Arthur Cotterell
Plato first coined the term mythologia to mean merely the telling of stories which contain legendary figures. Since his time, and especially now with the resurgent interest in myths, mythology has come to hold greater significance and power as a crucial element of civilization as a whole. Written by a leading scholar of ancient civilizations, A Dictionary of World Mythology presents the powerful gods of Greece, Rome, and Scandinavia, the more mystical deities of Buddhist and Hindu India, and the stern spirits of the African and American continents. Drawing upon hundreds of myths from around the globe, it not only reveals the vast differences in these civilizations, but also demonstrates the unity of mankind in its fundamental need for explanations of the unknown.
The dictionary divides the chief myths of the world into seven main sections: West Asia, South and Central Asia, East Asia, Europe, America, Africa, and Oceania. Traveling through this vast array of legendary riches, we encounter Gilgamesh, Anu, the bull of heaven, and Daksha, who sprang from the right thumb of Brahma, Tsao Chun, the gentle Chinese kitchen god, Dagda, the ancient Irish deity of life and death, Balder, 'the bleeding god' of Germanic mythology, Ogun, the Yoruban war god, and Papa, the ancestress of Hawaiian people. Entries also explain the history, lifestyle, and ideology of the particular ancient civilizations, as well as the landscape in which they lived and the reasons why different mythologies arose in different lands.
Arthur Cotterell is Principal of Kingston Upon Thames College of Further Education in the UK. He is the author of several books on the ancient civilizations of East Asia, including China: A Concise Cultural History and The Minoan World. He is also the editor of The Encyclopedia of Ancient Civilizations and most recently The Macmillan Illustrated Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends.
