Free “divine gallery” art sample from OldWorldGods
I live in a mythic world – and I have special mentions!
That’s right – I don’t just have a top ten mythology books, I have a whole host of special mentions. My usual rule is twenty special mentions for each top ten, where the subject matter is prolific enough, as it is here – which I suppose would usually make each top ten a top thirty if you want to look at it that way. My special mentions are also where I can have some fun with the subject category and splash out with some wilder entries.
And here are my twenty special mentions:
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0 The Fool from the Rider-Waite Tarot (left) and the Crowley Thoth Tarot (right)
(1) TAROT – RIDER-WAITE & CROWLEY-THOTH
The Tarot earns the top special mention in my Top 10 Mythology Books for the decks of cards, particularly the two iconic and definitive modern decks – special that is, because they are not books as such but decks of cards.
Of course, there are a plethora of modern Tarot decks, most of which originate from those two definitive modern decks (named for their creators) which were themselves substantial reconstructions from earlier tarot decks, pumping up their esoteric mystique – the Rider-Waite deck and the Crowley-Thoth deck, my Old Testament and New Testament of Tarot respectively. (And like Martin Prince in The Simpsons dismissively handwaving away Ray Bradbury from his ABC of science fiction with “I’m aware of his work”, I’m aware of the third most common modern Tarot deck – the Marseilles Tarot).
Interestingly, both these two definitive decks were by female artists, Pamela Colman Smith for the Rider-Waite deck and Lady Frieda Harris. My personal preference is for the artwork and themes of the Crowley-Thoth deck (even if Crowley himself was one generally weird dude and sick puppy), albeit still shaped by the influence of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck.
RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD-TIER – OR IS THAT TAROT-TIER?)
Netherlandish Proverbs – painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder 1559
(2) FOLKLORE INDEX
Well, Folklore Indices to be precise – two of them, usually used in tandem, the Thompson Motif-Index of Folklore, and the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index of folklore tale types.
Both are regarded as standard tools of folklore studies – and are endlessly fascinating to browse even for those outside folklore studies with a general interest in mythology or culture.
As its title indicates, the Thompson Motif-Index was compiled by American folklorist Stith Thompson (at the substantial length of 6 volumes) as a catalogue or index of motifs – the granular elements of folklore or folktales.
As Thompson himself defined it, “a motif is the smallest element in a tale having a power to persist in tradition. In order to have this power it must have something unusual and striking about it”.
Although in compiling the index, Thompson used a broader-brush approach to motifs as anything that goes to make up a traditional narrative.
Obviously a full summary even of the categories of the Thompson Index would be too exhaustive, let alone the thousands of motifs themselves, but the categories are organized by broader themes denoted by letters from A (Mythological Motifs) to Z (Miscellaneous Groups of Motifs).
This includes animals, taboos, magic, the dead (including ghosts and vampires), marvels, ogres (and monstrous figures in general), tests, deceptions, reversals of fortune, ordaining the future, chance and fate, society, rewards and punishment, captives and fugitives, unnatural cruelty, sex, the nature of life, religion, traits of character and humor.
And as its title indicates, the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index (ATU or AT Index) also involved Thompson – but as originally compiled by Finnish folklorist Antti Aarne and as further expanded and revised by German folklorist Hans-Jorg Uther, classifying tales by their type.
As defined by Thompson, “a type is a traditional tale that has an independent existence. It may be told as a complete narrative and does not depend for its meaning on any other tale. It may indeed happen to be told with another tale, but the fact that it may be told alone attests its independence. It may consist of only one motif or of many”.
The Index divides tales into sections with an AT number for each entry, which also have their own broad title and including closely related folk tales – for example, 545B “The Cat as Helper” includes folk tales with other animal helpers. Similar types are grouped together – “tale types 400–424 all feature brides or wives as the primary protagonist”.
To illustrate further, 510A is their Cinderella entry (including other versions and similar variations), itself a subcategory of 510 Persecuted Heroine, and noting other entries with which it is commonly combined.
RATING: 5 STARS*****
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A-TIER (TOP TIER)
Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus – one of the most famous paintings depicting a subject of classical mythology or indeed any subject, imitated and parodied ever since in popular culture (public domain image)
(3) THOMAS BULFINCH –
BULFINCH’S MYTHOLOGY (1867)
I believe in all the gods –
especially the goddesses.
We’re going old school for this one, as in nineteenth century old school – named for its American author Thomas Bulfinch and published as a collection of three volumes after his death in 1867. Yet Bulfinch’s Mythology still remains a classic reference (and handily in the public domain) – as indeed it was for me as my introduction as a child to the world of classical mythology. Well, technically that was the first volume – the Age of Fable – which also featured a briefer recitation of Nordic mythology, admittedly a close second to my love for classical mythology. (The second volume – The Age of Chivalry – featured Arthurian legend, while the third volume The Legends of Charlemagne is pretty much what it says on the tin).
