Myth: Myths & Legends of the World Explored

I’ve been dying to get my hand on this book ever since I came across the other similar book by Kenneth McLeish in my local library, and it’s a great shame it’s out of stock. This mythology book is more like a dictionary in the way it is arranged, from A to Z. And I find the groupings of the names in the Introduction particularly helpful as one can also look for entries according the locations like Asia (e.g. Chinese Myths) and so forth. This is a really wonderful and greatly useful reference book as it covers recorded listings of myths from all over the world, from America to Europe to Asia. Plus, they have some really good entries that I did not expect to find in here, and other than names of the gods, people and monsters in mythology, the book also lists related terms such as "death" and "twins". In sort, this is almost an all-in-one Mythology dictionary, which is particularly handy if you need to look up all the entries from various cultures in just one book! While some of the details of certain entries in this book are not as "detailed" as I would like it to be, I’ll still rate it a five for the great abundance of entries and informative resources! Recommended for the general mythology fan!

I’ve been dying to get my hand on this book ever since I came across it in my local library, and it’s a great shame it’s out of stock. This mythology book is more like a dictionary in the way it is arranged, from A to Z. And I find the groupings of the names in the Introduction particularly helpful as one can also look for entries according the locations like Asia (e.g. Chinese Myths) and so forth. This is a really wonderful and greatly useful reference book as it covers recorded listings of myths from all over the world, from America to Europe to Asia. Plus, they have some really good entries that I did not expect to find in here, and other than names of the gods, people and monsters in mythology, the book also lists related terms such as "death" and "twins". In sort, this is almost an all-in-one Mythology dictionary, which is particularly handy if you need to look up all the entries from various cultures in just one book! While some of the details of certain entries in this book are not as "detailed" as I would like it to be, I’ll still rate it a five for the great abundance of entries and informative resources! Recommended for the general mythology fan!

This is the best general dictionary of mythology I have read and it is a shame it is currently out of print. The strategic use of cross references make it easy to use and the lists which consolidate entries from specific traditions enable one to explore a particular culture. The myths of Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas and Oceana are all dealt with extensively. There are also a number of general entries on topics such as 'heroes', 'tricksters', 'monsters' and 'fate'. It is a symptom of the distorted structure of the publishing industry that an excellent reference book such as this languishes, unavailable, while many inferior dictionaries of myth are still in print.