Books with title A Book of Myths

First published in 1914, Jean Lang’s A Book of Myths is a foundational work of modern anthropology covering in breathless style a pantheon of Western mythological figures, ranging from ancient Greece to medieval Scandinavia. In a relaxed, easily readable style, Lang re-tells the big familiar stories and several lesser-known ones. A look at the diverse chapter heading reveals the breadth of subjects covered: Prometheus and Pandora, Pygmalion, Phaeton, Endymion, Orpheus, Apollo and Daphne, Psyche, The Calydonian Hunt, Atalanta, Arachne, Idas and Marpessa, Arethusa, Perseus the Hero, Niobe, Hyacinthus, King Midas of the Golden Touch, Ceyx and Halcyone, Aristaeus the Bee-keeper, Proserpine, Latona and the Rustics, Echo and Narcissus, Icarus, Clytie, The Cranes of Ibycus, Syrinx, The death of Adonis, Pan, Lorelei, Freya, Queen of the Northern Gods, The Death of Baldur, Beowulf, Roland the Paladin, The Children of lîr, Deirdrê. This new digital edition of A Book of Myths includes an image gallery.

First published in 1914, Jean Lang’s A Book of Myths is a foundational work of modern anthropology covering in breathless style a pantheon of Western mythological figures, ranging from ancient Greece to medieval Scandinavia. In a relaxed, easily readable style, Lang re-tells the big familiar stories and several lesser-known ones. A look at the diverse chapter heading reveals the breadth of subjects covered: Prometheus and Pandora, Pygmalion, Phaeton, Endymion, Orpheus, Apollo and Daphne, Psyche, The Calydonian Hunt, Atalanta, Arachne, Idas and Marpessa, Arethusa, Perseus the Hero, Niobe, Hyacinthus, King Midas of the Golden Touch, Ceyx and Halcyone, Aristaeus the Bee-keeper, Proserpine, Latona and the Rustics, Echo and Narcissus, Icarus, Clytie, The Cranes of Ibycus, Syrinx, The death of Adonis, Pan, Lorelei, Freya, Queen of the Northern Gods, The Death of Baldur, Beowulf, Roland the Paladin, The Children of lîr, Deirdrê. This new digital edition of A Book of Myths includes an image gallery.

First published in 1914, Jean Lang’s A Book of Myths is a foundational work of modern anthropology covering in breathless style a pantheon of Western mythological figures, ranging from ancient Greece to medieval Scandinavia. In a relaxed, easily readable style, Lang re-tells the big familiar stories and several lesser-known ones. A look at the diverse chapter heading reveals the breadth of subjects covered: Prometheus and Pandora, Pygmalion, Phaeton, Endymion, Orpheus, Apollo and Daphne, Psyche, The Calydonian Hunt, Atalanta, Arachne, Idas and Marpessa, Arethusa, Perseus the Hero, Niobe, Hyacinthus, King Midas of the Golden Touch, Ceyx and Halcyone, Aristaeus the Bee-keeper, Proserpine, Latona and the Rustics, Echo and Narcissus, Icarus, Clytie, The Cranes of Ibycus, Syrinx, The death of Adonis, Pan, Lorelei, Freya, Queen of the Northern Gods, The Death of Baldur, Beowulf, Roland the Paladin, The Children of lîr, Deirdrê. This new digital edition of A Book of Myths includes an image gallery.

First published in 1914, Jean Lang’s A Book of Myths is a foundational work of modern anthropology covering in breathless style a pantheon of Western mythological figures, ranging from ancient Greece to medieval Scandinavia. In a relaxed, easily readable style, Lang re-tells the big familiar stories and several lesser-known ones. A look at the diverse chapter heading reveals the breadth of subjects covered: Prometheus and Pandora, Pygmalion, Phaeton, Endymion, Orpheus, Apollo and Daphne, Psyche, The Calydonian Hunt, Atalanta, Arachne, Idas and Marpessa, Arethusa, Perseus the Hero, Niobe, Hyacinthus, King Midas of the Golden Touch, Ceyx and Halcyone, Aristaeus the Bee-keeper, Proserpine, Latona and the Rustics, Echo and Narcissus, Icarus, Clytie, The Cranes of Ibycus, Syrinx, The death of Adonis, Pan, Lorelei, Freya, Queen of the Northern Gods, The Death of Baldur, Beowulf, Roland the Paladin, The Children of lîr, Deirdrê. This new digital edition of A Book of Myths includes an image gallery.

