The Encyclopedia of World Mythology

Rating:
Summary: Good in Mythology, bad in History
Review: First, it must be noted that Cotterell is the general editor, and not the single author of this volume. The book is generally very well organised, focusing on the mythology of many cultures and using rich illustration material and special boxes, where it highlights details on specific themes or gods.

These features would make it a very good book; however there is an important disadvantage which makes the book unreliable, esp. to those who are not specialists in history, mythology, or archaeology: There are serious mistakes in historical information and maps.

In one example (p.55), there is a map of "Ancient Greece, circa 400 BC". The map looks really strange, because although it includes a part of Eperus and Thrace, it shows an "artificial" funny frontier in order to exclude the area of ancient Macedonia. It is beyond any doubt today, thanks to the numerous excavations and hard archaeological evidence and reports, that the ancient Macedonians were a Greek tribe who instead of adopting the
city-state organisation, they retained monarchy, something disapproved by the democratic Greeks.

This is not an accidental mistake, as the book again on p.102, clearly names Macedonians among the Eastern European Yugoslavs, along with the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and consequently, disregards the ancient Greek Macedonian culture, by giving to it a false older slavic character. It is true that today the land of ancient Macedonians is divided among three countries: Greece, Bulgaria, and the South former Yugoslavia. In the latter, the
current slavic and albanian inhabitants tried to take advantage of the glorious Greek Macedonian past, even though they have no cultural connection to it.

It is unfortunate that a book published in 1999 has such important historical mistakes. As the board of writers consists of professors and Drs., it is difficult to believe in their
ignorance and not in intentional political purposes. But these must be left out from a book on mythology and kept for books in politics and diplomacy.

In short, this book is helpful to those with a solid background on history, folklore, archaeology, anthropology, classics, BUT will misguide the non-suspicious reader and young students.

Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Book of Myths
Review: For those who are truly enchanted by mythology, the Encyclopedia of World Mythology, generally edited by Arthur Cotteral, is the absolute must-have book. The collection of stories and amazing legends will entice you as well as inspire you to learn into the very depths of mythology. This book offers the essential element of the beliefs of every major culture. It is the ultimate guide to the diversity of people and their beliefs, with no other book yet its equal.