Mythology Visual Reference Guides

Eyewitness Companions

by Philip Wilkinson, Neil Philip

ll the major myths-from epics of love, adventure and heroism, to creation stories-are vividly retold and beautifully illustrated in Visual Reference MythologyIt's a complete who's who of the key mythological characters in all myth-making cultures and includes the famous tales of Greek and Roman mythology-as well as the lesser known stories of peoples of the Americas, Asia and Africa, allowing you to discover the themes and beliefs that recur across different cultures. Philip Wilkinson has more than 50 titles to his credit in the fields of history, mythology, and the arts, including Illustrated Dictionaries of Mythology and Religions and A Celebration of Customs and Rituals of the World, which was adopted and endorsed by the United Nations. Neil Philip is the author of many books on folklore and mythology. Among his books are The Illustrated Book of Myths, Eyewitness Mythology, and Myths &Legends Explained, The Great Myths of Native America, The Cinderella Story, The Penguin Book of English Folktales, and Horse Hooves and Chicken Mexican Folktales, which won the Aesop Prize of the American Folklore Society.

Genres: Mythology, Nonfiction, Reference, History, Religion, Ancient History, Research

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Philip Wilkinson (born 1955) is the author of non-fiction books for children and adults. He was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He worked as an editor prior to becoming an author.

He specializes in works on history, the arts, religion, and architecture and has written over forty titles.

Reviews

[Mr Shahabi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A beautiful nice introduction on Mythology from a simple stand out point

[max! · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't be fooled or mislead by my low rating, this book is quite informative! I learned a lot about myths and beliefs I didn't know about before, and it's always fun to revisit the ones I did know about. It was well-informed (at least, it appears to me,) and it even had pictures!

So why the 3 stars? Well, I personally find it disappointing how the Classical World (the Greeks, the Romans, and very few others) section was 150 pages long, but the sections for the rest of the world were so much shorter in comparison. I mean, the Americas was only 30 pages long? I would have liked to see more details, more stories, for less popular myths.

[Grady · Rating 2 out of 5]

On its face, this seems like it would be a fascinating book, or at least fun. But while the illustrations are lively and well chosen, the text hops all over the place, especially in the thematic section - example after example from various cultures, without enough context to make sense of them. I found it obscured rather clarified similarities and differences.

[Monika M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nors ši knyga aprašo visų žemynų pagrindinius senuosius tikėjimus, yra gausi iliustracijų ir pamini daugybę dievų, man trūko išsamumo, dievų funkcijų palyginimų, daugiau analizės, o ne tik paminėjimo su trumpu vieno nuotykio aprašymu.
Tad imdami šią knygą tikėkitės daugiau grafinės informacijos enciklopediniu stiliumi. Ji tinkamesnė susipažinti, o ne žinių gilinimui.

[Cassie · Rating 5 out of 5]

i liked it i think it was a good overview on various mythologies and mythological figures from all over i might be more bias though because i just do know more about greek and roman myth/gods and i understand not everyone does but i wish that section wasn’t as large i would have loved to learn more about gods from areas of the world that don’t have such extensive literature like the classical world has. caribbean, polynesia, slavic europe that was the most interesting to me because i don’t know much about myth from those areas

[Kastie Pavlik · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a very brief reference guide that touches the surface and is best used as a jumping off point to explore myths or legends in more detail elsewhere. Given my wide interest and time span, I appreciate the effectiveness of this, but can see how a reader would want more from it.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have tried for months to get through this book and I just can't do it. There is just too much trying to be fit into one page summaries. It's monotonous and very hard to follow. I even found some typos and a mistake concerning the story of Hel in Norse Mythology as well. I'm shelving this one just for reference purposes.

[Molly G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on the snippets of Greek mythology, I must assume all the myths in the book are probably somewhat Christianized. (Or perhaps consider the Christianization over time to have become a legitimate version of the myth.) But still informative and deliciously sweeping with fantastic visual richness.

[Skylar Burris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Colorful but frenetic.

[Allison (Azyrre) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great overview of the mythologies of different regions and cultures. Can get a little bland if you just try to read through the whole thing like a story or set of stories because many of the stories are similar between cultures and the writing style / storytelling style is all the same. But it's a great resource if you're looking for the mythologies of a particular region (not necessarily of one tribe or culture because it covers the main myths of so many), and a great way to compare similar myths and similar deities and characters between regions.

[Erwin Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Philip Wilkinson’s Mythology presents readers with myths from the classical world, Europe, Asia, the Americas, Africa, and Oceania. These tell stories about god and goddesses, deities of animals, fertility, love, fate, war, and the underworld.
These are tales about the environment, their covenant between nature, the divine, and humanity. The myths are flexible and adapt to their societies. They are metaphors of reality and pathways to the sacred. They offer social cohesion, determine behavior; calibrate cultures, and spiritual underpinnings of people.

[savesbooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

J’ai été super contente de ce livre. C’est un ensemble d’informations toutes plus intéressantes les unes que les autres et j’étais vraiment passionnée du début à la fin. Je pense que ça va beaucoup m’aider dans la suite de mes études avec d’autres information que je pourrais récolter.
Explications pas trop longues et de belles images pour accompagner le tout c’était franchement top. Je recommande à tous ceux qui veulent commencer à s’informer sur les différentes mythologies.

[Soni❤ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was an awesome synopsis (so not much detail) of many mythologies found in many different parts of the world. What made this book most enjoyable for me was the visual references. I thought that the pictures of the lands, artifacts, and structures worked well with the overviews of the different stories and their analysis. They worked well together to keep me engaged.

