PDF NEW Parallel Myths Ë J.F. Bierlein

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Read Parallel Myths 107 Mmon themes images and meanings Parallel Myths introduces us to the star players in the world's great myths not only the twelve Olympians of Greek mythology but the stern Norse Pantheon the mysterious gods of India the Egyptian Ennead and the powerful deities of Native Americans the Chinese and the various cultures of Africa and Oceania Juxtaposing the most potent stories and symbols from each tradition Bierlein explores the parallels in such key topics as creation myths flood myths tales of love. It s very interesting how mythology history and religion can be connected and have overlapsIt is said that myths are the religions that were used to be practiced

Read Parallel Myths 107 Morality myths underworld myths and visions of the Apocalypse Drawing on the work of Joseph Campbell Mircea Eliade Carl Jung Karl Jaspers Claude Lvi Strauss and others Bierlein also contemplates what myths mean how to identify and interpret the parallels in myths and how mythology has influenced twentieth century psychology philosophy anthropology and literary studiesA first class introduction to mythology Written with great clarity and sensitivity John G Selby Associate Professor Roanoke Colleg. There are a multitude of factual errors regardless of the version of myth being referred to I believe that this was not intentional as there is a blur between storytelling explanation and opinion in the presentation of the myths This blurred change of narrative ruins the flow and abruptly interrupts the feed of information becoming either distracting or misguided leading to the errorsHowever my main complaint is the lack of detail in many of the myths Certain stories such as the Greek and Biblical ones will have an abundance of information yet others such as the Americas or African stories will lack detail many are simply glossed over without any thought It comes across as lazy or misinformed but I believe it was Bierlein s choice to focus on popular myths for reader interest as he clearly has done a hefty amount of researchThis was not what I was expecting when I picked up Parallel Myths and I am disappointed I wish I could recommend this book but it may only be suitable for an introduction to mythology

review Ì eBook, PDF or Kindle ePUB × J.F. Bierlein

Read Parallel Myths 107 Unusually accessible and useful An eye opener to readers into the universality and importance of myth in human history and culture William E Paden Chair Department of Religion University of Vermont For as long as human beings have had language they have had myths Mythology is our earliest form of literary expression and the foundation of all history and morality Now in Parallel Myths classical scholar J F Bierlein gathers the key myths from all of the world's major traditions and reveals their co. I was greatly looking forward to re reading this book for a book club and I was somewhat letdown I am a bit of a student of mythology so I was uite excited to find a book that purported to draw on the work of Joseph Campbell CG Jung and Mircea Eliade I found this book useful as a broad survey of censored myths It is an easy and enjoyable read I was disturbed by some of the sloppiness Just starting the book I soon found some embarrassing errors Page 6MARS the Mars bar was not directly named for the Roman god The Mars Bar was first created in 1936 and has become an instantly recognisable worldwide brand However in the United States it is known as Milky Way In the US the Mars name was used until 2000 for a different bar now known as Snickers Almond The worldwide Milky Way bar is known as 3 Musketeers in Canada and the US there is no longer a Mars Bar on the US market Further it was named in 1936 Mars had been a hot topic since the publication of HG Wells War of the Worlds in 1898 The reddish interior of the bar sort of resembles the planet Mars the flavour being out of this world Sources wwwspiritus temporiscom wwwmarscomLondon The name Londinium is thought to be pre Roman and possibly pre Celtic in origin although there has been no consensus on what it means It was common practice for Romans to adopt native names for new settlements A common theory is that the name derives from a hypothetical Celtic place name Londinion which may have been derived from the personal name Londinos from the word lond meaning wild The Celts themselves did not call it Londinium or any name attributed to Lugh unlike Lyons in France enwikipediaorgwikiEtymologyofLoJupiter Though similar to the Greece God Zeus through the eventual assimilation of Greek gods by the Romans They are uite different see wwwnowpubliccomculturezeus or jup point could be argued as a splitting hairs piecePage 11 the Egyptian year consisted of 13 lunar months of 30 days each or 360 days Actually 13 lunar months 30 days are 390 days 12 months of 30 days is 360 days 13 lunar months 28 days is 364 daysPage 71Apsu is described as the sky god No An or Anu was the sky god Apsu was the creature representing the freshwater abyss And the list on errors unfortunately goes on One could say that the informationresearch was not available in the 1990 to catch these errors Unfortunately most of the data I uote was around since the 1980 s This is a shame because this ambitious undertaking and useful comparison is marred by this careless an error that makes one unsure of what can be trustedI would get a proof reader an independent researcher to revisit the book and re release it with better footnotes uncensored myths or admit they are tone down for wider reading andor general acceptance readdress the compound errors of using Graves Frazer as cornerstones in the beginning formulation of his premise actually his lack of original content throughout this book as he large portions of the book are cut and paste from Mircea Eliade CG Jung and Joseph Campbell and add a few voices to the discussionOne merit he includes information on Indian Hawaiian Aztec Iranian African Finnish Chinese Japanese Polynesian and North American myths If you have an interest in these less studied myths then this book would be a strong starting point As for myself I feel that these myths have less an impact on our general culture and psychology though are extremely relevant to global consciousness and the Neo Pagan Movement So this book has its strengths though it is uite weak both faith thought wise It could be a good general interest book for particular people who want no depth I wouldn t call it an invaluable text but as a high school text or as a very broad introduction to a non scholar I think it would decent starter book