Looking back to it now, it’s somewhat dated and has its flaws as a reference – particularly as his obituary noted, it was “expurgated of all that would be offensive”. Or in other words, half the fun of classical mythology or all the sex and violence. Which is somewhat disappointing, because having learnt that Bulfinch was a merchant banker, I fondly imagined him as staid banker by day and Bacchanalian by night, similar to the hedonistic heathen imagined by Chesterton in The Song of the Strange Ascetic.
However, it remains one of the most accessible single-volume references to classical mythology for the general reader – as Bulfinch wrote in his preface:
“Our work is not for the learned, nor for the theologian, nor for the philosopher, but for the reader of English literature, of either sex, who wishes to comprehend the allusions so frequently made by public speakers, lecturers, essayists, and poets, and those which occur in polite conversation.”
Anyway, its impact as an introduction to classical mythology remains profound – if, deep within my psyche, there is any mythology that tempts me to actual religion, it’s classical mythology.
Yes – it’s the nymphs.
RATING:
A-TIER (TOP TIER)
As indicated, cover of the 20th edition published in 2018
(4) BREWER’S DICTIONARY OF PHRASE & FABLE (1870)
Another nineteenth century old school entry, indeed only a few years after Bulfinch’s Mythology and ranking with it as classic reference.
I’m somewhat disappointed that the Brewer of the title is not a reference to brewers of alcohol, somewhat similar to the Guiness Book of Records originating from pub arguments, but from Reverend Ebenezer Cobham Brewer.
However, like Roget’s Thesaurus, the reference book has moved on from him – including into the public domain in its 1895 edition – but continues to be published in new editions, effectively retaining Brewer as a brand name.
It contains “definitions and explanations of many famous phrases, allusions, and figures, whether historical or mythical…The ‘phrase’ part of the title refers mainly to the explanation of various idioms and proverbs, while the “fable” part might more accurately be labelled “folklore” and ranges from classical mythology to relatively recent literature”.
RATING:
A-TIER (TOP TIER)
The Golden Bough, 1834 painting by J.M.W. Turner, depicting the episode of the Golden Bough from the Aeneid by Virgil and used as the cover art for my edition of Frazer’s book (public domain image)
(5) SIR JAMES GEORGE FRAZER –
THE GOLDEN BOUGH (1890)
“Who are these coming to the sacrifice?” –
John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn
Behold the monomyth of the sacrificial sacred king.
That is – the monomyth of a recurring or universal mythic archetype, as coined by Joseph Campbell for his archetypal hero’s journey. However, it doesn’t get much more monomythic that one of the original monomyths, preceding Campbell and his usage of the term – Sir James George Frazer’s The Golden Bough.
The Golden Bough proposed the monomyth or recurring mythic archetype of sacrificial sacred kings – or their surrogates once the kings wised up to it – as incarnations of gods or solar deities whose death and resurrection in turn represented fertility. And believe me, Frazer saw these sacred kings or fertility cults everywhere – including Jesus and Christianity, controversially at the time – such that he filled several volumes up with them, although more people (including me) tend to read his abridged single volume.
Now I think that Frazer was always entertaining and occasionally illuminating in The Golden Bough – his discussion of the principles of sympathetic magic, a term coined by himself, seems particularly definitive – but in terms of factual or historical accuracy…not so much as he’s much more mixed at best in this respect. As the old adage goes, when all you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail – and when all you have is a theory of sacred kings, then by god or goddess, everything begins to look like a sacred king, even if you have to hammer everything into shape for it. After all, we all have to make sacrifices…
While Frazer is or was mostly dismissed as a footnote in academic study, The Golden Bough has been highly influential in literary culture, because whether or not it is true, his mythic archetype of the doomed hero or sacrificial sacred king has the elements of a ripping yarn.
Just for starters, there’s his influence on T. S. Eliot, who openly acknowledged the influence of Frazer on The Waste Land, although with the characteristic pessimism of that poem, proposed the cycle might be broken, leaving only violence and death without rebirth – and in which the dying god is just another buried corpse, perhaps even prompting to mind a Nietzschean murder victim or contemporary zombie apocalypse, rising writhing from their own resurrection – “That corpse you planted last year in your garden, has it begun to sprout?”
There’s his influence on Campbell’s own monomyth, as well as on Sigmund Freud, lending itself to the segue of his influence on Camille Paglia, who described her view of mythology as a fusion of Frazer and Freud (although doubling the inaccuracy of the former with that of the latter).
