--- title: World Mythology description: Mythology carries the stories cultures tell about gods and origins. You will learn the Norse, Egyptian, Celtic, Mesopotamian and Indian traditions, comparative approaches and the best retellings and sources. category: humanities subcategory: religious-studies difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/norse-greek-comparative-mythology --- # World Mythology Mythology carries the stories cultures tell about gods and origins. You will learn the Norse, Egyptian, Celtic, Mesopotamian and Indian traditions, comparative approaches and the best retellings and sources. ## Available Resources 6 Books • 1 Websites ## Books ### 1. Theorizing Myth: Narrative, Ideology, and Scholarship **Author:** Bruce Lincoln This is the topic's inoculation against the pseudo-scholarship that surrounds comparative mythology. It shows exactly how Campbell's monomyth, Eliade's archetypes and Dumezil's trifunctional theory were built and what political baggage they carry, which is more valuable than adding another uncritical Campbell title. A historian of religions traces how myth became a scholarly category, from the mythos and logos split through Romantic nationalism to Dumezil, Eliade and the political uses of Indo-European comparison, arguing myth is ideology in narrative form. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0226482022?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** theory-of-myth, history-of-religions, comparative-mythology, indo-european-studies, historiography ### 2. The Mahabharata (Penguin Classics abridged translation) **Author:** John D. Smith Abridgement of the Sanskrit epic that translates the central narrative in full and summarises the remainder, keeping all eighteen books, with an introduction on the poem's composition, transmission and the Pune critical edition it follows. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140446818?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** mahabharata, sanskrit-epic, hindu-mythology, indian-literature, epic-poetry ### 3. The Mabinogion (Oxford World's Classics) **Author:** Sioned Davies The Mabinogion is the main surviving body of Celtic myth in narrative form, and this is the first new scholarly translation in thirty years, replacing Lady Guest's Victorian version that dominates free reprints. Translation of the eleven medieval Welsh tales by the Chair of Welsh at Cardiff University, rendered to preserve their oral performance rhythms, with an introduction on the manuscripts, dating, and the Celtic and Arthurian material behind them. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0199218781?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** mabinogion, welsh-mythology, celtic-mythology, medieval-literature, arthurian-legend ### 4. Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt **Author:** Geraldine Pinch Pinch's is the standard recommendation for a serious first book. Oxford reference opening with essays on sources, time and what myth meant in Egypt, followed by an alphabetical dictionary of deities, creatures and themes, each entry citing the primary texts and secondary scholarship behind it. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0195170245?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** egyptian-mythology, ancient-egypt, egyptian-religion, egyptology, deities ### 5. The Epic of Gilgamesh (Penguin Classics) **Author:** Andrew George Translation by the SOAS Professor of Babylonian presenting the standard Babylonian epic alongside the older Sumerian Gilgamesh poems, with tablet gaps marked, line numbering, and an introduction on the poem's composition and transmission. The single most-cited entry point to Mesopotamian myth and the one Assyriologists actually recommend, because it marks damaged text instead of smoothing it over the way the popular Sandars and Mitchell versions do. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140449191?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** epic-of-gilgamesh, mesopotamian-mythology, babylonian-literature, assyriology, ancient-near-east ### 6. The Poetic Edda: Expanded Second Edition **Author:** Jackson Crawford (translator) Verse translation from Old Norse of the mythological and heroic poems of the Poetic Edda, with introductions and notes. This expanded edition adds Svipdagsmal and four related poems, including Eiriksmal and Krakumal, giving readers direct access to primary Norse myth and legend. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1647922496?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** poetic-edda, eddic-poetry, norse-mythology, old-norse-translation, heroic-legend ## Websites ### 1. The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL) Oxford corpus of nearly four hundred Sumerian literary compositions in transliteration with facing English translations, including Inanna's Descent, the Enki myths and temple hymns, plus bibliography and search tools. Free access to the oldest recorded mythology on earth in scholarly transliteration and translation. Development ended in 2006. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/ **Tags:** sumerian-literature, mesopotamian-mythology, cuneiform-texts, assyriology, primary-sources ## Youtubes ### 1. Jackson Crawford's Old Norse Channel **Author:** Jackson Crawford Channel by a credentialed Old Norse philologist. Hundreds of short lectures on Old Norse grammar and pronunciation, runes, eddic poems and saga passages, regularly testing popular claims about Norse mythology and Viking history against the manuscript and runic evidence. He explicitly separates attested medieval material from modern neopagan and white-nationalist inventions - the myth-versus-evidence skill. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.youtube.com/@JacksonCrawford **Tags:** old-norse-language, norse-mythology, runes, eddic-poetry, icelandic-sagas, viking-history --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/norse-greek-comparative-mythology