Don't Know Much About Mythology by Kenneth C. Davis

The author of an entire series of "Don't Know Much About..." books, Kenneth C. Davis takes us through the world of mythology by letting us know the stories, but also the history of the religion or religions which pawned them, and sometimes the fact that we don't know all that much about that particular faith or religion at all.

The book starts out with Egypt, then Babylon, Sumer, Assyria, Greece, Rome, The Celts and Vikings, India, China and Japan, Africa and then the Americas and Polynesia. Each chapter is organized around a series of questions a prospective learner might have about that culture and their myths. Included is a short history of each culture, and a section on their major Gods and some of the stories told about each of them. In Egypt, for example, you'll learn about Ra, Isis, Horus and Set and why Set was so evil or unhappy with the other gods. He certainly didn't start out evil!

Included are tidbits about each that will drive the reader to ask more questions or want to learn more, for example, that the discovery of the Epic of Gilgamesh made people question if the Bible was really the oldest book in the world (short answer, it isn't, and in the Indian section, we find out that their mythology is home to the oldest book). Similar revelations followed the finding of other stories that seemed to presage tales in the Bible. In fact, after reading this book, you might begin to wonder if the Bible is true or merely another collection of myths!

While this is not an exhaustive work on the myths of many cultures, it is a wonderful starting point for understanding them in the context of their culture and their time in history. If this book leads you to want to investigate more and delve deeper into the stories of a particular culture, it will have served its purpose. And it's not deadly dull, but interesting. Sort of the National Enquirer view of the myths, if all the stories in the magazine were true.

If you want to understand the myths of many peoples, you can't do better than to start with this book.