Don’t Know Much About Mythology by Kenneth C. Davis provides a broad survey of ancient mythology spanning the globe. Coverage is heaviest, as expected, on the eastern mythology including the Egyptian, Roman, Greek, Mesopotamian, Celtic, and Norse cultures. The last third of the book covers the lesser known myths of India, China, Japan, Southern Africa, Native Americans (North and South), and the Pacific Islands.
This text does an excellent job of comparing and contrasting similar myths of different cultures. This can make the book at bit confusing and repetitive as Greek myths will be discussed in the Egyptian section and then may be repeated again in the Greek section. For example, stories about flooding are pervasive across many ancient civilizations and by comparing them we can get a sense all of these myths may be derived from one historic event.
Many of the myths and historic events are also related to their pop culture representations such as the movies Troy, The Ten Commandments, and Poltergeist. If you are frequent reader or viewer of Fantasy and Science Fiction you will discover the myths that influenced and inspired many of your favorite stories.
Some of the reviews I read before purchasing this book did have some notes about small errors in specific myths. I’m not a scholar in this area, so I don’t know if they are right or wrong, but really I don’t think anyone can be 100 percent correct when it comes to mythology.
I think anyone interested in writing Fantasy and Science Fiction should check this book out because it will not only give you lots of ideas for story themes but will also help you with world building.
On a personal note, I purchased the audio version of this book because I have a hard time pronouncing unfamiliar words. Hearing the unfamiliar names and places really helped me appreciate and enjoy the myths. I really wish I had heard this before reading Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.
