Don’t Know Much About® Mythology (73 page)

Eliade, Mircea.
The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion
. New York: Harcourt, 1987. A classic academic work that traces the movement of spirituality from primitive to modern times.

Fage, J. D.
A History of Africa
. New York: Knopf, 1978. A volume in the
History of Humanity
series, this is highly scholarly (and dated), but offers a sound overview of early African history. Feiler, Bruce.
Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths
. New York: William Morrow, 2002. A search for the legendary figure who is patriarch of three of the world’s great faiths.

Feiler, Bruce.
Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses
. New York: Perennial, 2002. A modern journey in search of the history behind the mythical crossing of the Red Sea and climbing of Mount Sinai.

Fox, Robin Lane.
Pagans and Christians
. New York: Knopf, 1986. A scholarly but accessible history of the transition from paganism to early Christianity in Rome.

Frazer, Sir James.
The Golden Bough
(abridged). New York: Dover, 2002. Originally published in twelve volumes in 1890, this classic study of mythology explores the universal theme of the dying-and-resurrected god, tracing its roots to the worship of Diana. (This is the author’s 1902 abridged version.) Highly academic and dated, this is still a significant work in the field of mythic studies.

Galeano, Eduardo, translated by Cedric Belfrage.
Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent
(twenty-fifth-anniversary edition). New York: Monthly Review Press, 1997. Written by an Uruguayan journalist, an exposé of the exploitation of the Latin America, beginning with the colonial period and continuing through the twentieth century. An eye-opening account for those who know little of America’s largely destructive involvement in Latin American history.

Germond, Philippe.
An Egyptian Bestiary
. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2001. With magnificent illustrations of Egyptian art and architecture, this work depicts the extraordinary role played by animals in Egypt’s myth and daily life.

Graves, Robert.
The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth
. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1975. The author best known for historical novels such as
I, Claudius
takes a highly academic look at the “white goddess of birth, love, and death,” who was worshipped in Europe under many names.

Green, Miranda J.
The World of the Druids
. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1997. An elaborately illustrated and accessible introduction to the Celtic world, its priests, and the myths they inspired.

Hamilton, Edith.
Mythology
. Boston: Little, Brown, 1969. The renowned classic introduction to the gods of Greece, Rome, and the Norse; still popular but somewhat dated.

Hathaway, Nancy.
The Friendly Guide to Mythology: A Mortal’s Companion to the
Fantastical Realm of Gods, Goddesses, Monsters and Heroes
. New York: Penguin Books, 2001. A breezy and readable introduction to world myths, with a particular focus on goddess stories.

Herodotus, translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt.
The Histories
. New York: Penguin Books, 1996. In this masterpiece of classic literature, the “father of history” examines the Mediterranean world of the fifth century BCE. With useful notes. (Other editions available.)

Hughes, Robert.
Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia’s Founding
. New York: Vintage, 1986. Compelling history of Australia with much information on the unhappy interaction between the original inhabitants and the British.

Jung, Carl G., editor.
Man and His Symbols
. New York: Dell Laurel Books, 1964. A collection of essays by the Swiss psychologist and several associates which explores the role of myths and symbols in human psychology. Not easy reading, but still a valuable introduction to Jung’s influential ideas.

King, Ross.
Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling
. New York: Walker, 2003. Best-selling narrative of the intrigue behind the art and architecture of the famed Sistine Chapel; includes a discussion of the introduction of mythic figures into Christian art during the Renaissance.

Klingaman, William K.
The First Century: Emperors, Gods, and Everyman
. New York: Harper Perennial, 1990. A highly readable narrative of the years 1–100 CE—in both East and West—during which both Christianity and Buddhism flourished.

Kramer, Samuel Noah.
History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-nine Firsts in Recorded History
(third revised edition). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981. The first love song, tax cut, system of law, and schools all belonged to ancient Sumer, which is illuminated in this accessible study by one of the foremost experts on ancient Mesopotamian civilization.

Lapatin, Kenneth.
Mysteries of the Snake Goddess: Art, Desire and the Forging of History
. New York: Da Capo, 2002. A fascinating archaeological detective story that casts doubt on some long-accepted notions of ancient Minoan art and society.

Leick, Gwendolyn.
Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City
. New York: Penguin Books, 2001. An overview of the rise of the first twelve cities in the first civilization. Scholarly but still accessible.

Lévi-Strauss, Claude.
Myth and Meaning: Cracking the Code of Culture
. New York:

Schocken Books, 1995. A collection of five essays based on radio interviews, which serves as an introduction to the ideas of one of the most influential social anthropologists of recent times. Although highly theoretical, this slim volume is far more accessible than the author’s many other works, such as
The Raw and the Cooked
,
Tristes Tropiques
, and
Structural Anthropology
.