A BOOK OF MYTHS BY JEAN LANG(illustrated) complete edition with classic and old vintage illustrationsPREFACEJust as a little child holds out its hands to catch the sunbeams, to feel and to grasp what, so its eyes tell it, is actually there, so, down through the ages, men have stretched out their hands in eager endeavour to know their God. And because only through the human was the divine knowable, the old peoples of the earth made gods of their heroes and not unfrequently endowed these gods with as many of the vices as of the virtues of their worshippers. As we read the myths of the East and the West we find ever the same story. That portion of the ancient Aryan race which poured from the central plain of Asia, through the rocky defiles of what we now call “The Frontier,” to populate the fertile lowlands of India, had gods who must once have been wholly heroic, but who came in time to be more degraded than the most vicious of lustful criminals. And the Greeks, Latins, Teutons, Celts, and Slavonians, who came of the same mighty Aryan stock, did even as those with whom they owned a common ancestry. Originally they gave to their gods of their best. All that was noblest in them, all that was strongest and most selfless, all the higher instincts of their natures were their endowment. And although their worship in time became corrupt and lost its beauty, there yet remains for us, in the old tales of the gods, a wonderful humanity that strikes a vibrant chord in the hearts of those who are the descendants of their worshippers. For though creeds and forms may change, human nature never changes. We are less simple than our fathers: that is all. And, as Professor York Powell most truly says: “It is not in a man’s creed, but in his deeds; not in his knowledge, but in his sympathy, that there lies the essence of what is good and of what will last in human life.”The most usual habits of mind in our own day are the theoretical and analytical habits. Dissection, vivisection, analysis—those are the processes to which all things not conclusively historical and all things spiritual are bound to pass. Thus we find the old myths classified into Sun Myths and Dawn Myths, Earth Myths and Moon Myths, Fire Myths and Wind Myths, until, as one of the most sane and vigorous thinkers of the present day has justly observed: “If you take the rhyme of Mary and her little lamb, and call Mary the sun and the lamb the moon, you will achieve astonishing results, both in religion and astronomy, when you find that the lamb followed Mary to school one day.”

This compelling collection of ancient Greek and Scandinavian myths features many of the most famous and celebrated tales of antiquity. Within this book are timeless stories from Ancient Greece such as Icarus, the young man whose infamous flight became a cautionary tale on folly and the heeding of advice, and Orpheus, the fabled musician whose wife Euridice encounters great peril. Adventure stories, such as The Caledonian Hunt, bring stunning displays of action while the exploits of ancient and Godly heroes such as Perseus and his winged horse relay the elemental power with which the ancient Gods were attributed. Later in the text we find several representative examples of Nordic myth - the valiant story of Roland the Paladin and Freya, the formidable Queen of the Northern Gods are told. The epic story of Beowulf is rendered here in prose form, and all allude to the furious capacities of the Nordic Gods. Compiled and authored by Greek historian and scholar Jeanie Lang, the accounts within this text combine superb research with strong readability, with the freshness and originality of each story easy to behold and enjoy whether you be a student of the classics or a general enthusiast for enduring ancient mythology.

Jean Lang’s A Book of Myths is a foundational work of modern anthropology covering in breathless style a pantheon of Western mythological figures, ranging from ancient Greece to medieval Scandinavia. In a relaxed, easily readable style, Lang re-tells the big familiar stories and several lesser-known ones. A look at the diverse chapter heading reveals the breadth of subjects covered:Prometheus and Pandora, Pygmalion, Phaeton, Endymion, Orpheus, Apollo and Daphne, Psyche, The Calydonian Hunt, Atalanta, Arachne, Idas and Marpessa, Arethusa, Perseus the Hero, Niobe, Hyacinthus, King Midas of the Golden Touch, Ceyx and Halcyone, Aristaeus the Bee-keeper, Proserpine, Latona and the Rustics, Echo and Narcissus, Icarus, Clytie, The Cranes of Ibycus, Syrinx, The death of Adonis, Pan, Lorelei, Freya, Queen of the Northern Gods, The Death of Baldur, Beowulf, Roland the Paladin, The Children of lîr, Deirdrê.

