Don't Know Much About(r) Mythology: Everything You Need to Know about the Greatest Stories in Human History But Never Learned

by Kenneth C. Davis

Book Overview

What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on the U. S. dollar bill?
Did a pharaoh inspire Moses to worship one God?
What's a Canaanite demoness doing at a rock concert?

Since the beginning of time, people have been insatiably curious. They've asked questions about where we come from, why the stars shine and the seasons change, and what constitutes evil. The imaginative answers crafted by our ancestors have served as religion, science, philosophy,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060932570
• ISBN13: 9780060932572
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Length: 560 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Don't Know Much About Mythology

Excellent starting point for serious research on ancient cultures. Could be used by high school students or undergraduates.

Quick and entertaining and readable intro to mythology

As an ex-physics geek, I didn't have any appreciation for the required courses I had to take as a high-school/college student. My knowledge of mythology was limited to the Mummy movies, Thor comic books, and Harryhausen stop-motion Greek mythology movies. Today I have a much greater appreciation of history, and part of understanding history includes cultures and their associated mythologies. This book is a great introduction to some of the myths, including creation myths, gods/goddesses, and their associated stories. It's a quick read, and while you won't be able to teach college level courses after reading this book, you have some understanding of other people's beliefs, which can be important in this increasingly integrated world, where some of the people you work with and/or for may be from a culture different than yours.

Sufficient knowledge for most

This book is a good value for its cost. It covers myths from all parts of the world and It is good both for reading from cover to cover and for infrequent browsing. In about 500 pages, myths are told only in a concise manner, and are discussed briefly from several aspects by asking questions and providing some more details within answers. It gives general information about the time period and place the myths are born, main characters and some events. All in all it is enough knowledge for most people and considering its cost it is a good value for the money paid.

Take Your Myths Everywhere

A great book to take on trips.Very entertaining, educative and light. Better than carrying my Encyclopedia of World Mythology.A must have, specially if you have teens.

An informative, concise, and delightful introduction to mythic literature

HarperCollins's Don't Know Much About series is the slightly more attractive younger sibling of Alpha Book's Idiot's Guide series. If Alpha's famous orange-and-white dressed reference books have spawned a whole new generation of readers whose quest for a maximum amount of facts are sated by prose any "idiot" could read, the Don't Know Much About series offers the same promise with a bit more elegance and charm. The text for DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT MYTHOLOGY is provided by Kenneth C. Davis, a journalist and National Public Radio commentator whose encyclopedic knowledge of world history and culture enables him to construct prose that is as breezy as it is informative, as witty as it is delightful. He has an impressive ability to synthesize great quantities of texts and facts into a concise and coherent digest that, well, just about any idiot can read. Organized into nine chapters that explore first the earliest civilizations in Egypt and Mesopotamia, then the later civilizations of Greece, Northern Europe, the Far East and the African continent, and finally the Americas, DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT MYTHOLOGY follows the same sequence that countless mythology texts have used before. And like those texts, the bulk of Davis's book is comprised of well-written prose paraphrases of ancient literatures. In terms of form and function, it doesn't break any new ground; instead, it offers another alternative to speedy referencing. Bracketing each chapter are lists that frame important events in a sequential time table called "Mythic Milestones." When read side by side, they constitute a concise timeline of world history. Of perhaps more pedagogical interest are a series of "key questions" that introduce each new section. While I personally found such canned questions inane, others might refer young readers to them as a way of guiding their experience with the material. If there is little doubt of this book's usefulness --- you may want, for example, to spot-check a classical reference as you work your way through Pope's DUNCIAD --- I wonder about the sheer volume of books about mythology on the market these days. Whereas Davis's crystal-clear prose is proof of his years of reading primary texts in the field, the average reader of his text may never go any further than here. Naturally, Davis is aware of the importance of the original sources in the myths he retells. This is why so many of his summaries are accompanied by brief passages from primary source material. This, however, is not enough, nor is it the concern of the Don't Know Much About series. As a teacher of comparative mythology at the college level, I am aware that students would benefit from reading Davis's summaries as a prelude to reading the original epics, hymns, chants, prayers, and folktales from which such stories come. But how many are reading about the myths beyond this point? How many, for example, have accessed a respectable verse translation of THE ILIAD in order to capture the pitch, as