Zachary Hamby - World Mythology for Beginners: 50 Timeless Tales from Around the Globe

Copyright 2021 by Rockridge Press, Emeryville, California

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Interior and Designer: Heather Krakora
Art Producer: Tom Hood
Editor: Mo Mozuch
Production Editor: Andrew Yackira
Production Manager: Martin Worthington

Illustrations Kailey Whitman, 2021
courtesy Rachel Hamby

ISBN: Print 978-1-64876-399-1
eBook 978-1-64876-479-0

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For my studentspast, present, and future.

Its with my unknowing that I come to the myths. If I came to them knowing, I would have nothing to learn.

P. L. TRAVERS

CONTENTS

Part One
ANCIENT GREECE

Part Two
ANCIENT ROME

Part Three
THE MIDDLE EAST

Part Four
ASIA

Part Five
EUROPE

Part Six
AFRICA

Part Seven
MESOAMERICA AND SOUTH AMERICA

Part Eight
AMERICAN INDIAN

Part Nine
AUSTRALIA AND OCEANIA

Y ou might say it all started with Anansi. I grew up in a house full of bookswall-to-wall storiesbut it was the brightly illustrated storybook of Anansi and the Sky-Gods Stories that first introduced me to the world of myth. The storys central figure, Anansi, a trickster who is both spider and man, risks his life to climb into the heavens and ask the Sky-God, a towering, intimidating deity, to share his unlimited supply of stories with the humans below. This story intrigued me for a couple of reasons. First, a world without stories seemed so strange, sad, and empty. Humans had little to give them joylittle to show them a way out when it seemed that there was none. Secondly, Anansi had it right. Stories are all-important. They mean the difference between light and darkness, hope and despair. Stories are as vital now as they were thousands of years ago.

The West African myth of Anansi is just a single thread in a vibrant tapestry of myths that covers the entire world. Myths are stories. Myths explain. Myths clarify, experiment, and comfort. Myths transport. The English word myth comes from the Greek word mythos, meaning story of the people, and no explanation could be better. Every people, tribe, clan, and society has developed its own stories that encapsulate who they are and what they believe. Mythology is the study of mythsand indirectly the study of the people and cultures behind them. For more than fifteen years, I have taught mythology to high school students, and it has grown from an interest into a passion. I teach mythology not only for academic purposesalthough there is much to learn from mythsbut also for the genuine joy that it brings my students. I imagine myself as Anansi (if I may be so bold), bringing stories to those who would otherwise miss them in hopes of making their lives a bit richer. Now I have the opportunity to do the same for you.

As you read, allow yourself to be drawn into the world of myth. Once you arrive there, remember to look for reflections of the world you have left behind. If the myths do their job, which they almost always do, you will return with the ability to see the real world with fresh eyes.

W HAT I S M YTHOLOGY ?

Mythology is the study of myth, and myths are the stories of a particular peoplestories told by firelight on a winter night, stories recited on the eve of a great battle, stories whispered over the grave of a loved one. Myths are more than stories, too. They are expressions of the people who created thempeople who are surprisingly similar to you and me. Myths reach across time and across cultures to reassure us that we are not alone.

A story of the people is what the term myth originally meant, yet over the centuries myth has come to mean falsehood. For this change of meaning, we can blame the ancient Greeksironically, the same people who gave us some of the worlds most treasured myths. When the Greek writer Herodotus invented the new discipline of history, he began to distinguish between myth (a story) and logos (the word of truth), disdaining the former as unworthy of study. Soon myth came to mean a sheer fabrication lacking any semblance of truth whatsoeveran unfair accusation to say the least. After all, a myth stripped of its literal truth still reflects the reality of human experience. Myths mirror human hopes, dreams, and fears. Through symbol and metaphor, myths present an image of the real worldwith all its contradictions, terrors, and wonders. Just as an impressionist painter omits mundane details in favor of creating a stronger response, myths can lend new clarity to the realities of life.

Myths have never been set in stone. Today, you can often find multiple versions of a single myth, usually with contradictory details. This is because for thousands of years, myths spread only through oral storytelling; although the myths messages usually remained the same, the details changed freely. With each telling, storytellers adapted and adjusted the talessometimes intentionally and sometimes notresulting in many variants of the same story. When literacy finally arrived, writers recorded these spoken myths, solidifying what had been fluid for generations. What myths lost in adaptability, they gained in proliferation. Oral myths remained limited to the storytellers sphere of influence, but literary myths could travel independent of their tellers and reach a much wider, more diverse audience. For some myths, such as those of the Greeks, this oral-to-written transformation happened nearly 2,800 years ago. For others, it is a more recent transition, occurring only in the last century. While myths with a longer literary tradition will most likely be the most familiar to you, there is still much to learn from myths that are latecomers to literacy.