The Cambridge World History of Mythology and Mythography: Volume 1

The Cambridge History of Mythology and Mythography offers a comprehensive overview of the history, theory, and practice of mythic analysis. From antiquity to the present day, and from the Americas to Africa, Eurasia, and Oceania, it demonstrates how mythic traditions have played a seminal role in a variety of cultures and civilizations. It also traces the origins and earliest expression of various mythic traditions, their similarities and differences, mutual influences, and their evolution. In addition, this History explores the key roles that literary figures, oral traditionalists, ethnologists, and cinematographers have played in collecting, cataloguing, interpreting, and reinterpreting the mythic traditions. It demonstrates how their work has influenced the transmission and perception of those traditions and enables an appreciation of the similarities and differences between mythological traditions. This comprehensive reference volume also brings an inter- and multi-disciplinary perspective to the topic, revealing how the interaction of various approaches contributes to the study of mythology across the world.