/lit/ - Literature

>reading
>ancient myths
>thinks the mythopoeic era matters at all
>thinks we're not in one now
>won't understand any of this
Go chase more ghosts buddy.

>>14548523
no your writing sucks I need the classics

>>14549659
kek
nice

I just finished Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology as an audiobook (read by him)
It was pretty enjoyable, and from what I can tell accurate enough. Would probably be good to read to kids.
I read about half of Edith Hamilton's Mythology as a PDF and found it pretty good, Im waiting until my physical copy arrives before I finish it. It's not as exciting as more dramatized ones, but it makes up for that in being more comprehensive and accurate from what I can tell.

The Oxford Companion to World Mythology is a great encyclopedia that covers almost every mythology including Greek, Norse, Egyptian, Hebrew, Hindu, Slavic, Arthurian, Celtic, Sumerian, Chinese, etc.

99% of the time general mythological texts end up completing glossing over specific geographic area's myths, the focus is almost always placed on Europe, the Near East, East Asia, and sometimes South Asia.

There's only scant reference to Mesoamerican (Aztec, Maya, Olmec, etc) and Andean (Inca, Nazca, Moche, etc) Mythology, let alone the areas which didn't have fully complex societies like a lot of other parts of the Americas/Africa (not to say there weren't any there peirod)

. I guess a good starting place for Mesoamerica would be The Flayed God. It's around 25 years old now, which in the context of Eurasian mythological studies might not seem like a big deal, but it is since Mesoamerican stuff has only seen serious academic study in the past century or so, but it's also the only book that comes to mind off the top of my head I've heard repeated reccomendations for which covers a broad range of Mesoamerican civilizations rather then just Aztec and Maya (since there is way more then that).

There's probably better suggestions though, I may know more then like 99.9999% of people about Mesoamerican stuff, but i'm still ultimately a hobbiyst.

>>14551049
Case in point

>>14551196
The Oxford Companion covers Aztec, Mayan, and Northern Native American mythology and overlooked African, Melanesian, and Aboriginal Australian as well. All probably not as in-depth as the book you mentioned though.

>>14548297
If you are interested English translations of the primary sources upon which our entire understanding of Greek and Roman mythology depends, then the following two volumes are all you need:

1) "Anthology of Classical Myth: Primary Sources in Translation" (2nd Edition, 2016). ISBN-10: 1624664970
2) "Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology" (1st Edition, 2007). ISBN-10: 0872208206

>>14551455
>If you are interested* English translations of the primary sources..
That is, if you are interested *in* English translations of the primary sources...

>>14548297
Robert Graves Greek Myths. Just ignore his interpretations.

>>14548297
bulfinch's is based, reading it right now. Don't sleep on the age of chivalry

>>14548297
many mythographies have I read
best and most /lit/ intro is Calasso's Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony

>>14551732
bulfinch? no

>>14552700
What you suggest then?

>>14548297

>>14553478
Wishlisted. Thanks for the rec anon, sounds kino.

>>14548297
Sorcery and Religion in Ancient Scandinavia

>>14548297
I read fat ass books of Greek / Roman myth with pictures in them as a kid, I suggest you do the same. Bullfinch's is going to be a total snoozefest, plus she doesn't even tell the stories that well.

Wish I could name names but this was when I didn't care about that and naively thought all books on the topic would be equally good.

>>14552614
>Calasso's Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony
I have this. What's required reading in order to understand any of it?

>>14548297
Is anyone here familiar with a Russian writer named N. A. Kun? I have an old copy of his book on Greek myths from the 50s, my dad told me it was the definitive intro book for Greek myth behind the iron curtain for many decades. Never seen it mentioned here. Has anyone read it?

As for English books on mythology, all I've read is Edith Hamilton. It's very clear, systematic, organised, succinct; very Wikipedia-like, if you will. Maybe that sounds like a bad thing, but it's exactly what I was looking for.

>>14551392
That's nice to hear, though I still think my general point remains: it covers at least 3-4+ mythlogies in Europe, the Near East, and Asia each, and only 1-2 in any of the areas I mentioned.

