Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [249]
Germond, Philippe. An Egyptian Bestiary. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2001. With magnificent illustrations of Egyptian art and architecture, this work depicts the extraordinary role played by animals in Egypt’s myth and daily life.
Graves, Robert. The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1975. The author best known for historical novels such as I, Claudius takes a highly academic look at the “white goddess of birth, love, and death,” who was worshipped in Europe under many names.
Green, Miranda J. The World of the Druids. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1997. An elaborately illustrated and accessible introduction to the Celtic world, its priests, and the myths they inspired.
Hamilton, Edith. Mythology. Boston: Little, Brown, 1969. The renowned classic introduction to the gods of Greece, Rome, and the Norse; still popular but somewhat dated.
Hathaway, Nancy. The Friendly Guide to Mythology: A Mortal’s Companion to the Fantastical Realm of Gods, Goddesses, Monsters and Heroes. New York: Penguin Books, 2001. A breezy and readable introduction to world myths, with a particular focus on goddess stories.
Herodotus, translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt. The Histories. New York: Penguin Books, 1996. In this masterpiece of classic literature, the “father of history” examines the Mediterranean world of the fifth century BCE. With useful notes. (Other editions available.)
Hughes, Robert. Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia’s Founding. New York: Vintage, 1986. Compelling history of Australia with much information on the unhappy interaction between the original inhabitants and the British.
Jung, Carl G., editor. Man and His Symbols. New York: Dell Laurel Books, 1964. A collection of essays by the Swiss psychologist and several associates which explores the role of myths and symbols in human psychology. Not easy reading, but still a valuable introduction to Jung’s influential ideas.
King, Ross. Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling. New York: Walker, 2003. Best-selling narrative of the intrigue behind the art and architecture of the famed Sistine Chapel; includes a discussion of the introduction of mythic figures into Christian art during the Renaissance.
Klingaman, William K. The First Century: Emperors, Gods, and Everyman. New York: Harper Perennial, 1990. A highly readable narrative of the years 1–100 CE—in both East and West—during which both Christianity and Buddhism flourished.
Kramer, Samuel Noah. History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-nine Firsts in Recorded History (third revised edition). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981. The first love song, tax cut, system of law, and schools all belonged to ancient Sumer, which is illuminated in this accessible study by one of the foremost experts on ancient Mesopotamian civilization.
Lapatin, Kenneth. Mysteries of the Snake Goddess: Art, Desire and the Forging of History. New York: Da Capo, 2002. A fascinating archaeological detective story that casts doubt on some long-accepted notions of ancient Minoan art and society.
Leick, Gwendolyn. Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City. New York: Penguin Books, 2001. An overview of the rise of the first twelve cities in the first civilization. Scholarly but still accessible.
Lévi-Strauss, Claude. Myth and Meaning: Cracking the Code of Culture. New York:
Schocken Books, 1995. A collection of five essays based on radio interviews, which serves as an introduction to the ideas of one of the most influential social anthropologists of recent times. Although highly theoretical, this slim volume is far more accessible than the author’s many other works, such as The Raw and the Cooked, Tristes Tropiques, and Structural Anthropology.
McNeill, J. R. and William McNeill. The Human Web: A Bird’s-Eye View of World History. New York: W. W. Norton, 2003. Father-son authors show the set of connections that link people, creating a web of interaction in human history.
McNeill, William H. Plagues and Peoples. New York: Anchor Books, 1998. A fascinating narrative of