The Friendly Guide to Mythology

by Hathaway, Nancy

• ISBN13: 9780670857708
• ISBN10: 067085770X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-12-28
• Publisher: Viking Pr

Summary

The fifth book in the Friendly series, "The Friendly Guide to Mythology" an invigorating foray into the stories, motifs, themes, and personalities of the mythological world.

This book covers:
-- The chronology of mythology
-- Major creation myths
-- Goddesses
-- The Greeks
-- Heros and heroines
-- A glossary of gods, goddesses, monsters, and mortals

In recent years, mythology has been resurrected from the musty stacks of academia to enjoy a resurgence in popularity. It figures in the works of artists, writers, and filmmakers as well as in the ordinary lives of many people. Everyday culture has been influenced by Carl G. Jung's popular psychological approach to mythology and Joseph Campbell's use of mythology as a personal tool whose purposes are creative, psychological, and spiritual.

"The Friendly Guide to Mythology" is an irreverent, clear, and stimulating book for those who know something about the subject, as well as for those who don't know the difference between Aphrodite and Artemis and wonder what "the hero's journey" really is.

Table of Contents

Preface	xv
Part I. Out of Chaos, Vast and Dark	1	(64)
Tales of Creation and Destruction	1	(2)
Tales of Dismemberment	3	(14)
Marduk Slays the Serpent	3	(3)
Marduk: A Chronology	6	(1)
P'an Ku Creates the World	7	(1)
The Frost Giants and the Creation of the World	8	(2)
The Sacrifice	10	(1)
Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca Attack the Goddess	11	(1)
Ta'aroa Gets Angry	12	(1)
Sky Woman Falls to Earth	13	(2)
Izanami and Izanagi	15	(2)
If not Green Cheese, What?	17	(1)
The Mating of the Gods	17	(6)
An Egyptian Story: Variations on a Theme	18	(2)
The Greek Creation	20	(2)
Night	22	(1)
The Origin of Humanity	23	(3)
Earthlings	23	(1)
Skin, Bone and More	24	(1)
Sex	25	(1)
The Ages of Humanity	26	(9)
A Tale from Borneo	27	(1)
The Greek Version	27	(1)
A Hindu Scenario	28	(2)
The Fifth Sun and the Creation of Humanity	30	(2)
The Chronicle of the Plumed Serpent	32	(1)
Two Mayan Myths	32	(3)
Tales of the Flood	35	(7)
Enlil Can't Stand the Noise	35	(2)
Zeus Gets Angry	37	(2)
Venus Saves Wainkaura	39	(1)
Nu Gua, the Gourd Girl	40	(2)
Why the World is Such a Mess: Tricksters and Troublemakers	42	(5)
Inktomi	43	(1)
Coyote	43	(1)
Maui	44	(1)
Eshu	44	(1)
Loki	45	(2)
Death, Destruction and Apocalypse	47	(8)
Why We Die	47	(3)
A Story about Stones	50	(1)
Hell and the Afterlife	50	(5)
Ragnarok: The Final Battle	55	(3)
The Doom of the Gods	56	(2)
From the Annals of Mythology	58	(7)
The Life of Hesiod	58	(4)
Snorri Sturluson	62	(3)
Part II. An Abecedarium of Goddesses	65	(70)
Amaterasu	69	(1)
Bastet	70	(1)
Benten	71	(1)
Brigit	72	(2)
Cerridwen	74	(1)
Coatlicue and Coyolxuahqui	75	(1)
Cybele	76	(2)
Durga	78	(1)
Epona	79	(1)
Freyja	80	(1)
Frigg	81	(2)
Gnowee	83	(1)
Heng-o	83	(1)
Huitaca	84	(2)
Inanna	86	(5)
Isis	91	(7)
Jari	98	(1)
Kali	98	(2)
Kuan Yin	100	(2)
Lilith	102	(2)
Mary	104	(4)
Niamh (and Oto-Hime)	108	(2)
Oshun and Oya	110	(1)
Parvati	111	(2)
Pele	113	(2)
Quies	115	(1)
Rhiannon	116	(2)
Sedna	118	(2)
Tatsuta-Hime	120	(1)
Taueret	120	(1)
Tien-Mu	121	(1)
Uke Mochi	121	(1)
The Valkyries	121	(2)
White Buffalo Woman	123	(1)
Xochiquetzal	124	(1)
Yambe-Akka	125	(1)
The Zorya	125	(1)
From the Annals of Mythology	126	(9)
Max Muller and the Disease of Language	126	(2)
Sir James George Frazer and The Golden Bough	128	(4)
Jane E. Harrison	132	(3)
Part III. The Greeks	135	(130)
Zeus, Lord of the Dark Storm Cloud	139	(11)
His Childhood	140	(1)
The Clash of the Titans	141	(1)
A Threat Overcome	142	(1)
His Authority	143	(1)
Zeus Loses His Son	144	(1)
The Amorous History of Zeus	145	(1)
Love's Masquerade	146	(4)
Hera, Goddess of Marriage	150	(4)
Hera's Children	152	(1)
Tiresias	153	(1)
Poseidon, God of the Sea-Blue Mane	154	(4)
Poseidon Hippios, Lord of Horses (and Other Animals)	156	(1)
Scylla and Charybdis	157	(1)
From the Annals of Mythology: Homer, Lawrence of Arabia, and the Homeric Question	158	(3)