RATING:
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The cover art from the 2013 paperback edition of The White Goddess published by Farrar, Strauss & Giroux – more interesting and, uh, voluptuous than the comparatively dry cover art of the edition I own
(6) ROBERT GRAVES –
THE WHITE GODDESS / THE GREEK MYTHS (1948 / 1955)
Graves saw Frazer’s sacred king and raised it with a queen, his titular White Goddess. For Graves, the monomyth was his theme, or rather the great mythic and poetic Theme:
“The Theme, briefly, is the antique story, which falls into thirteen chapters and an epilogue, of the birth, life, death and resurrection of the God of the Waxing Year; the central chapters concern the God’s losing battle with the God of the Waning Year for love of the capricious and all-powerful Threefold Goddess, their mother, bride and layer-out. The poet identifies himself with the God of the Waxing Year and his Muse with the Goddess; the rival is his blood-brother, his other self, his weird.”
However, The White Goddess is not as accessible in its prose as Frazer’s The Golden Bough and is essentially a compilation of poetic musings, which has its shining moments but can often become turgid or bogged down in Graves’ esoteric discussion of the Irish tree alphabet or the poems of Taliesin. And like The Golden Bough, it’s best read as poetry than for factual or historical accuracy.
Graves was an apostle of the White Goddess again in his study of Greek mythology. However, it remains my favorite single volume study of Greek mythology.
Essentially it comes in two parts.
The first part is a conventional compendium of Greek mythology – literary retellings of the various myths from their sources – and it is this part that is the basis for the book as my favorite single volume study of Greek mythology, albeit somewhat dense in its prose style.
The second part – his interpretative notes or commentary – is where things get more wild, albeit all in good poetic fun. This is where Graves ‘decodes’ or reconstructs Greek mythology to his monomyth of the Goddess or prehistoric matriarchal religion – “Graves interpreted Bronze Age Greece as changing from a matriarchal society…to a patriarchal one under continual pressure from victorious Greek-speaking tribes. In the second stage local kings came to each settlement as foreign princes, reigned by marrying the hereditary queen, who represented the Triple Goddess, and were ritually slain by the next king after a limited period, originally six months. Kings managed to evade the sacrifice for longer and longer periods, often by sacrificing substitutes, and eventually converted the queen, priestess of the Goddess, into a subservient and chaste wife, and in the final stage had legitimate sons to reign after them”.
So there you go. Of course, the historical accuracy of Graves’ interpretation or commentary has been almost universally contested or considered to be idiosyncratic – “the interpretive notes are of value only as a guide to the author’s personal mythology”. His characteristic rejoinder was to plead poetic privilege, essentially rebuking his critics or classical scholars “You’re not poets!”. And it’s hard to argue with poetry.
RATING:
A-TIER (TOP TIER)
Wiley-Blackwell, 1st edition
(7) WALTER BURKERT –
GREEK RELIGION (1985)
If Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy and Robert Graves’ The Greek Myths are my Old Testament of classical mythology, Burkert’s Greek Religion is my New Testament. Alternatively, the three are my holy trinity of classical mythology (which I suppose would make Nietzsche the Father, Graves the Son and Burkert the Holy Spirit of classical mythology).
No, seriously. For me, Nietzsche and Graves are poles at the other end of a thematic spectrum from Burkert – which I suppose would make all three the points of a thematic triangle. Whatever.
The line from Nietzsche to Burkert is perhaps more obvious – both came from a long tradition of German classicists or classical philologists, indeed its most prominent figures in the English-speaking world (or at least authors of its most prominent books), but in some ways diametrically opposed from each other.
Nietzsche essentially extrapolated a recurring dichotomy of the Apollonian and the Dionysian from classical mythology, above all in its literary manifestation in Greek tragedy, hence his title The Birth of Tragedy. He wrote as an eccentric poet-philosopher, or as he himself described it, a ‘rhapsodizer’ (prompting thoughts of Nietzsche as rhap-artist), not unlike his own prophetic ‘madman’ and apostle of the death of God before his time – “I have come too early…my time is not yet”.
Graves strikes me as similar to Nietzsche – probably someone somewhere has studied or written of the influence of Nietzsche on Graves, if any, but I don’t know anything about that subject – writing as a fellow rhapsodizer or poet, but as an apostle of the Goddess rather than of the death of God, extrapolating his monomyth of the Goddess or prehistoric matriarchal religion from classical mythology.
Of course, the historical accuracy of either has been almost universally contested or considered to be idiosyncratic – “of value only as a guide to the author’s personal mythology”. But who cares? They’re fun! And it’s hard to argue with poetry.
Burkert’s The Greek Religion on the other hand, originally published in his native German in 1977 and translated into English in 1985, has been widely accepted as a standard work in the field. And unlike Nietzsche or Graves, Burkert pretty much extrapolates nothing, robustly sticking to the facts of his literary or archaeological sources.
