Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [0]
Everything You Need to Know About the Greatest Stories in Human History But Never Learned
Kenneth C. Davis
For my Muse,
Joann
I want to know what were the steps by which men passed from barbarism to civilization.
—VOLTAIRE
Throughout the inhabited world, in all times, and under every circumstance, the myths of man have flourished; and they have been the living inspiration of whatever else may have appeared out of the activities of the human body and mind….
—JOSEPH CAMPBELL,
The Hero with a Thousand Faces
We have not met our forgotten ancestors, but we begin to sense their presence in the dark. We recognize their shadows here and there. They were once as real as we are. We would not be here if not for them. Our natures and theirs are indissolubly linked despite the aeons that may separate us. The key to who we are is waiting in those shadows.
—CARL SAGAN and ANN DRUYAN,
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
Contents
Epigraph
Introduction
Chapter 1
All Men Have Need of the Gods
Chapter 2
Gift of the Nile
The Myths of Egypt
Chapter 3
By the Rivers of Babylon
The Myths of Mesopotamia
Chapter 4
The Greek Miracle
The Myths of Greece and Rome
Chapter 5
An Age of Axes, an Age of Swords
The Myths of the Celts and Norse
Bridge to the East
Chapter 6
The Radiance of a Thousand Suns
The Myths of India
Chapter 7
Everywhere Under Heaven
The Myths of China and Japan
Ancient People, New Worlds
Chapter 8
Out of Africa
The Myths of Sub-Saharan Africa
Chapter 9
Sacred Hoops
The Myths of the Americas and Pacific Islands
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Searchable Terms
About the Author
Praise
Other Books by Kenneth C. Davis
Copyright
About the Publisher
INTRODUCTION
I
n the olden days”—that seems like a good opening for a book about myths—when I was about eleven years old, I could not sit still at my fifth-grade desk. I squirmed. I fidgeted. My mind wandered. Oh, I tried, but I didn’t remember much of anything I was supposed to learn. Except that at the end of each day, as the clock on the wall ticked slowly toward three o’clock and freedom, I would sit like a stone in anticipation of those few minutes before dismissal when our teacher set aside the math and science to read aloud from the Odyssey. Magically connected over the vastness of centuries to the people who heard these tales once sung around campfires, I was captivated. Instead of fighting fractions and verbs, I was aboard a ship, sailing mythical oceans, battling witches, demons, and one-eyed monsters—trying to find my way home with brave Odysseus, the wily hero of Homer’s epic.
Those daily doses of this great Greek story made my day, gave me a taste for literature and poetry, and certainly whetted my appetite for more mythology. When I had a chance, I would spend hours in the school library, devouring books about the myths—and not just the classics of Greece and Rome. I read about Norse gods such as Thor and the trickster Loki, and the Egyptian gods who inspired the pyramids. There was Sigurd slaying the mighty dragon Fafnir, and the fearsome Celtic hero Cuchulainn single-handedly battling hundreds of enemies in showers of gore that might make Arnold Schwarzenegger wince. I had discovered a whole new world. It was a world of gods, heroes, monsters, and legends—and it was a lot more interesting to me than school!
A few years later, my first job was delivering the Daily Argus, the local newspaper in my hometown of Mount Vernon, New York. By all accounts, I was a curious boy, so I wanted to know what “argus” meant. I soon discovered that in Greek mythology, Argus was a monster whose body was covered with eyes—exactly how many eyes he had depends on the source; some say four, some say a hundred—but only two of his eyes ever closed at any one time.
Argus played a supporting role in a tale about Zeus, the randy lord of the gods, and Io, the daughter of a local river god. She was just one of