Just as a little child holds out its hands to catch the sunbeams, to feel and to grasp what, so its eyes tell it, is actually there, so, down through the ages, men have stretched out their hands in eager endeavour to know their God. And because only through the human was the divine knowable, the old peoples of the earth made gods of their heroes and not unfrequently endowed these gods with as many of the vices as of the virtues of their worshippers. As we read the myths of the East and the West we find ever the same story. That portion of the ancient Aryan race which poured from the central plain of Asia, through the rocky defiles of what we now call “The Frontier,” to populate the fertile lowlands of India, had gods who must once have been wholly heroic, but who came in time to be more degraded than the most vicious of lustful criminals. And the Greeks, Latins, Teutons, Celts, and Slavonians, who came of the same mighty Aryan stock, did even as those with whom they owned a common ancestry. Originally they gave to their gods of their best. All that was noblest in them, all that was strongest and most selfless, all the higher instincts of their natures were their endowment. And although their worship in time became corrupt and lost its beauty, there yet remains for us, in the old tales of the gods, a wonderful humanity that strikes a vibrant chord in the hearts of those who are the descendants of their worshippers. For though creeds and forms may change, human nature never changes. We are less simple than our fathers: that is all. And, as Professor York Powell[1] most truly says: “It is not in a man’s creed, but in his deeds; not in his knowledge, but in his sympathy, that there lies the essence of what is good and of what will last in human life.”

First published in 1914, Jean Lang’s A Book of Myths is a foundational work of modern anthropology covering in breathless style a pantheon of Western mythological figures, ranging from ancient Greece to medieval Scandinavia. In a relaxed, easily readable style, Lang re-tells the big familiar stories and several lesser-known ones. A look at the diverse chapter heading reveals the breadth of subjects covered: Prometheus and Pandora, Pygmalion, Phaeton, Endymion, Orpheus, Apollo and Daphne, Psyche, The Calydonian Hunt, Atalanta, Arachne, Idas and Marpessa, Arethusa, Perseus the Hero, Niobe, Hyacinthus, King Midas of the Golden Touch, Ceyx and Halcyone, Aristaeus the Bee-keeper, Proserpine, Latona and the Rustics, Echo and Narcissus, Icarus, Clytie, The Cranes of Ibycus, Syrinx, The death of Adonis, Pan, Lorelei, Freya, Queen of the Northern Gods, The Death of Baldur, Beowulf, Roland the Paladin, The Children of lîr, Deirdrê.

"Within this book are timeless stories from Ancient Greece such as Icarus, the young man whose infamous flight became a cautionary tale on folly and the heeding of advice, and Orpheus, the fabled musician whose wife Euridice encounters great peril. Adventure stories, such as The Caledonian Hunt, bring stunning displays of action while the exploits of ancient and Godly heroes such as Perseus and his winged horse relay the elemental power with which the ancient Gods were attributed. Later in the text we find several representative examples of Nordic myth - the valiant story of Roland the Paladin and Freya, the formidable Queen of the Northern Gods are told. The epic story of Beowulf is rendered here in prose form, and all allude to the furious capacities of the Nordic Gods. Compiled and authored by Greek historian and scholar Jeanie Lang, the accounts within this text combine superb research with strong readability, with the freshness and originality of each story easy to behold and enjoy whether you be a student of the classics or a general enthusiast for enduring ancient mythology."

Just as a little child holds out its hands to catch the sunbeams, to feel and to grasp what, so its eyes tell it, is actually there, so, down through the ages, men have stretched out their hands in eager endeavor to know their God. And because only through the human was the divine knowable, the old peoples of the earth made gods of their heroes and not infrequently endowed these gods with as many of the vices as of the virtues of their worshipers.