Burkert presents classical polytheism as inherently chaotic in nature, but at the heart of classical religion was sacrificial ritual – “The term gods…remains fluid, whereas sacrifice is a fact”.
His section headings say it all about his comprehensive survey of Greek religion – Prehistory and the Minoan-Mycenaean Age; Ritual and Sanctuary; The Gods (the Olympian dirty dozen and the balance of the pantheon); The Dead, Heroes and Chthonic Gods; Polis and Polytheism; Mysteries and Asceticism; and Philosophical Religion.
“He describes the various rituals of sacrifice and libation and explains Greek beliefs about purification. He investigates the inspiration behind the great temples at Olympia, Delphi, Delos, and the Acropolis―discussing the priesthood, sanctuary, and oracles. Considerable attention is given to the individual gods, the position of the heroes, and beliefs about the afterlife. The different festivals are used to illuminate the place of religion in the society of the city-state. The mystery cults, at Eleusis and among the followers of Bacchus and Orpheus, are also set in that context. The book concludes with an assessment of the great classical philosophers’ attitudes to religion”.
RATING:
A-TIER (TOP TIER)
Cover of the 2006 hardcover edition published by Harper San Francisco – the edition I own
(8) JONATHAN KIRSCH –
THE HARLOT BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD / A HISTORY OF THE END OF THE WORLD (1998 / 2006)
Jonathan Kirsch is the author of some of my favorite studies of the Bible. Not of the whole Bible, mind you – for one thing, he tends towards a Jewish focus on the Old Testament (with one notable exception), and for another, he has a particular focus on points of interest there as well.
The Harlot by the Side of the Road was his first such book and its subtitle says it all – Forbidden Tales of the Bible. As does the usual expression of shock he quotes in his introduction – what do you mean THAT’S in the Bible?!
“The stories you are about to read are some of the most violent and sexually explicit in all of Western literature. They are tales of human passion in all of its infinite variety: adultery, seduction, incest, rape, mutilation, assassination, torture, sacrifice, and murder”
We’re talking Lot and his daughters in Genesis, then echoed by the Levite and his concubine in Judges, only worse. Much like Abraham preparing to sacrifice his son Isaac in Genesis is echoed, only worse, as Jephthah actually sacrificing his daughter in Judges. Which pretty much sums up those two bloody books of the Bible, which would do Quentin Tarantino or Game of Thrones proud.
Indeed, most of the book is from either Genesis or Judges. There is a couple of exceptions, including the one where God tries to kill Moses, until Moses’ quick-thinking wife Zipporah does a spontaneous circumcision of their infant son and smears Moses’ forehead with the bloody foreskin. Which is just odd, akin to of those weird variants of vampire that can be held at bay by some bizarre obsessive-compulsive ritual.
Which perhaps brings us to his book on Moses, although I just don’t find Moses as intriguing a character as the subject of his similar book on King David. After all, Exodus and its related books might easily have been summed up with the subtitle Are We There Yet?
I do like how he compares God and Moses to a constantly bickering old married couple. I mean, I’m only paraphrasing slightly with this exchange:
GOD: “I have had it with these Israelites! I’ll kill all of them and start over with you and your descendants!”
MOSES: “And what would the Egyptians say? That you saved the Israelites from slavery only to kill them in the desert?”
GOD: “Hmmm. Okay – I’ll just kill some of them.”
I’ve always imagined one Israelite turning to another as the God in a box starts yelling again from the Ark of the Covenant – “I preferred the calf”.
As I said, I prefer King David to Moses, because despite the former’s many flaws – and David could be a monumental ass at times – he’s just such a charming rogue, so much so that even God was charmed by him, David as God’s golden boy. Or at least, he charmed the original author of the Bible – I particularly like the theory Kirsch references that the nucleus of the Bible started as a court biography of David, to which preceding events were added almost as a legendary Hebrew Dreamtime.
However, my absolute favorite Kirsch book remains his study of the Book of Apocalypse or Revelations, not coincidentally my absolute favorite book of the Bible, in A History of the End of the World (and that one notable exception to his focus on the Old Testament I noted at the outset).
Again, the subtitle of the book sums it up – How the Most Controversial Book in the Bible Changed the Course of Civilization. Or for that matter, the scholarly quip he quotes in his introduction – “Revelations either finds a man mad, or leaves him so”.
RATING:
A-TIER (TOP TIER)
(9) JOHN LINDOW –
NORSE MYTHOLOGY: A GUIDE TO THE GODS, HEROES, RITUALS & BELIEFS (2001)
“We come from the land of the ice and snow
From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow
The hammer of the gods
Will drive our ships to new lands
To fight the horde, sing and cry
Valhalla, I am coming”
I won’t tire of quoting the lyrics of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song for Norse mythology, whether for its third place entry in my Top 10 Mythologies, or here for this special mention for the leading reference work on Norse mythology.
