Oxford Companion to World Mythology

This book is formatted as a dictionary of mythology and is very helpful for those of us who need a reference to a textual note from time to time. It's a value for anyone reading, for example, such works as Ezra Pound's Cantos. Anyone reading a work of literature that references religious and mythological imagery will benefit from this book. It's true that you can easily gather such information on references through the internet, but rather than wading through a lot of (sometimes unreliable) information, one can easily traverse this book and know that the information is accurate.

Nothing that will make your heart pound, but its a good reference for world mythology.

Awesome book!!!! This book is a definite must have if you are into Mythology whether it is for school or personal studies. Lots of useful information between the pages of his book.

What a wonderful resource for those who seek an encyclopedic knowledge of world mythos. This is superb for high school students and undergraduates as an addition to a literature collection. An excellent volume for a fair price.

Difficult to use as a text book without an index

This is a very complete book and very helpful for the mythology class I teach.

Excellent book for those needing information regarding mythology.

Ive always wanted a book like this one. It has everything I could ask for and more. Im glad I finally found it!Thanks

This is a very useful and informative reference guide introducing themes, characters and places in the mythologies of world culture. Of course, any book of this size can't claim to be comprehensive, but Leeming makes a good try of not sticking to the Western lore that it could have been so easy to focus on - the Greco-Roman, Egyptian, Norse and Celtic are all in attendance, but so are stories and characters from the Americas, Africa and both the near and far East. The division between ancient and comparatively recent myth and legend are in attendance - there's a healthy regard to various modern faiths, from the Abrahamic religions to Buddhism, Taoism and Vodoun. There are also entries on major academic discourses about mythology (such as the works of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell), providing a decent list of further reading for those interested in theories about what myth is, where it comes from and how it all links together.Essentially an encyclopaedia, the OCWM contains short entries and is furnished with a great selection of photographs of mythic objects, as well as other artistic depictions of the legendary. The entries themselves generally do a good job of providing a great deal of information concisely, although sometimes a little more detail would be useful.All in all, this was a really great reference for my purposes - delving into various world myths as an amateur. It only gets four stars because it could be a little more comprehensive, but it is definitely worth picking up if, like me, you're a mythology buff.

I think the key word in the title is 'companion'. If you have extensive knowledge about an area, the sections in the book are likely to feel sparse. However when looking up lesser known subjects the entries were concise and insightful. The book also includes a couple of longer essays; I particularly enjoyed the one on New Mythologies.

I enjoyed reading this and so glad it covers more than the over discussed topic of Greek mythology. It also provides some pictures and is a good read. Good book to have specially to start of in any research you may wish to carry out.

great product as described, great service, fast delivery. would recommend highly A+++

It's a good reference book to have.