[Sunchana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always enjoyable to read.

[Ariana · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book was very informative and very interesting!

[Nonya Biznuss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely useful in my major (religion), the references alone help tremendously! Great for quick references

[Maria Savina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Скучное перечисление богов и некоторых мифов

[Book Shark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant! If you are interested in World mythology and not just Roman/Greek we all know check this book out. It's a great first step book to get you going!

[Prashiie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of myths from all over the world. Serves as an introduction, so does not really go in depth.
But interesting, nonetheless!

[Becca Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for a quick and basic introduction to different mythologies.

[Jax · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting stuff, but come on. a whole page for the odyssey and 2 pages FOR THE ENTIRETY OF AFRICA ?

[J.A. A Santana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was entirely captivated by the stories. It provided a fantastic insight into the mysteries of the world while also giving me a greater appreciation for all the different cultures and their unique mythologies. The book was well written and easy to follow, so I enjoyed learning about all these fascinating tales. Highly recommend this book to anyone interested in exploring the world of mythology!

[Steven Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another of those Eyewitness Companions gems. This time, the focus is on mythology. There are other works out there on the subject (Heck, I've even reviewed Bulfinch's Mythology!). But this offers nice coverage. As always with this series, the strength of this volume is the background that it provides and the breadth of coverage. This comes, however, with the disadvantage of not much depth. But that is the tradeoff of such a volume.

The book begins by giving the reader some background on exactly what myths are all about. This, it does pretty well. The authors say (Page 14) "Myths are sacred stories. They tell of the creation of the world; the emergence of gods and the first men and women; the adventures of heroes and the audacity of tricksters; the nature of heaven and the underworld; and of what will happen when time comes to an end." But, again, centrally, there is a sacred quality to these stories.

After its useful introductory segments, the book moves to a consideration of the Classical World, primarily Greek and Roman myths. Among the subjects (and this is one of my favorite sections in the book, as a matter of fact) are: birth of the titans, the gods of Olympus (a diagram on pages 40-41 is quite helpful), the Oedipal tragedies, the stories of Homer (with the Trojan War, the story of Odysseus' return to his home), the story of Aeneas and the founding of Rome, and so on.

Then, the book moves to an analysis of myths in other regions of the world. For instance, Europe. Here, we encounter the Norse gods, such as Thor or Balder or Odin or Freyja. Myths from Asia, the Americas, Africa, and Oceania are also summarized. With many of these, one wants to read so much more about specific subjects. But then this would become a 1,000 page volume, would it not?

There is a final section on "Who's Who in Mythology," focusing on "types" of characters. Creators and high gods? Zeus, Ahura Mazda, or Tohan. Or "Tricksters," such as Loki or Ahriman. And on it goes.

So, another nice addition to this series.

[Alexei Clements · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this reference book because it included a lot of different cultures and their mythologies. I also liked that it tells you the approximate current location of the places mentioned in the myths. I found that really added depth to the myths. I found the reference tables in the back quite useful. I would recommend this book to anyone.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy the Introduction in this book. It overtly points out reoccurring themes and characters found in myths and then provides examples from multiple different cultures, and not only the commonly known ones (ie: not relying too heavily on the well known Greek gods). Consequently, this would serve as a great book for writers who are trying to create their own mythology systems for fantasy worlds...

After the introduction, the book goes on to have sections devoted specifically to different cultures. These sections only provide brief blurbs, and do not tell myth stories. However, this is suiting to the title "Dictionary of Mythology". It's not meant to be in depth but provide a basic definition of different mythological creatures/gods. It works well for that purpose, but not for gaining real understanding of the different mythologies it is defining.

[Thita · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got it as a birthday present years ago. It was an interesting book, filled with interesting facts and decorated with beautiful pictures. It's not only tell you about Roman and Greek myth, there are also Polynesian, Native American, Asian, African myth, so it really could expand your knowledge about mythology. However, the explanation of the mythology is not really deep and through, so if you want to know more about a myth, perhaps you could google them to find out more or find another more specific book.

The part that I like the most from this book is the comparison of deities from all myth by their role, so we could see the (somewhat) equivalent deities from different culture. It is a good book for those who want to know about world mythology in a glance.

[Anoolka · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is a good book, overall. Nice photos, a lot of myths mentioned and it doesn't just talk about the Greeks and Romans. On the other hand I noticed it perpetuates the highly contested assumption that Slavs believed in Belobog and that their believes were higly dualistic. Many scholars argue that to be false since there are no historic texts that even mention such a god's name. Keeping that in mind I doubt there aren't any other mistakes. Unfortunate.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book with great photos, very broad mythology stories from almost all cultures in the world but too bad not so much depth in every myths. Maybe you'll find some of the myths are amusing and some others are really creepy, hope it can broaden your mind and understand other culture that is different from your own.

This book will give you a general view of cultural beliefs and also background stories to some of fantasy novels out there.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like another reviewer said, this is a good cliff notes version of lots of myths in different cultures, gives you a taste so you see if any place in particular catches your interest. The visuals are neat too.

I wish they'd stressed myth variants more though- no one myth was the "true" version to that culture. And they went with the "these pagans actually believed all their gods were different faces of one god" a little too often.

[Salsabila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Filled with interesting mythology tales from all around the world. Some were detailed, some were not, and it was written rather casually sometimes. Includes so many intriguing photos to complete each article. Great for future reference, but might need help from other sources for more detailed information.