Demeter and Persephone	161	(7)
The Eleusinian Mysteries	166	(1)
Demeter's Son Ploutus	167	(1)
Hades: Lord of the Dead, Land of the Dead	168	(7)
Residents of Hades	170	(3)
Another Greek Afterlife: Plato and the Myth of Er	173	(2)
Hestia and the Vestal Virgins	175	(3)
Golden Aphrodite	178	(11)
Anchises	180	(2)
Adonis	182	(2)
The Judgment of Paris	184	(1)
The Punishments of Aphrodite	185	(2)
Aphrodite's Children	187	(2)
Apollo, God of Light	189	(14)
The Birth of Apollo	189	(2)
The Delphic Oracle	191	(2)
The Mouse God and His Son	193	(1)
Two Musical Competitions	194	(2)
The Loves of Apollo	196	(3)
The Sibyl of Cumae	199	(2)
Apollo and Helios, Gods of the Sun	201	(2)
Artemis: Wild Thing	203	(8)
Niobe's Children	204	(1)
The Death of Actaeon	205	(1)
The Death of Orion	206	(1)
The Bears of Artemis	206	(2)
Lunar Goddesses	208	(1)
Moon Gods	208	(1)
Atalanta and the Calydonian Boar Hunt	209	(1)
Atalanta Gets Married	210	(1)
Gray-Eyed Athena: A Motherless Child	211	(9)
Athena's Birth	212	(1)
Athena and Her City	213	(1)
Pallas Athene	214	(1)
Arachne	215	(1)
Erichthonius	216	(1)
What Athena Wore	217	(2)
Athena: Now and Then	219	(1)
Ares and Mars, Gods of War	220	(3)
Romulus and Remus	222	(1)
Hephaestus, the Crippled Smith	223	(6)
The Tale of a Cuckold	225	(1)
The Masterpieces of Hephaestus	226	(3)
Prometheus, Champion of Humankind	229	(4)
The Sacrifice	229	(2)
Zeus Strikes Back	231	(1)
Prometheus Is Punished	232	(1)
Hermes, Lord of Rascals, Prince of Thieves	233	(13)
The First Lyre	233	(1)
Hermes Becomes an Olympian God	233	(3)
Hermes, Io, and the Herms	236	(1)
Hermes Trismegistus	237	(3)
The Great God Pan	240	(2)
Echo and Narcissus	242	(1)
Wind-footed Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow	243	(1)
Death and the Rainbow	244	(2)
Dionysus, God of Joy	246	(14)
The Invention and Spread of Wine	248	(3)
The Rites of Dionysus	251	(1)
More Tales of Dismemberment	252	(2)
King Midas	254	(2)
Dionysus and Orpheus	256	(2)
Orpheus and Eurydice	258	(2)
From the Annals of Mythology: Ovid	260	(5)
Part IV. Heroes	265	(78)
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Hero	265	(14)
The Valet's Hero	266	(1)
Hero Worship in Antiquity	267	(1)
Heroines in Antiquity	268	(1)
Emerson's Hero	268	(1)
Carlyle's Hero	269	(1)
E. B. Tylor's Hero	270	(1)
Von Hahn's Hero	270	(2)
Raglan's Hero	272	(1)
Otto Rank's Hero	272	(1)
Sigmund Freud's Hero	273	(1)
The Jungian Hero	274	(1)
Wallace Stevens's Hero	275	(1)
Joseph Campbell's Hero	276	(3)
Gilgamesh	279	(5)
Gilgamesh and Enkidu	280	(1)
The Search for Immortality	281	(1)
The Woman of the Vine and the Ferryman	282	(1)
Utnapishtim's Test	283	(1)
The Old Men Are Young Again	283	(1)
Perseus and the Medusa: The Hero's Task	284	(3)
On the Medusa	286	(1)
Heracles	287	(10)
The Labors of Heracles	289	(7)
Heracles Helps Out: Another Round Trip to the Underworld	296	(1)
Jason and the Golden Fleece	297	(8)
Jason and Medea	303	(1)
A Flawed Hero	303	(1)
Parents Who Kill	304	(1)
Tales of the Cauldron	305	(2)
The Dagda's Cauldron	305	(1)
Bran's Cauldron	306	(1)
Theseus	307	(8)
Theseus in Athens	308	(1)
Theseus and the Minotaur	309	(1)
Daedalus, Icarus, and Minos	310	(1)
On Labyrinths	311	(2)
Theseus in the Underworld	313	(1)
Theseus and Phaedra	313	(2)
Krishna	315	(6)
Krishna's Exploits	317	(1)
The Last Incarnation of Vishnu, and the Next	318	(1)
Blue	319	(2)
Mwindo: Little-one-just-born-he-walked	321	(5)
Mwindo Meets His Aunt	322	(1)
Into the Underworld	322	(2)
Mwindo and the Dragon	324	(1)
Mwindo Is Purified	324	(1)
Nyamitondo: A Sister's Story	325	(1)
Cu Chulainn	326	(8)
The Birth of Cu Chulainn	326	(1)
Cu Chulainn Earns His Name	327	(1)
Cu Chulainn the Warrior	328	(1)
Macha's Curse	329	(1)
Cu Chulainn in Love	330	(1)
The Cattle Raid of Cooley	331	(1)
The Death of Cu Chulainn	332	(2)
The Heroic Lover	334	(9)
The Salmon of Knowledge	334	(1)
Finn's Pursuit of Love	335	(2)
Psyche	337	(2)
Venus Reacts	339	(1)
The Labors of Psyche	340	(3)
Part V. Glossary: A Compendium of Gods, Goddesses, Monsters, and Mortals	343	(50)
Bibliography	393	(12)
Index	405