Building on the best-selling tradition of previous editions, The World of Myth, Third Edition, offers a uniquely comprehensive collection of myths from numerous cultures around the globe. Featuring a thematic organization, it helps students understand world mythology as a metaphor for humanity's search for meaning in a complex world. Author David Leeming provides a sweeping anthology of myths, ranging from ancient Egypt and Greece to the Polynesian islands and modern science. Students will be captivated by stories of great floods from the ancient Babylonians, Hebrews, Chinese, and Mayans; tales of apocalypse from India, the Norse, Christianity, and modern science; and myths of the mother goddess from Native American Hopi culture and James Lovelock's Gaia. Leeming has culled myths from Aztec, Greek, African, Australian Aboriginal, Caribbean, Japanese, Muslim, Hittite, Celtic, Chinese, and Persian cultures, offering one of the most wide-ranging collections of what he calls the "collective dreams of humanity".

The World of Myth

History

Leeming, David A.

World

Oxford University Press

The islands of Britain have been a crossroads of gods, heroes, and kings-those of flesh as well as those of myth-for thousands of years. Successive waves of invasion brought distinctive legends, rites, and beliefs. The ancient Celts displaced earlier indigenous peoples, only to find themselves displaced in turn by the Romans, who then abandoned the islands to Germanic tribes, a people themselves nearly overcome in time by an influx of Scandinavians. With each wave of invaders came a battle for the mythic mind of the Isles as the newcomer's belief system met with the existing systems of gods, legends, and myths. In Gods, Heroes, and Kings, medievalist Christopher Fee and veteran myth scholar David Leeming unearth the layers of the British Isles' unique folkloric tradition to discover how this body of seemingly disparate tales developed. The authors find a virtual battlefield of myths in which pagan and Judeo-Christian beliefs fought for dominance, and classical, Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, and Celtic narrative threads became tangled together. The resulting body of legends became a strange but coherent hybrid, so that by the time Chaucer wrote "The Wife of Bath's Tale" in the fourteenth century, a Christian theme of redemption fought for prominence with a tripartite Celtic goddess and the Arthurian legends of Sir Gawain-itself a hybrid mythology. Without a guide, the corpus of British mythology can seem impenetrable. Taking advantage of the latest research, Fee and Leeming employ a unique comparative approach to map the origins and development of one of the richest folkloric traditions. Copiously illustrated with excerpts in translation from the original sources, Gods, Heroes, and Kings provides a fascinating and accessible new perspective on the history of British mythology.

Gods, Heroes, and Kings: The Battle for Mythic Britain

Politics & Social Sciences

Fee, Christopher R.

Social Sciences

The mythologies of the world are collective cultural dreams, and as such should be analyzed first from cultural perspectives. How do myths of the ancient Egyptians or Greeks, for instance, reflect the realities of the Egyptian and Greek cultures? When compared, however, mythologies reveal certain universal themes or motifs that point to larger trans-cultural issues such as the place of the human species in creation or the nature of deity as a concept.\nWorld Mythology: A Very Short Introduction is organized around the universal motifs. Creation, the Flood, the Hero Quest, the Trickster/Culture Hero, the Pantheons, the High God, the Great Goddess. Veteran mythology scholar David Leeming examines examples of each motif from a variety of cultures--Greek, Egyptian, Norse, American Indian, African, Polynesian, Jewish, Christian, Hindu--treating them as reflections of the cultures that "dreamed" them. He compares and analyzes them, exposing their universal significance and creating a "world mythology."

World Mythology: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

Since its publication in 1991, The World of Myth has provided thousands of students with a fascinating, wide-ranging introduction to world mythology. Building on the bestselling tradition of the first edition, the long-awaited second edition offers a uniquely comprehensive collection of myths from numerous cultures around the globe. Featuring a thematic organization, it helps students understand world mythology as a metaphor for humanity's search for meaning in a complex world. Author David Leeming presents a sweeping variety of myths whose origins range from ancient Egypt and Greece to the Polynesian islands and modern science. Students will be captivated by stories of great floods from the ancient Babylonians, Hebrews, Chinese, and Mayans; tales of apocalypse from India, the Norse, Christianity, and modern science; myths of the mother goddess from Native American Hopi culture and James Lovelock's Gaia; and much more. One of the most wide-ranging anthologies available, this volume includes myths from African, Australian Aboriginal, Aztec, Celtic, Chinese, Greek, Hittite, Japanese, Muslim, and Persian cultures.

The World of Myth: An Anthology

An easy to use volume that addresses the full spectrum of information on the subject, Encyclopedia of Creation Myths is an indispensable reference source for students of mythology, religion, and classical literature as well as for general readers.
This comprehensive reference source―the only one of its kind―covers creation myths through the ages, from the legendary sagas of ancient civilizations to modern scientific theories. The pages of Encyclopedia of Creation Myths present dozens of fascinating tales of clever creations, humans emerging from cosmic eggs, and scientists defying centuries-old religious beliefs.
The carefully cross-referenced entries feature brilliant retellings of creation myths form all regions of the world, analyses of typical patters, and information on well known characters, archetypal themes in creation myths, and common terms.
 • Cross-referenced entries

Encyclopedia of Creation Myths

Reference

Leeming, Margaret Adams

Encyclopedias & Subject Guides

ABC-CLIO

Entries cover the Western allegorical tradition, as well as selected Indian, Middle Eastern, South American, and African works

Encyclopedia of Allegorical Literature (ABC-CLIO Literary Companion)

Literature & Fiction

Drowne, Kathleen

History & Criticism

The most comprehensive resource available on creation myths from around the world―their narratives, themes, motifs, similarities, and differences―and what they reveal about their cultures of origin.
ABC-CLIO's breakthrough reference work on creation beliefs from around the world returns in a richly updated and expanded new edition. From the Garden of Eden, to the female creators of Acoma Indians, to the rival creators of the Basonge tribe in the Congo, Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia, Second Edition examines how different cultures explain the origins of their existence.
Expanded into two volumes, the new edition of Creation Myths of the World begins with introductory essays on the five basic types of creation stories, analyzing their nature and significance. Following are over 200 creation myths, each introduced with a brief discussion of its culture of origin. At the core of the new edition is its enhanced focus on creation mythology as a global human phenomenon, with greatly expanded coverage of recurring motifs, comparative themes, the influence of geography, the social impact of myths, and more.
 • Over 200 entries on the creation myths of various peoples, belief systems, and religions from around the world, in addition to entries on the common features of many creation myths, such as the seed, the primordial being, the creative fire, water, and stages of creation
• 5 in-depth essays analyzing the nature and significance of the archetypal forms of creation myths
• A series of first person retellings of creation myths from different cultures by contemporary individuals
• Charts that categorize the myths according to type, theme, and geographical location
• An extensive glossary of terms related to creation myths―both general and specific 
• An annotated bibliography of print and online resources for further exploration of all aspects of creation mythology

Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia [2 volumes]

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