killed her father.
What bothered me greatly about this was his constant reference of that being/person/creature being a transvestite and how it was wrong. I do admit it felt personal and in full disclosure I am transgender myself, but his CV indicates no professional experience with Native American subject matter (that isn't anything he is listed as being a specialist in) and it felt like a personal conservative viewpoint with an agenda. The rest of his myths seemed fine, but his personal observations on that one are what bothered me a lot and is why it only gets a four.
Like many of their courses, I definitely recommend this course in mythology. It is well worth the time, money and effort to get through almost 32 hours of courses. Or at least it was for me.
Length: 31 hours 36 minutes
An incredibly brief but informative journey around the world!
This was a great series of lectures of mythology from around the world. I wouldn't say it is the most in depth, but it covers so many cultures that it surprised and entertained me.
As someone who has read a lot of Greek, Roman, some other European and Egyptian mythology there was nothing surprising. I have heard all these before and in more depth, so it was a disappointment. However, this is an overall view so of course they would skim the surface not dig deep.
The beauty of this was in the other Middle Eastern myths, Southeast Asian myths and African myths. I am sure they are much like the Greek and Roman mythology covered. They are probably the very basic myths and not connected well between then. However, they were brand new to me and have inspired me to check them out closer.
The one problematic area were the Native American myths. Most of them were great, I enjoyed listening to them. The problematic myth though involved what seemed to be a tale about a child watching her father be with what seems to be a two-spirit or possibly transgender lover and in the end that lover killed her father.
What bothered me greatly about this was his constant reference of that being/person/creature being a transvestite and how it was wrong. I do admit it felt personal and in full disclosure I am transgender myself, but his CV indicates no professional experience with Native American subject matter (that isn't anything he is listed as being a specialist in) and it felt like a personal conservative viewpoint with an agenda. The rest of his myths seemed fine, but his personal observations on that one are what bothered me a lot and is why it only gets a four.
Like many of their courses, I definitely recommend this course in mythology. It is well worth the time, money and effort to get through almost 32 hours of courses. Or at least it was for me.
December 14, 2017
I appreciated the narrator's expertise, but I wasn't as enamoured with this course as I expected to be. The first narrator was great, but she focussed on Classical mythology, and I already had a lot of background knowledge on that subject. The last narrator was very engaging as well, although some colonial language slipped into his tellings. A note: using the past-tense when discussing Indigenous people implies they are dead and gone. And using the term "Native American" to refer to all Indigenous people in the Americas is just rude. A bit nit picky, if I were talking to a layman, but this is a specialist and he should know better.
I think I wanted both more story and more analysis. I wanted a proper storyteller, and then a dissection, like a passionate literature teacher. Instead, it was anthropologists, and I just wasn't as charmed.
I think I wanted both more story and more analysis. I wanted a proper storyteller, and then a dissection, like a passionate literature teacher. Instead, it was anthropologists, and I just wasn't as charmed.
March 5, 2020
Some lectures were more interesting than others. Some were easier to get through, while some were just difficult to keep listening to, perhaps because of the professor or the mood I was in. But I just enjoyed all the myth traditions discussed. Perhaps the Asian myths were the ones that I struggled with most. The Native American ones were so enjoyable.
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