Of course, Norse is something of a misnomer, as it was a Germanic or Scandinavian mythology that extended throughout much of northern Europe, although it is most identified with Norway and Iceland (and Vikings!), also the source of its surviving texts.
“Norse Mythology explores the magical myths and legends of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Viking-Age Greenland and outlines the way the prehistoric tales and beliefs from these regions that have remained embedded in the imagination of the world.”
The book is essentially divided into three parts, with a postscript for print and non-print resources about Norse mythology. The first part is an introduction for the historical background of Scandinavian mythology (including “cult, worship and sacrifice”). The second part is a chapter on mythic time. The third and predominant part is effectively a reference dictionary of entries in alphabetical order “that presents in-depth explanations of each mythological term… particular deities and giants, as well as the places where they dwell and the varied and wily means by which they forge their existence and battle one another”.
RATING:
A-TIER (TOP TIER)
Cover art of 2006 Penguin Books edition – the edition I own
(10) JAMES MACKILLOP –
MYTHS & LEGENDS OF THE CELTS (2006)
*
For mine is the grail quest –
round table & siege perilous
fisher king & waste land
bleeding lance & dolorous stroke
adventurous bed & questing beast
I find all Celtic mythology fascinating.
The Celtic mythology that survived most in literary form (mostly as recorded by Christian monks) was in Brittany or coastal France, in Britain and above all in Ireland with its various mythological cycles. The Tuatha de Danann or the gods of Ireland. The Ulster Cycle and its great hero Cu Chulainn. The Fenian Cycle as well as its great hero Fionn Mac Cumhaill (sometimes awesomely translated as Finn McCool) and his Fianna warrior band. And the Cycle of Kings of historical legend.
“Myths and Legends of the Celts is a fascinating and wide-ranging introduction to the mythology of the peoples who inhabited the northwestern fringes of Europe—from Britain and the Isle of Man to Gaul and Brittany.”
This book is essentially divided into three parts. The first part looks at the broader themes of Celtic mythology in general reflected in the chapter names – with chapters for the Celtic deities, the remnants of Celtic religion, sacred kingship (in Ireland), the female figures of Celtic mythology (goddesses, warrior queens and saints), calendar feasts, and otherworlds.
The second part looks at the Irish mythological cycles – the Ulster Cycle, the Fenian Cycle, and the Cycle of Kings.
The third part looks at Welsh and oral myths.
“And it explores in detail the rich variety of Celtic myths: from early legends of King Arthur to the stories of the Welsh Mabinogi, and from tales of heroes including Cúchulainn, Fionn mac Cumhaill, and the warrior queen Medb, to tales of shadowy otherworlds—the homes of spirits and fairies.”
RATING:
A-TIER (TOP TIER)
(11) JOYCE TYDLESLEY –
PENGUIN BOOK OF MYTHS & LEGENDS OF ANCIENT EGYPT (2010)
“I am a cowboy in the boat of Ra…
‘Who was that
dog-faced man? ‘they asked, the day I rode from town…
Go get my eyelids of red paint.
Hand me my shadow,
I’m going into town after Set”
I’ll never tire of quoting Ishmael Reed’s poem when it comes to Egyptian mythology – or of Egyptian mythology itself.
What’s not to love about those funky animal-headed gods and those slinky goddesses? Especially the goddesses – lithe and svelte in their form-fitting dresses, with their golden skin and painted eyes, they would not look out of place as supermodels on a modern catwalk.
“Here acclaimed Egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley guides us through 3000 years of changing stories and, in retelling them, shows us what they mean. Gathered from pyramid friezes, archaeological finds and contemporary documents…Lavishly illustrated with colour pictures, maps and family trees, helpful glossaries explaining all the major gods and timelines of the Pharaohs and most importantly packed with unforgettable stories”.
The table of contents effectively encapsulates Tyldesley’s guide to Egyptian mythology, starting with introductory sections on Egypt’s gods, the Egyptian world, and Egypt’s dynasties. It then opens, aptly enough, with Egypt’s competing creation myths, and everyone’s favorite Ennead, the nine gods of Heliopolis – whom we all prefer to the inferior Ogdoad or eight gods of Hermopolis. Lost yet? Hang on – Egyptian mythology is a wild ride of shifting sands, gods (or creations) that keep swapping out with each other as they rose and fell within the pantheon.
After creation comes destruction – a section on the death of Osiris, the most famous death in Egyptian mythology (and up there with the most famous deaths of mythology), “the contendings of Horus and Seth”, and the afterlife.
