Customer Reviews

The Book of Gods & Goddesses: A Visual Directory of Ancient and Modern Deities

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an interesting little book I got from the library.

For those interested, here's a list of all the cultures/whatnot that this book explores by listing some of its gods and goddesses: Mesopotamia, Persia, and Canaan; Egyptian; Greek and Roman; Celtic; Norse; Aztec and Maya; Native North and South American; Indian; Chinese; Japanese; African; Afro-Caribbean.

It was pretty interesting to look at all the different cultures and their Gods. I was mainly interested in reading the entry about the Greek Goddes Hekate (also spelled 'Hecate') and wasn't disappointed. Though, this is the first time I've seen an illustartuion of Her with snakes for hair. (Looked more like Medusa to me, who wasn't included in this book.)

This book also includes a little about each culture before listing its Gods (which all have some kind of an illustration). It also has an index of all the Gods included, which makes it much easier if you're searching for a specific one.

All in all, a pretty interesting little book. As I said before, I borrowed mine from the library. You might want to check if you're library has it just to make sure if this is something you want to buy.

-Ater

Nice little book here. Picture for each deity, good for reading with the kids.

Would have liked to see original art (original ancient art from people who followed the deity), so the line drawings included seem a little "fake" or unbelievable, at least you're left wondering if they were really perceived as looking like that to the people who made them up and subsequently followed them.

My other gripe is no mention of Yahweh or Allah, seems like a severe oversight to forget these modern popular deities. They do include El, who Yahweh and Allah are derived from (they even mention Yahweh in the El section, though Yahweh is not included in the index of the book). Perhaps the book only wanted to focus on the "old gods" - though the cover does say "ancient & modern deities", but what is more modern than Yahweh and Allah? They at least include some of the other modern names like Buddha, Shiva, and Vishnu. I'm baffled, and removed one star for this omission.

(NOTE: my own purpose, just FYI, for wanting these 2 included was to see their respective histories and origins in relation to the others, and their own individual stories in an unbiased format, as the rest are so nicely presented. the 2 omissions make the book incomplete, at least when considering the most popular and well known deities. this is only slightly made up for by the inclusion of El, which is awkward because you need to know about El in advance to find the mention of Yahweh).

The book came in very good condition; especially for a library book. And the line drawings are okay. Not really like some I've seen-I agree w/the other reviewer-drawings like the one for Hecate does look like Medusa. That just doesn't make any sense. And some of the other ones also. Also, I wish that he'd put in pronunciations. Some of them, such as the Aztec or Asian, really do need it to let you feel you've really read it.
In my opinion, there are some major flaws that should have been found before pub.
One is that his statements make it sound as if these Gods now have no followers. This is not true. When he states that such major ritual events as Sanhaim, Imbolc, Beltane and Leugnasadh "had" festivals is so wrong. He needed to look around better. There are some that still follow these Gods and these holy days. They just have to keep a somewhat lower profile.
Also, I didn't like the way he wrote in the 'africa & caribbean' section. If you know any of this stuff, it won't ring true.
Basically, there are so many obvious mistakes that's it not worth the time for someone who knows any of this, and a bad start for any that want to learn about these Gods.
He doesn't give some enough space. I can see that he's giving each ½ a page, but I think that Buddha, for example, warrants a bit more.
All in all, I think it was a waste of money. Only $5 total, but that's not the point.
I didn't really pay enough to send it back.. I don't know what to do with it-I sure don't want to let someone get the wrong ideas from it & anyone else won't want it.