Among those you'll investigate are the accounts of the creation of the world in Hesiod's Theogony and Ovid's Metamorphoses; the gods Zeus, Apollo, Demeter, Persephone, Hermes, Dionysos, and Aphrodite; the Greek heroes, Theseus and Heracles (Hercules in the Roman version); and the most famous of all classical myths, the Trojan War.Professor Vandiver anchors her presentation in some basics. What is a myth? Which societies use myths? What are some of the problems inherent in studying classical mythology? She also discusses the most influential 19th- and 20th-century thinking about myth's nature and function, including the psychological theories of Freud and Jung and the metaphysical approach of Joseph Campbell. You'll also consider the relationship between mythology and culture (such as the implications of the myth of Demeter, Persephone, and Hades for the Greek view of life, death, and marriage), the origins of classical mythology (including the similarities between the Theogony and Mesopotamian creation myths), and the dangers of probing for distant origins (for example, there's little evidence that a prehistoric "mother goddess" lies at the heart of mythology).Taking you from the surprising "truths" about the Minotaur to Ovid's impact on the works of William Shakespeare, these lectures make classical mythology fresh, absorbing, and often surprising.Disclaimer: Please note that this recording may include references to supplemental texts or print references that are not essential to the program and not supplied with your purchase.©2000 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2000 The Great Courses

    This Special Issue describes the events of the tenth canto which narrates the life of the most beloved god in Hindu mythology - Krishna. Beginning with the miraculous birth of Krishna, the story traces his childhood exploits, including the slaying of dangerous demons and the performing of miraculous acts. The comic also describes Krishna’s battle with Kamsa as he retrieves the kingdom of Mathura for his aging grandfather, Ugrasena. In the Bhagawat, Krishna is seen as a son, brother, husband, friend and warrior.

    These plays have attracted focus and reflection from Aristotle, Freud, Nietzsche, and others who Professor Vandiver observes early in the course: "It is a notable paradox that Greek tragedy, a dramatic form that flourished for less than a full century, a dramatic form that began in a particular religious festival of a particular god some 2,500 years ago, remains vibrant, alive, and productive today. "It seems that there is something about tragedy that lifts it out of its particular circumstances and beyond its particular gods, social issues, and political concerns to give a kind of universality that is, in the last analysis, very surprising." The great tragedies shed light on the extraordinary time, place, and people that produced them. And they may help us-as perhaps they helped their original audiences-to grasp a fuller sense of both the terror and wonder that life presents. A Rounded View of a Grand Art Form Professor Vandiver has designed these lectures to give you a full overview of Greek tragedy, both in its original setting and as a lasting contribution to the artistic exploration of the human condition. There are three main points to the course: First: The Plays in Their Context. You learn to see Greek tragedy as a genre in its cultural context. Why did this powerful art form flower in the Athens of Pericles and the Peloponnesian War? What is tragedy's deeper historical background? Did it grow out of rituals honoring the god Dionysus, as is so often said? What role did it play in Athenian civic and religious life? How was it related to earlier performance traditions such as bardic recitation? How did Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides each make unique contributions to tragedy's expressive power? Second: The Plays on the Stage. Too often, the surviving tragedies are seen purely as texts to be read, rather than as scripts to be played. Hence the second aim of Dr. Vandiver's course is to teach what scholarship can reveal about the performance of tragedy, including its physical and ritual settings, actors and acting methods, conventions of staging and stagecraft, and even how productions were financed. Third: The Plays in Rich Detail. Third, you explore with Professor Vandiver a broad group of tragedies in close detail. In particular, you will ask how individual tragedies use traditional myths (often tales from the Trojan War), and what Aeschylus, Sophocles, or Euripides intended to accomplish by changing or adding to the basic story. You examine what certain tragedies imply about the world of 5th-century Athens, and the importance, in turn, of the cultural background for explaining those tragedies. Surveying Key Scholars and Critics While Professor Vandiver frequently refers to modern critical approaches and theories to help illuminate the tragedies, she has chosen not to adopt any one theory as a framework for the lectures. Accordingly, you will find that she carefully and fairly discusses a number of views of tragedy, including those of Aristotle, Nietzsche, Freud, the Cambridge Ritualists, and even Aristophanes, who included the tragic stage in his wide-ranging satires of Athenian institutions, mores, and personalities. Three for the Ages Perhaps one of the most intriguing opportunities this course offers, even if you are a seasoned lover of literature and the classics, is the chance to compare and contrast the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Aeschylus (525-455 B.C.) Lectures 5 through 9 focus on Aeschylus, the eldest of the three. The plays and themes discussed include The Oresteia (a trilogy about the accursed House of Atreus in the aftermath of the Trojan War, it includes Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, and Eumenides), as well as the earlier plays Persians, Suppliant Maidens, and Seven Against Thebes. Sophocles (496-406 B.C.) Lectures 11 through 14 and 22 are devoted to Sophocles. He is well known for creating heroes such as Oedipus, Ajax, and Philoctetes, who are characterized by intense isolation. In his Poetics, Aristotle credits Sophocles with introducing the third actor (not counting the chorus) and the use of scenery. Euripides (484-406 B.C.) Lectures 15 through 21 concentrate on Euripides. The most overtly political and least traditional of the three, he wrote plays featuring an especially vivid array of strong, disturbing female characters, including Medea and Phaedra. Two other plays with female protagonists, Hecuba and Trojan Women, paint harrowing portraits of the horrors of war and were written while Athens was locked in a deadly struggle with Sparta and her allies. The course moves toward a finish by examining the revivals of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides put on in the Hellenistic theater, and then briefly discusses Roman adaptations and later "revivals" of Greek tragedy, from the Renaissance to modern times. It closes with Professor Vandiver's reflections on how the characteristic themes and tone of the Athenian tragic stage continue to inspire audiences and artists in a variety of media today.

