A01=Lorena Laura Stookey
Author_Lorena Laura Stookey
Category=JBGB
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Mythology
Product details
- ISBN 9780313315053
- Weight: 709g
- Dimensions: 178 x 254mm
- Publication Date: 30 Mar 2004
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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All around the world, myths address questions that humans have always posed about their origins, their environments, their ultimate destinies, and the meanings of their lives. This book examines 30 common motifs that thread their way through mythological tales across history and around the globe. The themes are presented in alphabetical order, moving from The Afterlife and Animals in Myth to The Underworld, World Tree, and Ymir Motif. Each thematic section defines and discusses a single recognizable motif, compares a number of different mythological traditions, and traces the repeated occurrences of one of these patterns through several different categories of narratives.
The discussion of The Afterlife, for example, examines the theme's earliest known occurrences in ancient Mesopotamia and compares them with those in Greek, Aztec, Norse, and other ancient cultures, as well as with contemporary views from Innuit and Polynesian cultures. A glossary provides concise definitions of recurring terms. A list of suggested readings on these topics will further aid students who desire to deepen their knowledge of world mythology.
LORENA STOOKEY is Assistant Professor in the English Department at the University of Nevada, Reno, where she teaches course in mythology, poetry, and literature. She is the author of Louise Erdrich: A Critical Companion (Greenwood 1999).