Covering only the Aztec and Maya when Mesoamerica has all of pic related going on even as a tl;dr is pretty measley: It's just not given even a fraction of the same level of focus other (traditonally defined) cradles of civilizations are (nor is the Andes)

>>14553721
Because it's essentially a mythography (a retelling of myth) very little, if anything at all. Same applies to Graves, Hamilton, Bulfinch, or any other mythographer's interpretation- or retelling- of myth. What sets Calasso apart is the way he connects what he feels are the essential myths together, and his observations as to why things happened as they did. He's a very terse, no-nonsense expositor, and yet all his work (not just Cadmus) has literary value. He has an even larger work on Sanskrit myth, Ka, which I found very helpful fwiw

>>14548297
the theogany
works and days
the shield of heracles
hesiod, the homeric hymns and homerica
the illiad
the odyssey
metamorphosis
aeneid
the prose edda
the poetic edda
gestra danorum
olaf saga
the tale of Hogni and Hedinn
the journey to the west
the vedas
the mahabharata
the ramayana
the puranas
the piramid texts
coffin texts
the book of the dead
the bible
the tanak
i am 25 and i have dedicated my life to reading mythology I dont recommend it
i currently dont know if i should read beowulf or start with mesopotamian mythology. my big goal is to read the quran before 2022

>>14554982
I'm sorry Anon but I'm calling bs to this
The pyramid and coffin texts are both extremely long and inacesable as fuck. Also
>the bible the tanak
Theres no way someone has read both the Christian and Jewish Bibles that's just too much. I don't believe you have read all of this. It's impossible in a single lifetime much less for some one in his mid 20's

>>14554982
>nothing from the Americas

If you want suggestions let me know, as I said earlier >>14551196 is a good starting place for Mesoamerica but it sounds you want the primary sources, I can give you some suggestions/input there if you want too

>>14555058
>reading long books is impossible
quintessentially american

>>14555136
i dont find it interesting, i guess eventually ill get to it but i probably wont in all honesty

>>14554982
I would suggest you read Beowulf next. It is a very enjoyable book to read and not to long.

>>14555153
>i dont find it interesting

How informed on it are you to begin with though?

I ask because, generally speaking, most people's general impression of Mesoamerican cultures is just "IDK they were tribes that built big pyramids and sacrificed people" without being aware how complex they really were (various Mesoamerican cities even 1000 years before the Aztec existed were larger then the largest Bronze and Iron age cities in Eurasia), that they even had books and writing, or that they had poetry, philsophy, etc;

Like ask somebody to imagine a Greek, Egyptian, or Japanese cityscape with people walking through streets and anybody can mentally picture something at least somewhat accurate, ask them to do the same with any Mesowmerican civilization and they'll probably draw a blank or just imagine a bunch of huts in a jungle instead of pic related (which is from the excellent ongoing Aztec Empire comic, the first 50 pages are free here https://www.bigredhair.com/books/aztec-empire/about/))

>>14555414
>>14555153
whoops, the rest of my post got cut off

My bottom line is that, is your lack of interest due to a lack of existing foundational knowledge that there IS interesting and cool stuff there, or have you already given it an honest shot?

Another example, most people don't realize we have sources like pic related for Mesoamerican history/mythology

Daily reminder that it's pointless to read Greek mythology unless you also plan to learn the metaphorical, allegorical, and symbolic language of the ancient Greeks. You need to actually understand what the Greeks were going for with their various kinships, relationships, attributes, and story lines. If you can understand these things, then you can understand the entire Greek way of thinking about the world. Here's some easy ones: why did Athena pop out of Zeus' forehead? Why does Narcissus spend his life looking at his reflection in the pool of water and who was he tricked by and why? Greek mythology is a system of life philosophy, with each aspect of the story encoding tropological and practical wisdom.

>>14554982
>lists a bunch of mythological books
>also the bible
what did he mean by this?

>>14553495
No problem, anon. It's a classic in the field for a reason.