Mythology Eyewitness Companions

E YE WITNESS c ompanions E YEWI T NES S c om pani on s Mythology Mythology E Y E WIT NES S c om pani on s Mythology E YE WITNESS c ompanions Mythology PHILIP WILKINSON & NEIL PHILIP Contents Pages 12–31 Pages 32–95 Pages 96–135 Pages 136–189 Pages 190–221 Pages 222–243 Pages 244–263   KEY TO SYMBOLS USED IN THIS BOOK Type/theme of myth Culture of origin Scene of the story Source(s) Other names/equivalent deities from other cultures   PHILIP WILKINSON & NEIL PHILIP Timeless tales All the major myths – from epics of love, adventure and heroism, to creation stories – vividly retold and beautifully illustrated. World stories Includes the famous tales of Greek and Roman mythology and the lesser known stories of peoples of the Americas, Asia and Africa. Mythological connections Discover the themes and beliefs that recur across different cultures. Gods and monsters A complete who’s who of the key mythological characters in all myth-making cultures. INTRODUCING MYTHOLOGY THE CLASSICAL WORLD EUROPE ASIA THE AMERICAS AFRICA oceania PHILIP WILKINSON & NEIL PHILIP creation stories • gods • heroes monsters • mythical places  Pages 264–343 WHO’S WHO IN MYTHOLOGY other eyewitness companions architecture • Art • astroLOGY • astronomy BACKPACKING & Hiking • cats • Classical Music dogs • film • French Cheese • French Wine • Golf Guitar • herbal remedies • Olive Oil • OPERA PHILOSOPHY • Photography • riding • SAILING scuba diving • Trees • Wines of the World Philip Wilkinson has more than 50 titles to his credit in the fields of history, mythology, and the arts, including DK’s Illustrated Dictionaries of Mythology and Religions and A Celebration of Customs and Rituals of the World, which was adopted and endorsed by the United Nations. Neil Philip is the author of many books on folklore and mythology. Among his books for DK are The Illustrated Book of Myths, Eyewitness Mythology, and Myths & Legends Explained. His other publications include The Great Mystery: Myths of Native America, The Cinderella Story, The Penguin Book of English Folktales, and Horse Hooves and Chicken Feet: Mexican Folktales, which won the Aesop Prize of the American Folklore Society. $25.00 USA $30.00 Canada Discover more at www.dk.com Jacket images: Front: The Bridgeman Art Library: bl; Corbis: c, fbl, fbr, t; DK Images: British Museum br. Back: Canadian Museum of Civilization cla; Corbis: br, c; DK Images: British Museum bl, t; St Mungo, Glasgow Museums cra. Spine: Corbis. I S B N 978-0-7566-3154-3 9 7 8 0 7 5 6 6 3 1 5 4 3 5 2 5 0 0 Printed in China Mythology creation stories • gods • heroes monsters • mythical places Mythology philip wilkinson & neil philip eyewitness companions “ as pan gu slept, his body became the mountains and his blood, the rivers. ” Chinese myth: Pan Gu and Nü Wa’s Creation [...]...contents Foreword 10 32 264 12 THE CLASSICAL WORLD Who’s who in mythology INTROducing MYTHOLOGY 96 Creators and high gods 268 EUROPE Mother goddesses and Earth deities 286 What is myth? 14 Myths in context 16 Gods of the sea, sky, and cosmos 292 In the beginning 18 The cosmos... King mythologies of the continents from Antiochus I in Turkey, where monumental stone Europe to Oceania, and with one figures depict both Greek and Persian deities foreword 11 i ntroducing mythology 14 introduction to mythology They tell of the creation of the world; the emergence of gods and the first men and women; the adventures of heroes and the audacity of tricksters; the nature of heaven and the... then the human race as we know it emerges The Creative Flux These primal beings, with their raw powers of transformation and creation, are crucially important to the mythology and world view of many cultures The understanding brought by a mythology such as the Achumawi’s is that the world has been in a state of creative flux since the dawn of time, that everything in it is connected, and that human beings... in the House of Myths The shores of Tierra del Fuego, where the Yamana people’s human-animal ancestors settled The women ruled over the men, until the men rebelled 24 introduction to mythology heroes and tricksters Mythology has two kinds of heroes The first are people celebrated for great deeds, such as Heracles The second brought humankind the gifts of culture, such as growing crops, making pots,... all days, all winds, reach their completion and pass the end of the world 31 Ragnarok, the last cataclysmic battle in Norse mythology, will mark the end of this world away.” The Maya believed that time kept the gods trapped within the stars This notion is reflected in Zoroastrian mythology, where time was devised as a means of trapping the evil spirit Ahriman within creation, and bringing about his eventual... goddess classical poets A few figures stand out as key sources for Classical mythology The earliest are two Greek epic poets: Homer, whose Iliad and Odyssey tell the stories of the Trojan War and the adventures of Odysseus; and Hesiod, whose Theogony covers the origins of the world and the genealogy of the gods The Library of Mythology, by the later writer Apollodorus, covers many of the Greek myths... myths “If the world did not are means of exploring fundamental travel, there would be reality Myths are stories that tell us the no wind.” He incorporated truth about ourselves this new knowledge into his mythology, assigning Flexible Truths the task of setting the world Myths are ambiguous and subtle They turning to World’s Heart, contain many meanings They are one of the two pre-existing not fixed, but... myth is like this miniature cosmos, presenting a world of meanings In the words of the anthropologist Maya Deren: “Myth is the facts of the mind made manifest in a fiction of matter.” 16 introduction to mythology myths in context Myths are sacred stories about the great issues of life and death, but they are also tied in with the social structure and values of a society— its ideas about family, about... agriculture Pathway to the Sacred Myths provide both a pathway into the world of the sacred, and a guide to how to live in the world of daily reality For a society that identifies itself completely with its mythology, every action in this world has an echo in that of the gods In a culture that is utterly steeped in myth—such as that of the Warao people in the Orinoco Delta region of Rituals and re-enactments... together: ritual artefacts become prized possessions, imbued with magic Venezuela—every aspect of life, however mundane, is infused with a sense of the sacred an entrance to society The truth of the Warao’s mythology lies in the way it binds the people into the complex eco-niche in which they live When a Warao baby is born, it enters a lifelong bond of mutual respect and responsibility with the Warao gods . YE WITNESS c ompanions E YEWI T NES S c om pani on s Mythology Mythology E Y E WIT NES S c om pani on s Mythology E YE WITNESS c ompanions Mythology PHILIP WILKINSON & NEIL PHILIP Contents Pages. 4 3 5 2 5 0 0 Printed in China Mythology creation stories • gods • heroes monsters • mythical places Mythology philip wilkinson & neil philip eyewitness companions “ as pan gu slept, his. Neil Philip is the author of many books on folklore and mythology. Among his books for DK are The Illustrated Book of Myths, Eyewitness Mythology, and Myths & Legends Explained. His other