/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.4347829]

'sup /lit/. So, right now I want to read stuff about mythologies and polytheistic religions from all over the world. I made a small list of books I wanna read/ I've already read about the subject. Do you like it? Also, you'll notice many areas are pretty empty. What would you add?

Greek/Roman mythology:
>Theogony by Hesiod
>Odyssey by Homer
>Iliad by Homer
>Aeneid by Vigil
>Argonautica by Apollonius Rhodius
>Metamorpohses by Ovid

Norse Mythology:
>Poetic Edda
>Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson
>Tyrfing Saga

Finnish Mythology:
>Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot

Precolumbian Mythology:
???

Hindu Mythology:
>Mahabharata by Vyasa
>Ramayana by Valmiki

Buddhist/East Asian Mythology:
???

Japanese/Shinto Mythology:
>Kojiki by O no Yasumaro
>Nihon Shoki

Subsaharan Mythology:
???

Egyptian Mythology:
>Book of the Dead
>Amduat

And that's it. Pic unrelated

[Anonymous No.4347836]

Mozi by Burton Watson

[Anonymous No.4347859]

bump

[Anonymous No.4347886]

You should certainly look into Celtic Mythology as well, primarily the Irish stuff. Absolutely excellent.

[Anonymous No.4349005]

I'd say you'd be better off acquainting yourself with some in-depth academic secondary works instead of just gobbling up ungodly amounts of primary sources without any supporting material. Try the library of your local university, they'll usually have some of the rarer volumes such as the one pictured.

[Anonymous No.4349145]

>>4347829

I reccomend you Mircea Eliade and Joseph Campbell, theyre both dealing with mythology on more universal and theoretical level. Trust me, you won't be disappointed

[Anonymous No.4349168]

There's no point in bothering with anything other than Greek. It's all garbage in comparison.

[Anonymous No.4349190]

>precolumbian
Popol Vuh (Maya)

>celtic
Mabinogion (Welsh)

also what about pre-islamic middle eastern mythologies? is there such a thing?

[Anonymous No.4349192]

>>4349145
>you won't be disappointed

I was. Eliade has profound insight into religious phenomenology and the nature of religious experience, but in the end, his universalisms are just too bold. His work mostly ignores the historical particularities that are essential to understanding any form of religious life.

In mythography, I find any kind of universalism to be distasteful, to be honest.

[Anonymous No.4349195]

>>4349190
and by that I mean obviously in the time immediately prior to the appearence of Islam, not babilonians, assyrians, etc

[Anonymous No.4349205]

What about Christian Mythology?

[Anonymous No.4349220]

>>4349195
>also what about pre-islamic middle eastern mythologies? is there such a thing?
>and by that I mean obviously in the time immediately prior to the appearence of Islam, not babilonians, assyrians, etc

Why are these mythology threads invariably full of hopeless idiots?

If you're talking about pre-Islamic Arabian mythology, then yes, there was such a thing. Unfortunately, much of it is now lost because of Islamic puritanism. Just google it, for gods' sake.

[Anonymous No.4349225]

>>4349168
How does one compare religions?

[Anonymous No.4349227]

>>4349205

that's gay

[Anonymous No.4349230]

Consider getting Robert Graves' The Greek Myths as well. It's a fantastic book.

Also, look into some of Joseph Campbell's works for a much broader perspective of mythology.

[Anonymous No.4349246]

>>4349220
don't be rude.
I meant in the middle east as a whole, no particular focus on arabic.
and if I could google that without getting completely unrelated results solely pertaining to islam I wouldn't be asking here.

[Anonymous No.4349334]

>>4349246
That's probably because the Middle East is a ridiculously wide geographic area. The Levant and Northern Africa were Christian when Muhammad began his conquests. Along with Christianity, the Eastern Roman Empire harboured different Gnostic sects, while Judaea was Jewish with Judaic minorities in many major cities along the Mediterranean. The state religion of the Sassanid Empire in the east was Zoroastrianism. In the countryside and in outskirts such as the Arabian peninsula, many ethnic and regional paganisms flourished, influenced by ancient Semitic religion on one hand and Greco-Roman paganism on the other. You can find some more information on Arabic mythology on Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabian_mythology

Does that answer your question?