    Includes the following titles: Tales of Vishnu, Tales of Narada, Prahlad, Dhruva and Ashtavakra, The Churning of the Ocean

    In these pages you will meet extraordinary beings from Hindu and Navajo religions, Scandinavian tales, Russian folklore, Lithuanian stories, Irish oral history, American tall tales, and Aztec myth. Just some of the monstrous entourage:• Baku, a benevolent Japanese monster with the body of a horse, the head of a lion, and the legs of a tiger, who helps people by devouring their nightmares.• Kurma, the giant tortoise of Hindu myth, whose upper shell forms the heavens and lower part the earth.• Missipissy, the feared fish serpent of North America's Great Lakes region.This illustrated encyclopedia not only identifies and describes individual beasts in their cultural context but also groups them together across cultures and discusses common mythological strands and conceits.

    Comic book format containing stories from the mythology of India: Arjuna, the Monkey, and the Boy; Arjuna Defeats Indra; and Arjuna Humbled

    Central to this is the question of evil. How did this phenomenon come into being? What do ancient legends have to tell us about the present state of decay?Born in Ireland Michael Tsarion has made the deepest researches into the comparative mythologies of the world and into his own countries ancient and mysterious Celtic Tradition. Michael's presentations on Atlantis, Lemuria and the prediluvian epoch have been acclaimed by veterans in the field of paranormal research. In the tradition of Comyns Beaumont, Immanuel Velikovsky, William Bramley, Barbara Marciniak, Laurence Gardener and Erich von Daniken, Michael considers the consequences to civilization of extra-terrestrial involvement and seeks to clarify many of the quandaries that other “visitation” experts have overlooked. His book seeks to clarify much of the disinformation about Atlantis and the lost continents of prehistory. He also concentrates on the orchestrated chaos of modern times and reveals how the political and military machinations of the present have their roots in the ancient past.

    They show that a house is more than a building: it is a living being with a body and soul. Examining the extensive traditions surrounding houses from medieval times to the present, Claude Lecouteux reveals that, before we entered the current era of frequent moves and modular housing, moving largely from the countryside into cities, humanity had an extremely sacred relationship with their homes and all the spirits who lived there alongside them--from the spirit of the house itself to the mischievous elves, fairies, and imps who visited, invited or not. He shows how every aspect of constructing and keeping a house involved rites, ceremony, customs, and taboos to appease the spirits, including the choice of a building lot and the very materials with which it was built. Uncovering the lost meaning behind door and window placement, the hearth, and the threshold, Lecouteux shares many tales of house spirits, from the offerings used to cajole the local land spirit into becoming the domestic house spirit to the good and bad luck bestowed upon those who seek the help of the “Little Money Man.” He draws on studies and classic literature from old Europe--from Celtic lands and Scandinavia to France and Germany to the far eastern borders of Europe and into Russia--to explain the pagan roots behind many of these traditions. Revealing our ancestors’ charms, prayers, and practices to bestow happiness and prosperity upon their homes, Lecouteux shows that we can invite the spirits back into our houses, old or new, and restore the sacred bond between home and inhabitant.

