Introduction to Mythology: Contemporary Approaches to Classical and World Myths

by Eva Thury, Margaret DeVinney

Integrating original texts with explanations, interpretations, and theory, Introduction to Contemporary Approaches to Classical and World Myths, Third Edition, introduces students to a wide range of myths drawn from sources all around the world and approached from various critical perspectives. The third edition strengthens its global coverage with two new Chapter 11, " Popol Vuh," and Chapter 43, "The Vampire as Tales of the Undead in a Contemporary Context."

An innovative pedagogical structure helps students students discern the complex web of literary allusions that characterize mythological texts.

New! A "Myths Across the World" foldout map at the front of the text shows the regional distribution of all the myths discussed in the book

New! A global locator map at the beginning of each chapter situates the myths in their geographical context

Running margin notes provide cross references and explanations of terms

A glossary of deities, an illustrated timeline, and suggested readings offer additional resources

A vibrant art program features more than 200 illustrations, photographs, and maps

A Student's Website at www.oup.com/us/thury contains chapter objectives and summaries, key terms, study questions, self tests, flashcards, and related links

Genres: School, Mythology

816 pages, Paperback

First published April 13, 2012

Reviews

[Bella Leilani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes this book kind of hurt my brain, but in a good way. There were times where I thought there was no way this was going to stick in my brain, and I was seriously surprised how much of it has stayed with me and its gives a lot great topics to discuss is social gatherings which is awesome.

[Nostalgia Reader]

This book is awesome. One of my favorite classes so far, and probably my most favorite textbook by far. We didn't really read this comprehensively, but the things we did read were excellently introduced and annotated (THE ANNOTATIONS <3), the various theories and archetypes were explained quite well, and there's amazingly nerdy modern myth analyses. This is so good that I am definitely going to be reading many of the chapters over the summer to expand my knowledge even more.

It does help if you already enjoy mythology and know some general tropes across a few cultures, and you definitely need to enjoy literature, as that's pretty much what this class was (despite the "humanities" prefix it was given). But if you like those things already, this book should be awesome and hopefully your class will be awesome too!

I would also highly recommend this even to the non-student who wants to explore myths more in depth. It's a good jumping off point for delving into various theories of myth.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

This textbook is highly intriguing and would be extremely useful in a myth class. It contains a great section on Cambell and a number of references to pop cultural.

[Leif · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this to teach it. As such, it is useful – handy for the student especially, though mine complain of the size of the pages (and the expense of the book!).