Customer Reviews

The Gods of Man: A Small Dictionary of Pagan Gods and Goddesses

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This is a great book if you want ot brush up on your knowledge of the old Pagan Gods. It is also interesting to just skim through. Though the descriptions are not very detailed they are definitely sufficient for most. Not good for report refrences but surely delightful to have around.

I loved this book, although it is not comprehesive, it serves as a good primer and offers brief information for many less commonly known deities. The author himself makes note that it was just casual note-taking that led to this booklet, not a major scholarly work he labored on.

The Gods of Man covers deities from the following cultures: African, Aztec, Celtic, Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Japanese, Mesopotamian, Norse, North American Indian, Oceanic, Roman, Santerian, Slavic, South and Central Native American Indian. Each culture has a small sampling of deities, with a brief definition of each. This book is meant more as a dictionary, NOT as large biographies of each deity. I have found info on many lesser-known deities, enough to give me an understanding of who he/she was and what he/she did.

Some entries are brief, only two or three lines, while others are one or two paragraphs. Not extensive but still informative. Offers fascinating little nuggets of information, such as the origin of the name Beelzebub, and the smallpox priests of West Africa. Useful as a quick reference, and makes nice browsing.

Handy to have around if you have a casual interest in the old pagan gods. Makes nice browsing. Not for those who need to do in-depth research, but it gives a nice quick overview of a number of different pantheons.

Only has brief descriptions for each god. There is no story of any kind or metion of how they came to be. The only good thing about this book is that it was inepensive. I guess you get what you pay for.