World Mythology: Gods, Heroes, Monsters, and Legends from Around the

Gods, heroes, monsters, and the oldest questions humanity ever asked - told through 50 stories from every corner of the world.Long before written history, every culture arrived independently at the same fundamental questions: where did the world come from, what happens after death, and what forces move behind the visible world. World Mythology gathers fifty of the answers they found - spanning every inhabited continent and thousands of years of storytelling, deliberately reaching well beyond the Greek and Roman myths most collections default to.Inside, you'll find: - Gods & Goddesses - Zeus, Odin, Ra, Amaterasu, Quetzalcoatl, Shiva, Anansi, and four more divine figures who shaped how ancient cultures understood the world- Legendary Heroes - Hercules, Gilgamesh, Sun Wukong, Cú Chulainn, Beowulf, Rama, Māui, and three more mortals whose trials became models for courage- Monsters & Creatures - Medusa, Fenrir, the Minotaur, the Kraken, Yamata no Orochi, and five more beings that gave shape to humanity's oldest fears- Creation Myths - ten genuinely different accounts of how the world began, from Norse fire and ice to the Maya Popol Vuh to Aboriginal Australia's Dreamtime- The Underworld & Afterlife - ten distinct visions of what comes after death, from Egyptian Duat to the Norse Valhalla to the Celtic OtherworldEvery entry combines a clear account of the myth itself with genuine cultural context - where it originated, how it shaped later art and language, and why it still echoes through the modern world. A "Did You Know?" feature accompanies every entry, and original illustrated artwork brings the book's most iconic stories to life throughout.This is a reference to return to again and again - read cover to cover, or open to any page and fall into humanity's oldest library.This book presents original summaries and retellings of traditional myths and legends drawn from the public domain. It does not reproduce or closely paraphrase any specific modern author's translation or retelling.