Customer Reviews

Dictionary of Ancient Deities

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Go to the mythology section of any bookstore and peruse the shelves--what is the ratio of Greek/Roman & Norse mythology to any other? As much as I love delving deeper into the more well known myths/religions, a little variety would be wonderful. And it just so happened that one day it was necessary.

I was hunting about for some information on Egyptian and Slavic mythology, but found precious little on the latter and only a little more on the former. That's when I came across the *Dictionary of Ancient Deities*. I flipped to the index and found every name that I was looking for(including some obscure ones that I had found no mention of in any other books.) This wonderful reference tool spans just about every continent and gives a concise accounting of people, places, etc.

Sure, the entries may not be incredibly long, but it's the best starting place I've yet to find. And even just thumbing through it, stopping when an interesting name or ritual popped out at me, gave me some interesting writing ideas. *The Dictionary of Ancient Deities* is surely a must for anyone wishing to explore world mythology.

As someone with a passion with worlds religions I was psyched at having such a reference book that promised a collection of world deities. The tome does wonderful job at collecting the well known western world mythos.
The books categorizes powers, gods, and spiritual place in alphabetical order, crossing referencing with alternate/alias names as well.
So far this book contains almost every pantheon known to man, collected in a single volume.
However, when it comes to the mythos of China and the Celestial Bureaucracy, I was saddened that many of the well known gods were either not listed or were in one of the many other pinyin spellings. Example, unless you are familiar with Haunaman, you will not find any info about Sun Wu Kong the Monkey King. Likewise Guan Yu, a chinese God of War from who was a general of the Three Kingdoms era is likewise listed under a Pinyin name that I found by accident. Hopefully in a later edition, the deities of China can be cleaned up. An appendix categorizing deities by pantheons and cultures would have been an excellent help as well and hopefully would be found in later editions.

This Dictionary is massive and I mean that in a good way. In our modern age of internet search engines galore, one might ask is such a book necessary? As a person who is regularly using the popular search engines to research and track down esoteric and occult knowledge, the answer is an absolute whole-hearted emphatic Yes! Despite my tenacity and drive to track down information that I am seeking, I find it 99.9999% of the time, but when i do find the answer, usually that .0001%, it is very miniscule at best shedding little light upon my original inquiry. Well I am pleased to see that both Deities and rites that are obscure are found within the pages of this text. If I was too sit down and go through all the pantheons and related subject matter culture by culture, even reading at my fastest speed, while maintaining understanding, it will probably take me at least 6 to 8 weeks to read through all the entries. In terms of content, some of the entries are very short while others are fairly long, as would be the case with any other dictionary or encyclopedia. This book is a must have for any student's of comparative mythologies or religions. The bibliography is also really good for those persons who wish to do additional or more in depth reading on a particular culture's religious iconography.

I love this book. This is the first book I pick up when I am researching mythology or who's who in myths. The pages contain the traditional Greko-Roman deities to the Norse and Celtic gods, the Hindu avatars of Vishnu, obscure Haitian Loa, and Mesopotamian gods like Nebo and Ishtar. This is the book for mythology lovers. This book has it all.
The entries are arranged in alphabetical order and also include different titles or specific address to a deity, what the deity was associated with, explaining key events and stories. This dictionary is concise and well researched. The myths surrounding the deities are summarized to the key points.
I think if the entries were arranged by culture or location first then alphabetical might be easier to use.
Overall, this is a wonderful tool for mythology, religion, or simple reference.

For referencing or just to learn on your own... A must have if you are into mythology or metaphysics :)

There have been a few books readily available on various deities and spirits of the world, but this is by far the best I have ever seen. I appreciate that the author really seems to have done some solid research, theres certainly a bit more than just the scratch of the surface on many of the deities listed. I have found a lot of information on many Gods that I had heard of, and even more on those that I had not. Buy with confidence.

It had been difficult for me to find information on ancient myths, especially some eastern cultures. This book has a very comprehensive list of ancient deities. I am glad that I ordered this book.

This reference was filled with a smaller number of Gods and Goddesses than some other books that can be found, but as far as the references go, They were down to the point and yet still full of usefull information. I recomend this book to those who wish to crss reference Gods and Goddesses from many different religions and just read in general.