My favorite section is of course on the great goddesses, foremost among them Isis, “great of magic”, but also warriors, wise women and cobra goddesses
RATING:
A-TIER (TOP-TIER)
(12) CAMILLA TOWNSEND:
THE AZTEC MYTHS: A GUIDE TO THE ANCIENT STORIES & LEGENDS (2024)
I still default to the usual superficial knowledge of Aztec mythology characteristic of its lurid image in popular culture – that is to say, the closest mythology comes to a horror film or the Cthulhu Mythos, both of itself and of its ritual practice of human sacrifice.
However, it is hard to resist seeing Aztec mythology as horror film mythology or to not get lost amongst its deities with their tongue-twisting Scrabble-winning names.
That’s where this book comes in – “the essential guide to the world of Aztec mythology, based on Nahuatl-language sources”.
“Camilla Townsend returns to the original tales, told at the fireside by generations of Indigenous Nahuatl-speakers. Through their voices we learn the contested histories of the Mexica and their neighbours in the Valley of Mexico – the foundations of great cities, the making and breaking of political alliances, the meddling of sometimes bloodthirsty gods…the divine principle of Ipalnemoani connected humans with all of nature and spiritual beliefs were woven through the fabric of Aztec life, from the sacred ministrations of the ticitl, midwives whose rituals saw women through childbirth, to the inevitable passage to Mictlan, ‘our place of disappearing together’ – the land of the dead.”
RATING:
A-TIER (TOP TIER)
B-TIER (HIGH TIER)
Cover of the 2000 paperback edition by Boydell & Brewer, the edition I own
(13) RICHARD BARBER & ANNE RICHES –
A DICTIONARY OF FABULOUS BEASTS (1971)
Exactly what it says on the tin – a literal dictionary in alphabetical order of entries for fabulous beasts.
The publisher’s blurb sums it up best
“Mythical creatures drawn largely from medieval travellers’ tales, but encompassing civilisations from the Sumerians to the Wild West…an astonishing ark filled with beasts from a fabulous zoo far more varied and entertaining than anything from ordinary natural history. From Abaia and Abath to Ziz and Zu, from the microscopic Gigelorum that nests in a mite’s ear to the giant serpent Jormungandor who encircles the whole globe, there are beasts from every corner of man’s imagination: the light-hearted Fearsome Critters of lumberjack tales find a place alongside the Sirrush of Babylon and the Winged Bulls of Assyria. Some of the fabulous beasts turn out to be real creatures in disguise – a Cameleopard is a kind of glamourised giraffe -while others are almost, but not quite, human. Among the six hundred entries are some which are full-scale essays in their own right, as on Phoenix or Giants; and just in case it seems as though the authors dreamt up the entire book, there is a detailed list of books for the would-be hunter in this mythical jungle.”
RATING:
B-TIER (HIGH TIER)
Cover of the 2000 paperback edition by Harper Perennial
(14) ALBERTO MANGUEL & GIANNI GUADALUPI –
THE DICTIONARY OF IMAGINARY PLACES (1980)
Again, exactly what it says on the tin – a literal dictionary in alphabetical order of entries for imaginary places.
However, there’s a fine line between the imaginary places of mythology and those of literature or fantasy, with many entries in the latter. For example, I would argue that Atlantis transcended its (minor) literary origins in the works of Plato to become mythic. Even when Plato wrote it, he attributed it to Egyptian records of it. And so on, with imaginary or legendary places such as Hyperborea or Eldorado – although the imaginary places of mythology lose out somewhat with places off the planet Earth (albeit more exclusive of SF locales) as well as “heavens and hells”.
Again, the publisher’s blurb sums it up:
“This Baedeker of make-believe takes readers on a tour of more than 1,200 realms invented by storytellers from Homer’s day to our own. Here you will find Shangri-La and El Dorado, Utopia and Middle Earth, Wonderland and Freedonia.”
RATING:
B-TIER (HIGH TIER)
An elusive book to find these days – this is the edition I own, featuring an amulet of the Egyptian god Bes on the cover
(15) MICHAEL JORDAN –
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GODS (1992)
Another entry that is exactly what it says on the tin – an encyclopedia of entries for gods and goddesses in alphabetical order.
No – the author is not the basketballer. At least, I don’t think it is.
And yes – there’s an entry for God.
“Deities have been identified with the human psyche for at least 60,000 years. Encyclopedia of Gods offers concise information on more than 2,500 of these deities, from the most ancient gods of polytheistic societies – Hittite, Sumerian, Mesopotamian – to the most contemporary gods of the major monotheistic religions – Allah, God, Yahweh. Among the cultures included are African peoples, Albanian, Pre-Islamic Arabian, Aztec, Babylonian, Buddhist, Canaanite, Celtic, Egyptian, Native American, Etruscan, Germanic, Greek, Roman, Hindu, Persian, Polynesian, and Shinto.”