[Anonymous No.4349349]

>>4349246
That's probably because the Middle East is a ridiculously wide geographic area. The Levant and Northern Africa were Christian when Muhammad began his conquests. Along with Christianity, the Eastern Roman Empire harboured different Gnostic sects, while Judaea was Jewish with Judaic minorities in many major cities along the Mediterranean. The state religion of the Sassanid Empire in the east was Zoroastrianism. In the countryside and in outskirts such as the Arabian peninsula, many ethnic and regional paganisms flourished, descended from ancient Semitic religion but also influenced Greco-Roman paganism. You can find some more information on Arabic mythology on Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabian_mythology

Does that answer your question?

[Anonymous No.4349368]

I'd pick Lucretius over Hesiod, though Hesiod is much shorter. But Lucretius has a nicer philosophy to it. Also, I haven't read Argonautica. Maybe that's similar to Nature of Things.

Also, how about Beowulf? Too 'new?'

[Anonymous No.4349892]

>>4349205
Karen Armstrong's History of God is an excellent read detailing the Abrahamic religions from its (their) inception on through the present from the perspective of those participating in them. trust me, it's good.

[Anonymous No.4349898]

>>4349220
the satanic verses talks about those middle eastern religions at some length.

[Anonymous No.4349991]

>>4349145
>>4349005
I agree with these fellas, you should check first of anything for people speaking about mythology rather than just reading the original works raw. Mythology is cultivated, it has a life on its own. To read the original works might be to get to the seed, but it's important to have a good reference for context to understand what kind of life these mythologies lived in people's hearts. The stories will often be simple or even seem nonsensical at first and it's important to have background knowledge on how these mythologies functioned to each society, to each person. It's what they mean to people that make them alive.

You should not dismiss fairytales. Folkloric images of all times. Some of them are not written properly, they are just cultivated. Some of those which are written are done so merely as records, whereas their lives are grounded on the telling of these stories. The plot and prose are often crude, but it is the constant thought surrounding these images that make for their importance to a culture.

[Anonymous No.4352365]

bump

[Anonymous No.4352396]

>>4347829
>Finnish Mythology:
>Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot
Fantastic!
This will get you started: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZhf-AcnIyw

[Anonymous No.4354861]

>>4352365

[GirlJesus !!ggYw9XaQXSW No.4354896]

Nibelunglied, for Germany?
Does Sagas of Icelanders count as 'mythology' (for Iceland, obvs.)?
England: Beowulf and The Faerie Queene
For Buddhism/East Asia: the Mahayana Sutras
And you're missing the Vedas for Hinduism.

To be honest, OP. There's too much to get through in this lifetime; maybe pick up a secondary work like this guy's >>4349005 suggesting.

[Anonymous No.4354960]

>Chinese
Journey to the West

[Anonymous No.4355465]

Firstly, study PIE religion theory. Even the basics will help you an incredible amount. All mythology is linked to the same root European religion possibly with a couple exceptions of some esoteric stuff. When you understand (for example) that Zeus is Thor is Jupiter is Perun is Taranis and that Váli is Hercules is Ogmios is Dashdebog is Herakles, making links between mythologies is far easier as is understanding them. Understanding the meaning and etymology of it all is also very important, e.g: Thor has a "hammer" which is itself derived from an earlier word meaning "rock" which is more accurate in the original context.

Don't read the Poetic Edda until you've studied every fuþark rune and understand their order. It's only meant to be read in the original context of the runes in each stanza. If you want an accurate interpretation of the Edda (almost all of them are wrong because they skip this step) check out "Sorcery and Religion in Ancient Scandinavia" by Varg Vikernes and ignore whatever controversy you may have read of him before because it's an excellent book, and the book he was inspired a lot by, The Golden Bough is very good too. He's probably one of the most knowledgeable people on mythology regardless of other aspects of him and his Sorcery and Religion book is very unbiased.

>>4349205
>>4349220
Judaic mythologies are all based on earlier ones heavily anyway, you'll understand them better if you study them after a few years of studying PIE religion and earlier polytheistic religions.