McNeill, J. R. and William McNeill.
The Human Web: A Bird’s-Eye View of World History
. New York: W. W. Norton, 2003. Father-son authors show the set of connections that link people, creating a web of interaction in human history.

McNeill, William H.
Plagues and Peoples
. New York: Anchor Books, 1998. A fascinating narrative of the impact of disease on history, including the decimation of Native Americans by Europeans and the transfer of diseases to the Americas through the slave trade.

Mithen, Steve.
After the Ice: A Global Human History, 20,000–5000 BC
. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004. Told through the eyes of a fictional world traveler, a look at the globe as the last great Ice Age was ending, and that change’s impact on human development.

Morton, W. Scott, and Charlton M. Lewis.
China: Its History and Culture
(fourth edition). New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005. A concise, accessible overview of China from neolithic times to the present.

Morton, W. Scott, and J. Kenneth Olenik.
Japan: Its History and Culture
(fourth edition). New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005. A concise chronology and good overview of Japanese history from earliest known civilizations to the modern era.

Moynahan, Brian.
The Faith: A History of Christianity
. New York: Doubleday, 2002. A very accessible narrative history of two thousand years of Christianity and its impact on world history.

Mysliwiec, Karol, translated by Geoffrey L. Packer.
Eros on the Nile
. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2002. Not as sexy as the title sounds, a fascinating but scholarly work on just how “hot” the Egyptians were.

Nash, Ronald H.
The Gospel and the Greeks: Did the New Testament Borrow from Pagan Thought?
(Original title:
Christianity and the Hellenistic World
.) Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R Publishing Company, 2003. A scholarly work that refutes the idea that Christianity was an outgrowth of Greek philosophy and religion.

Nuland, Sherwin B.
Doctors: The Biography of Medicine
. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988. A history of medicine that touches on the mythical beginnings of the healing arts.

Page, Jake.
In the Hands of the Great Spirit: The 20,000-Year History of American Indians
. New York: Free Press, 2003. Drawing on the latest archaeology and other research, a comprehensive overview of American Indian history.

Page, Jake, editor.
Sacred Lands of Indian America
. New York: Harry Abrams, 2001. A photographic collection with essays that ask the very important question “What makes a place sacred?” and, even more important, “How can such places be protected?” Beautiful and provocative.

Pagels, Elaine.
Adam, Eve, and the Serpent
. New York: Vintage, 1989. Prizewinning scholar’s look at how early Christians viewed sex and transformed the pagan world.

Pagels, Elaine.
The Origin of Satan
. New York: Vintage, 1996. The Christian view of good and evil and how it influenced the rise of Christianity.

Pelikan, Jaroslav.
Jesus Through the Centuries: His Place in the History of Culture
. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985. A very readable examination of the changing image of Jesus over the course of two hundred years, written by a leading historian of religion.

Pelikan, Jaroslav.
Mary Through the Centuries: Her Place in the History of Culture
. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1996. An assessment of the changing views of Virgin Mary.

Perrottet, Tony.
The Naked Olympics: The True Story of the Ancient Games
. New York: Random House, 2004. A highly entertaining and revealing account of the 1,200-year history of the ancient games. Very readable.

Pinch, Geraldine.
Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt
. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Very comprehensive and reflecting much recent scholarship, a brief overview of Egyptian myths.

Plato.
The Republic
. New York: Vintage, 1991. The classic Socratic dialogues. (Many other editions available.)

Porter, J. R.
The Illustrated Guide to the Bible
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Book by book, a look at the “Good Book.”

Porter, Roy.
Blood and Guts: A Short History of Medicine
. New York: W. W. Norton, 2002. An entertaining overview of the history of healing, including medicine in the time of legendary healers in Egypt and Greece.

Restall, Matthew.
Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest
. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. A revisionist approach to the popular account of the Spanish conquest of the Americas. The author persuasively argues that the widely held notion that the Native Americans mistook the Spaniards for gods is myth.

Sagan, Carl, and Ann Druyan.
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are
. New York: Random House, 1992. Better known for his writings about space (
Cosmos
), Sagan examines human experience in this wide-ranging, challenging, and fascinating book.

Seznec, Jean.
The Survival of the Pagan Gods: The Mythological Tradition and Its Place in Renaissance Humanism and Art
. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1981. A highly academic history of the revival of the Greek gods in art and literature during the European Renaissance.

Sowerby, Robin.
The Greeks: An Introduction to Their Culture
. London: Routledge, 1995. A concise, wide-ranging introduction to ancient Greece, from the age of Homer to the end of the classical period.

Stark, Rodney.
The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries
. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997. A sociological explanation of the rise of Christianity in a pagan world.

Tuchman, Barbara W.
The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam
. New York: Random House, 1984. Starting with the fatal mistake made by the Trojans, the Pulitzer Prize–winning and best-selling author catalogues a series of bad decisions made by governments in time of war. A largely ignored plea for applying the lessons of history.