“Each entry provides details on what culture worshiped the god, the role of the god, and the characteristics and symbols used in identification. In the case of the more important personalities, references in art and literature and known dates of worship are also provided. Indexes by civilization and role of the god enable the researcher to compare gods across cultures or to find information on specific topics of interest”
RATING:
B-TIER (HIGH TIER)
X-TIER (WEIRD / WILD TIER)
Cover 2010 Norton Agency 1st edition
(16) JAN HAROLD BRUNVAND –
THE VANISHING HITCHHIKER: AMERICAN URBAN LEGENDS & THEIR MEANINGS (1981)
Jan Harold Brunvand is a retired American folklorist best known as a prolific popularizer of that modern folklore par excellence, urban legends – in a series of books from The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and their Meanings in 1981 onwards.
“Many urban legends are framed as complete stories with plot and characters. The compelling appeal of a typical urban legend is its elements of mystery, horror, fear, or humor. Often they serve as cautionary tales. Some urban legends are morality tales that depict someone acting in a disagreeable manner, only to wind up in trouble, hurt, or dead.”
“Urban legends will often try to invoke a feeling of disgust in the reader which tends to make these stories more memorable and potent. Elements of shock value can be found in almost every form of urban legend and are partially what makes these tales so impactful. An urban legend may include elements of the supernatural or paranormal”.
RATING:
X-TIER (WILD TIER)
Cover of the last edition by Citadel Press in 2004 – it’s a pity as I think they should have kept going to 100
(17) JONATHAN VANKIN & JOHN WHALEN –
THE 50-80 GREATEST CONSPIRACIES OF ALL TIME (1994-2004)
The other modern folklore par excellence, where history meets mythology – conspiracy theories need no introduction, particularly on the internet, that conspiracy theory kitchen sink(hole).
There is of course a plethora of conspiracy theories – it seems at least one for every significant contemporary event at this point. Enough for their own top ten – in some cases enough for their own top ten just with respect to particular events (hello 9/11 and JFK).
Or indeed for their own top ten a number of times over in general – which leads me to this special mention entry which does just that, and is of course irresistible to me combining top ten type lists with conspiracy theories. These compilations of Greatest Conspiracies of All Time went from 50 in its original edition before tapping out at the 80 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time in its last edition in 2004. No doubt they could have piled up more to at least 100 (or 200) in the two decades since.
Interestingly, both writers were also writers of comics and it is intriguing how often comic storylines overlap with conspiracy theories. Indeed, I suspect I could compile a top ten of comics based on the premise of overarching conspiracy theories – Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles, Nick Spencer’s Morning Glories, and Jonathan Hickman’s The Manhattan Projects to name a few.
Of course, my favorite section of the books was for the various overarching grand unifying theories of conspiracies – with the Illuminati as my favorite.
Murray Rothbard proposed a model of types of conspiracy theory contrasting deep conspiracy theories to shallow ones, with the latter observing an event and asking cui bono or who benefits, “jumping to the conclusion that a posited beneficiary is responsible for covertly influencing events”.
As Vankin and Whalen lamented in their books, conspiracy theories have become pretty lazy these days – and they tapped out in 2004, before the internet truly transformed conspiracy theories into something which could spring into existence with the click of a button. Previously, conspiracy theories involved the meticulous, even obsessive, compilation of facts or evidence. Now, it’s mostly along the lines of Rothbard’s shallow conspiracy theories – simply proposing a beneficiary or motive behind any event, which is pretty easy to do, and asserting that as a conspiracy.
RATING:
X-TIER (WILD TIER)
Cover of the 1991 edition (by Illuminet Press) – the edition I own
(18) PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA
(1963)
Or how I found Goddess and what I did to Her when I Found Her.
No, really – that’s the subtitle of the book. The Goddess in question is the playful goddess of chaos in classical mythology, Eris or Discordia, but as the object of the Discordian “religion”, which is either a joke disguised as a religion or a religion disguised as a joke.
The Principia Discordia is the central Discordian “religious” text – and much briefer than other such texts. Written by the pseudonymous Malaclypse the Younger and Lord Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst, it is full of contradictions and humor:
“Is Eris true?”
“Everything is true.”
“Even false things?”
“Even false things are true.”
“How can that be?”
“I don’t know man, I didn’t do it.”
At the same time, as noted in its Wikipedia entry, it contains several passages which propose that there is serious intent behind the work, for example a message scrawled on page 00075: “If you think the PRINCIPIA is just a ha-ha, then go read it again.” Also, it is is quoted extensively in and shares many themes with the satirical science fiction book The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, one of my top ten SF books.
