Gods and Goddesses: A Treasury of Deities and Tales from World Mythology [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Hallam (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1996

Gods and Goddesses organizes the most significant deities of every major world tradition in one lush, illustrated volume, arranging the entries by their individual realms of influence, such as those that represent good and evil, heavens and the earth, love and fecundity, war and peace, or prosperity and home life.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 184 pages
• Publisher: Pub Overstock Unlimited Inc; Eddison Sadd Ed edition (November 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0028614216
• ISBN-13: 978-0028614212
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,215,156 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully articulated and beautifully illustrated., February 20, 1999

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[e-mail] (San Diego, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gods and Goddesses: A Treasury of Deities and Tales from World Mythology (Hardcover)

The approach of this book is neither that of comparative religion nor a study of mythology; it is not written from the standpoint of any religion and, in keeping with modern scholarship, makes no value judgements.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nicely illustrated, good selection but omits Yhwh and Allah, July 6, 2010

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wintermute "zero" (right behind you) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Gods and Goddesses: A Treasury of Deities and Tales from World Mythology (Hardcover)

This book is nicely illustrated, with images of original ancient art of the gods/goddesses. nice 1/2 to 2 page descriptions. I could write a lot of nice stuff about everything that _is_ in this book.

My only complaint was that there is no inclusion of modern western gods like Yahweh (YHWH) or Allah. I would have expected to see these in the "Supreme and Creator Gods" section of the book near the 1st chapter, for contrasting and comparing against the other ones. (These 2 were also not in the indexes in the back, so I assume they are not covered).

Is this book making a statement that these 2 gods are not mythological? This would put the book in a non-academic and biased position... Because of this omission I docked the book a star. (why omit 2 of the most obvious gods?). To it's credit, the book doesn't seem to claim it is academic and unbiased anywhere on the back, flaps, or introduction, though since it is written by a PhD in medieval monastic history, you'd expect it to be unbiased and academically written.

Otherwise, it's a nicely illustrated book, with nice photos for each god, many from ancient art. With a good amount of writeup for each one. Just what I was looking for. Though it omits 2 gods I was hoping to contrast against the others, I'll need to find this in another book.