The World Of Myth Leeming Pdf 22
Everardo Laboy
Appealingly illustrated with nearly one hundred black-and-white halftones, the Companion provides thousands of alphabetically arranged entries covering all aspects of mythology including areas traditionally ignored by mythologists such as Polynesia, Africa, Native North America, Australia, and more. Leeming includes substantial essays on the worlds major mythological traditions, on mythological types and motifs, on mythological figures, and on numerous related subjects such as fairly tales and legends. The Companion also locates myth in our lives today, relating it to psychology, religion, science, politics, art, and much more.
From King Arthur and the Round Table to Jonah and the Whale, from the wicked and destructive Norse trickster Loki to the great mother goddess of Chinese mythology Nuwa, here is a comprehensive and thoughtful look at mythology around the world.
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- Amazon.com
- Barnes&Noble.com
- Books-A-Million
- IndieBound
- Find in a library
- All sellers
The most comprehensive resource available on creation myths from around the world--their narratives, themes, motifs, similarities, and differences--and what they reveal about their cultures of origin.
ABC-CLIO's breakthrough reference work on creation beliefs from around the world returns in a richly updated and expanded new edition. From the Garden of Eden, to the female creators of Acoma Indians, to the rival creators of the Basonge tribe in the Congo, Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia, Second Edition examines how different cultures explain the origins of their existence.
Expanded into two volumes, the new edition of Creation Myths of the World begins with introductory essays on the five basic types of creation stories, analyzing their nature and significance. Following are over 200 creation myths, each introduced with a brief discussion of its culture of origin. At the core of the new edition is its enhanced focus on creation mythology as a global human phenomenon, with greatly expanded coverage of recurring motifs, comparative themes, the influence of geography, the social impact of myths, and more.
- Over 200 entries on the creation myths of various peoples, belief systems, and religions from around the world, in addition to entries on the common features of many creation myths, such as the seed, the primordial being, the creative fire, water, and stages of creation
David Adams Leeming (born February 26, 1937) is an American philologist who is Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Connecticut, and a specialist in comparative literature of mythology.[1][2]
Leeming has written variously in comparative literature of mythology and edited numerous encyclopedias and dictionaries on the subject. He has also written biographies on Beauford Delaney, James Baldwin, and Stephen Spender.[1]
Folklore is the study of oral narratives, often called myths, legends, or tales to distinguish them from written historical accounts, assumed to be based on reality. These highly complex narratives include cultural explanations about the origin and development of the world, beliefs, and philosophies. From these texts, folklorists study cultural beliefs, norms, traditions, and behaviors. In the past, practitioners who worked from a literary paradigm, as opposed to anthropologists interested in studying cultures as complex systems, concentrated on identifying and classifying specific motifs and then searching for commonalities and variations within or across geographic regions. In this volume, Leeming takes this taxonomic approach. Designed as an introductory folklore text for a popular audience, this book identifies four character types in creation narratives: the male Great Spirit, the trickster, the goddess, and the hero.
David Leeming is Emeritus Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Connecticut. He is the co-author of Gods, Heroes, and Kings: The Battle for Mythic Britain (2001) and author of numerous books on mythology including Myth: A Biography of Belief (2002), The Oxford Companion to World Mythology (2005) and Medusa: In the Mirror of Time (Reaktion, 2013). He lives in Stonington, Connecticut.
The World of Myth Summary & Study Guide includes comprehensive information and analysis tohelp you understand the book. This study guide contains the following sections:
- Plot Summary
- Chapters
- Characters
- Objects/Places
- Themes
- Style
- Quotes
While the world of mythology is complex, Leeming manages to create a type of primer, introducing the reader to various myths while successfully interjecting enough explanation, theory and fact that the text will be enjoyable for the reader who already may know a fair bit about ancient myths.
Leeming is fond of separating out the myths and showing the reader how some of the elements may have come about, what they represent, and how they have been recycled throughout various cultures over the periods of hundreds of years, and even millennia.
The oldest written myth was found in Egypt circa 3000-2200 B.C.E. The tale, referred to as the Pyramid Texts, was recorded in hieroglyphics on the Old Kingdom's inner chamber walls. The next Egyptian myth, titled the Coffin Texts of the Middle Kingdom, originated around 2134-1660 B.C.E. Then came one of the most famous Egyptian myths found in "The Book of Going Forth by Day," also called "The Book of the Dead," which was recorded during the New Kingdom around 1550 B.C.E.
Another ancient myth was found in Mesopotamia. The Enuma elish, celebration of the high god Marduk, is thought to have been composed around the time of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar in the 12th century B.C.E.
The Hebrew version of Genesis was composed around the time of the Babylonian captivity during the sixth and fifth centuries B.C.E. The Greek myths were first recorded by Hesiod, a scholar who lived in the eighth century B.C.E.
Leeming does not waste time giving unnecessary details about the myths, rather the author just covers the very basic concepts before moving on to compare and contrast the myths. There is a great deal of symbolism in myths, a topic which Leeming explores.
Each section of the book is devoted to a specific topic and lists the myths that correspond to the subject, along with basic information, meaning, use of metaphors, and how the myth may have been recycled and integrated into other cultures. While most recycled myths remain almost identical except for changes in the names of the characters and locations, there are some that differ.
Thankfully, this book was not printed by an academic press, but there is still a grave danger in the publication of such bowdlerized misrepresentations of Native American mythology. I cannot recommend this book to any reader, except those interested in bad scholarship.
SIDELIGHTS: David Adams Leeming is an authority on the comparative literature of mythology. Leeming has edited numerous encyclopedias and dictionaries of various myth forms while also writing books on the psychology and structure of myths. In a Publishers Weekly review of Myth: A Biography of Belief, a critic noted that Leeming "brings myth out of the past and smartly into the present." Library Journal correspondent Richard K. Burns also praised Leeming for his "elegant contributions to the vast literature on mythology." Leeming's reference books on mythology are aimed at the general reader and include bibliographies and definitions for difficult concepts. His Children's Dictionary of Mythology drew commendation from a Booklist reviewer as "a thorough, clear, and attractive addition to the mythology reference collection" in elementary schools. Likewise, another Booklist critic found the Storytelling Encyclopedia: Historical, Cultural, and Multiethnic Approaches to Oral Traditions around the World to be "a valuable source on various aspects of folklore and storytelling around the world from early times to the present."
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