Primal Myths: Creation Myths Around the World

This is a very comprehensive volume. Suitable for college text book. It covers a very wide range of cultures.

This is a nice collection of myths, but not all of them are origins myths, despite the description offered. Very nice book to have if you are a fan of mythology, but do not use it as a resource for myths for beginnings of the world.

NICE. It's an intimidatingly weighty textbook, unillustrated. When it says "from around the world," it really does mean from around the world. Everything is sorted according to area and culture of origin. The myths are presented more or less as they originally were, not paraphrased or censored, although they usually have a limited amount of commentary preceding each story, explaining a few words and what you need to know about that culture to understand the story. There are the usual creation myths you've probably already encountered, such as the Enuma Elish and some Judeo-Christian things. There are also lots and lots of legends (and even some peoples) who you may not have heard of before, or at least, you heard some parts and not others. There were a couple stories that took my interest. One of them was an Eskimo genesis about how Raven created the world, discovered humans, and started teaching the first people how to live... I'd heard a few variants, but this one has Raven introducing various animals to the first men, and explaining how to hunt them. Most of the animals are deer, but there are a few fantastic creatures in there, presented with just the same solemnity and depth of detail. One of these was a six-legged, horned animal that I had to make a drawing of; I've never heard of them before, its name was not mentioned, and I've never seen any pictures of them, traditional or otherwise. Another story that caught my eye was the Hopi genesis, which I've heard of before, with the successive worlds being created, destroyed by a different catastrophes each time, and survived by a select few who later migrated to the next world. What interested me was the elaborate description of "vibratory centers" aligned down the spine, and how the ancient people used them to heal... I mean, they're identical in location, description, and function to the chakras described in India, although the Hopi system doesn't mention the lower two chakras.

Forget Joseph Campbell. This is the ultimate myth book, hundreds of creation myths from all over the globe. Sproul shows that our socalled modern ideas--from the big bang to the steady state universe--repeat myths formed thousands of years ago, from the inhabitants of Mesopotamia to the South Sea islanders. Who needs a big bang when you have a "great cosmic copulation?"

This is an incredibly thorough book that lists, in short story form, the creation myths from all over the world. It is incredibly thorough, covering even Inuit and Siberian legends. A great way to learn about the world's peoples by learning their folk tales of how the world was created. And what a great price for such an invaluable Cultural Anthropology book!