Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Annwn, Visnu, and Hades - Oh My!, August 12, 2001
This is a delightful book. I can honestly say that this is one of the best whim purchases that I've made. Do you want to know about Annwn, Visnu, Ebisu or even Hades? This is a great book for north eastern hemisphere mythology. It has your standard myths of Greece and Rome and Egypt. It also has Celtic, Norse, South / Central and Eastern Asia. Norse mythology covers the Slavic and Germanic mythology. Celtic covers the British Isles mythology. South and Central Asia cover Buddhism, Hinduism and other mythology from the area in and around India. Eastern Asia cover Japan, China and the various mythologies from the Orient. Egyptian mythology is covered under Eypt and West Asia, which includes Sumeria, Arabia, Mesopotamia and more. This is a well rounded book of mythology.Originally this was published in two volumes (The Encyclopedia of Mythology and The Encyclopedia of Eastern Mythology), the editors have complied on fabulous book. The preface give you a brief overall introduction and the author's view on why we have myths. Each section starts with an introduction to that particular area. Each myth (the Greek and Roman section starts with Achilles) is listed alphabetically in it section with cross reference (in italics) to other myths in that section. The only thing that is missing is a pronunciation of the myth. The book is rich with pictures showing each myth. The entries are brief, but they are still detailed enough. Each entry has a picture. There are also pictorial features that highlight certain things that the authors thought were important to each of the mythologies. Greek and Rome have Lovers of Zeus, Heroes and more. The Myths of East Asia have Yin & Yang, Chinese Dragons and more. This book is a treasure.
|
|
|
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice reference for selected myth, July 5, 2002
This is only a partial reference book for fans of myth. For some myth it is hard to keep all the names and relationships in order and this book does a nice of that. Nice graphics and logical flow. The only issue I have is that this book tip toes around the christian, jewish, and islamic myths without proper recognition of the characters and events. Maybe the authors assumed readers would already be familiar with the characters in the bible and koran or the publisher wanted to save paper. In any case it would have been a nice addition making this truely a complete encyclopedia of mythology.
|
|
|
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Must have, February 23, 2002
This is one of the best sources on mythology I've found. While it may not go into depth on the myths surrounding each of the gods, it gives a nice detailed summary of who the diety was, what they stood for and the major myths surrounding them. In addition it mentions dieties you don't normally hear about, such as those originating with the Canaanites. The pictures are gorgeous, the family trees are very helpful for keeping track of whose who. If you have any interest in mythology, I'd highly reccomend picking this up.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Arthur Cotterell
by Gustav Davidson
by Arthur Cotterell
by Michael Scott
