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A review by debz57a52
Mythology of the World by Neil Philip
4.0
Although I rated this a 4 star book, I have to add a caveat. It's not a book I would recommend reading cover to cover, but it is a useful resource book for mythology from around the world.
The opening pages give an overview of mythology - its connection to science, its connection to religion, and some of the common archetypes of types of myths out there. The rest of the book is divided into chapters by regions of the world, taking on various ancient and modern groups' mythology systems and celebrations of ritual. There is a chunk of pages devoted to ancient civilizations - Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Norse - but I also appreciated the delve into South American, North American Indian, African, and Oceanic cultures that have/had their own belief systems.
Although I don't plan to buy this book, I took copious notes from it for my future world mythology high school teaching unit, and it was an excellent jumping-off point to inspire more research as I make that mythology unit more inclusive.
The opening pages give an overview of mythology - its connection to science, its connection to religion, and some of the common archetypes of types of myths out there. The rest of the book is divided into chapters by regions of the world, taking on various ancient and modern groups' mythology systems and celebrations of ritual. There is a chunk of pages devoted to ancient civilizations - Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Norse - but I also appreciated the delve into South American, North American Indian, African, and Oceanic cultures that have/had their own belief systems.
Although I don't plan to buy this book, I took copious notes from it for my future world mythology high school teaching unit, and it was an excellent jumping-off point to inspire more research as I make that mythology unit more inclusive.