“Notable symbols in the book include the Apple of Discord, the pentagon, and the “Sacred Chao”, which resembles the Taijitu of Taoism, but the two principles depicted are “Hodge” and “Podge” rather than yin and yang, and they are represented by the apple and the pentagon, and not by dots. Saints identified include Emperor Norton, Yossarian, Don Quixote, and Bokonon. The Principia also introduces the mysterious word “fnord”, later popularized in The Illuminatus! Trilogy”.
I can see the fnords!
I particularly enjoy how it deems every single man, woman and child on Earth as “a genuine and authorized pope of Discordia” – even including an official pope card that may be reproduced and distributed to anyone and everyone. Or that it has five classes of saint as exemplars and models of perfection – with the lowest class of saint being for real people, deceased or otherwise, as the higher classes of saint are reserved for fictional beings, who by virtue of being fictional, are better able to reach the Discordian view of perfection. The canonization of Discordian saints was a profound influence upon myself to canonize my own saints of pagan Catholicism – and apostles of the Goddess.
RATING:
X-TIER (WEIRD / WILD TIER)
Cover art of the 1987 paperback edition – the edition I own
(19) THE BOOK OF THE SUB-GENIUS / REVELATION X
(1983 / 1994)
Eternal salvation or triple your money back!
Similar to Discordianism – with which it is often compared (and with which it arguably overlaps) – the Church of the SubGenius is either a joke disguised as a religion or a religion disguised as a joke, although in my opinion it doesn’t lend itself as much to the latter as Discordianism.
“The Church of the SubGenius is a parody religion described by some of its own members as an ‘insane bogus UFO mind-control cult’…elements of self-help groups, UFO cults, Scientology, apocalyptic Christianity, and utterly shameless money-grubbing antics”.
It purportedly originates from its revered prophet, J.R. Bob Dobbs, usually known simply as “Bob”. (When printing “Bob”‘s name, the “Bob” must always be surrounded by “quotes”). “Bob” is the prophet (as well as avatar and embodiment) of Slack, the cosmic spiritual quality as ineffable as the Tao for which the Church and all its members strive – and to which the Con or Conspiracy is opposed. Which conspiracy? Why, all of them of course – as the Conspiracy represents them all.
The ultimate goal of all SubGeniuses (SubGenii?) is to survive until X-Day, when godlike aliens “will arrive and Rupture all the dues-paying SubGenii to a never-ending tour” (pleasure tour?) “of the universe, while converting Planet Earth into the intergalactic equivalent of a greasy-spoon truck-stop”. For those left behind (anyone who isn’t a paid-up SubGenii), it’s not going to be fun as “human pain is apparently a very high-priced drug among the various gods, demons, and alien beings of the complex and ever-growing SubGenius Pantheon”. X-Day is prophesied to occur on 5 July 1998, at 7 AM – “the fact that that date apparently passed without the arrival of the Alien Fleet has forced SubGenii to come up with a multitude of excuses”.
The Book of the Sub-Genius is of course its foundational text, although the New(er) Testament, Relevation X, comes close!
RATING:
X-TIER (WEIRD / WILD TIER)
2002 paperback edition published by British Museum Press – the edition I own
(20) CATHERINE JOHNS –
S€X OR SYMBOL: ER0TIC IMAGES OF GREECE & ROME (2002)
It is one of my rules in my top tens to throw in a kinky entry amidst my wilder special mentions, usually as my final or twentieth special mention, at least where the subject matter permits.
And here it certainly does – it is not surprising given how large sexuality looms in human biology that it similarly looms large in our mythology.
I remember in high school that it was a running gag among my friends of drawing d!cks in each other’s textbooks, kind of like the end credits of the 2007 film Superbad. Juvenile, yes I know, or rather adolescent.
The Greeks and Romans were a lot like that – they had art of d!cks everywhere. Well, erotic art in general, but mostly a lot of d!cks. And no, we’re not just talking the ubiquitous nudity of classical art – we’re talking hardcore d!cks, literally in the sense of what is termed ithyphallic.
So much so that when Victorians – the prissy British of the historical Victorian period that is, not the residents of the Australian state – collected classical art in galleries or museums, they found themselves inundated by d!cks, like my high school textbooks or those Superbad end credits, which they then hid in restricted sections or basements.
And these were mythic d!cks! No, seriously – “many had a religious and apotropaic function”. Apotropaic, as in good luck charms or warding off evil, because nothing does that like a d!ck, albeit often depicted with wings or feet. We’re talking things like herms, statues with male genitalia used as boundary or crossroad markers, often invoking the (phallic) god Hermes or Mercury.
And this book has the extensive images of Greek or Roman art to prove it. Like looking through my high school textbooks…
RATING:
X-TIER (WEIRD / WILD TIER)
