Myths of the World

Padraic Colum; Illustrated by Boris Artzybasheff

Price:	£12.99
Publication Date:	25 Apr 2002
Availability:	Available to buy

A treasure-house of stories from ancient myth and legend told by one of Ireland’s greatest storytellers.

In this classical collection of tales from the ancient world are found all the legendary heroic and tragic figures of the time: Isis, Osiris, Gilgamesh, Hercules, and Pandora, to name just a few. These stories, once sacred, even now have a deep human significance, and are written in a language that recalls the rhythm and melody of traditional storytelling.

Showing the close relation between their past cultures, Padraic Colum includes stories from ancient Egypt and Babylon, Greece and Rome, Ireland and Iceland, China and Japan, New Zealand, Mexico and Peru.

Reviews

'The interest of this book lies in its scope and in the engaging way in which the myths are recounted. Suitable for bedtime reading either to yourself or your children.'
-- Scientific and Medical Network Review

About the Author(s)

Padraic Colum was born in Longford, Ireland in 1881 and typifies the best of the Irish literary renaissance of the early twentieth century. His books for children have meant good reading to several generations and are as welcome today as they were when first published. He was awarded the Regina Medal by the Catholic Literary Association in 1961 for his contribution to children's literature. He died in 1972.

Table of Contents

Egypyian:
Osiris and Iris
Ra, his Going-Down and Uprising

Babylonian:
In the Beginning
Gilgamesh
The Story of Utnapishtim and of the Deluge the Destroyed All that was on the Earth
Ishtar's Descent into the World Below

Persian:
Jemshid the Resplendent

Jewist post-Christian Period:
The Angels and the Creation and Fall of Man
The Confounding of the Angel of Death

Greece:
In the Beginning
Prometheus
Pandora
Demeter
Orpheus
Dionysos
Apollo
Herakles

Roman:
The Children of Mars
Numa the Law-Giver
The Sibyl
Pomona and Vertumnus

Greco-Roman:
Cupid and Psyche

Celtic:
Irish: Midir and Etain
The Death of Conaire Mor, the king of Ireland
Welsh: Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed and his Visit to Annwn, the Realm of Faerie
Math, the Son of Mathonwy

Finnish:
Lemminkain, his Destruction and his Restoration to Life

Icelandic:
In the Beginning
The Building of the wall
Mimir
Balder
Loki's Punishment
The Children of Loki
Ragnarok, the Fate of the Gods

Indian:
Vedic: The Heavenly Nymph and her Mortal Husband
Epic: The Churning of the Ocean
The Birth of the Ganges
Savitri and the Lord of Death
Damayanti's Choice
Buddhist: Gotama's Attainment

Chinese:
In the beginning
The Weaver Maiden and the Herdsman

Japanese:
The Sun Goddess and the Storm God and the Strife there was Between them
The First People

Polynesian:
In the Beginning
Maui the Fire Bringer
How Maui Strove to Win Immortality for All Creatures
Pele, Hawaii's Goddess of Volcanic Fire

Peruvian:
Viracocha
The Llama-herder and the Virgin of the Sun

Central American and Mexican:
In the Beginning
The Twin Heroes and the lords of Xibalba
Quetzalcoatl
Quetzalcoatl's Enemy
The Gods of the Aztecs
The Azrtecs

Zuni:
Paiyatuma and the Maidens of the Corn

Useful Things to Know

Also available by the same author:
The King of Ireland's Son