    

    Tales include The Birth of Cuchulain and Finn and the Salmon of Knowledge. Full-color illustrations.

    He promised to turn honest, he would tell no lies and never steal again. But then the Mughal Emperor's soldiers forcibly took away two horses belonging to Guru Hargobind, the son of Guru Arjan. The Sikhs did not have the numbers to attack the vast Mughal army. They had to resort to trickery to get the horses back and Bidhi Chand found that he had to go back on his word, just this one time and steal the Guru's horses back from the Mughal fort. Bidhi Chand's plot combined wit, courage and great audacity, tricking the Mughals not once but twice, until they learnt not to underestimate the resourcefulness of the Sikhs.

    When the mind has understood all things and found them to be in harmony with what has been expounded by the teachings, it is faithful and comes to rest in that beautiful faith.”Hermes to AsclepiusThe Corpus Hermeticum, a powerful fusion of Greek and Egyptian thought, is one of the cornerstones of the Western esoteric tradition. A collection of short philosophical treatises, it was written in Greek between the first and third centuries A.D. and translated into Latin during the Renaissance by the great scholar and philosopher Marsilio Ficino. These writings, believed to be the writings of Hermes Trismegistus, were central to the spiritual work of Hermetic societies in Late Antique Alexandria (200-700 A.D.), and aimed to awaken gnosis, the direct realization of the unity of the individual and the Supreme.In addition to this new translation of The Corpus Hermeticum, which seeks to reflect the inspirational intent of the original, The Way of Hermes includes the first English translation of the recently rediscovered manuscript of The Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius, a collection of aphorisms used by the hermetic student to strengthen the mind during meditation. With the proper mental orientation,a state of pure perception can be achieved in which the true face of God appears. This document is of enormous value to the contemporary student of gnostic studies for its insights into the actual workings of this spiritual path.Clement Salaman is the editor of the English translation of The Letters of Marsilio Ficino. Dorine Van Oyen is a lecturer on Hermetic studies in Amsterdam. William D. Wharton teaches Classical history, languages, and philosophy in Boston. Jean-Pierre Mahe is Correspondent of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, Paris.

    These versions of such ageless myths as Proserpina and Pluto, Atalanta, Hercules, Cupid and Apollo, Pygmalion, Niobe, Prometheus, and others are as clear and beautiful today as they were in the 1920s. The illustrations evoke all the mythical wonder of these tales. 8" x 10 1/2". Ages 8-12.

    Selections from both Iliad and Odyssey, made with an eye for those episodes that figure most prominently in the study of mythology.

    In recent years commentators such as Bruno Bettelheim have, usually from a psychological perspective, pondered the underlying meaning of the stories, why children are soenthralled by them, and what effect they have on the the best-known tales (Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty) and shows that the Grimms saw them as Christian fables. Murphy examines the arguments of previous interpreters of the tales, anddemonstrates how they missed the Grimms' intention. His own readings of the five so-called magical tales reveal them as the beautiful and inspiring documents of faith that the Grimms meant them to be. Offering an entirely new perspective on these often-analyzed tales, Murphy's book will appeal to those concerned with the moral and religious education of children, to students and scholars of folk literature and children's literature, and to the many general readers who are captivated by fairytales and their meanings.

    It was up to BR Ambedkar to teach his ‘depressed’ community to fight the injustices that it faced each day. Hard working and wise, he became the icon of the underprivileged. History, however, will remember him as the architect of India’s Constitution.

    The works are separated into three sections, isolating the Celtic relationship with the natural world, chronicling Celtic heroes, and exploring the magic and shamanistic aspects of Celtic belief.

    The stories compose both a moving history of the Chukchi people who inhabit the shores of the Bering Sea, and a beautiful cautionary tale, rife with conflict, human drama, and humor. We meet fantastic characters: Nau, the mother of the human race; Rau, her half-whale husband; and finally, the dark spirit Armagirgin, who attempts to destroy nature's harmony by pitting the two against each other. The Chukchi Bible moves through Arctic tundra, sea, and sky–and beyond–introducing readers to an extraordinary mythology and a resilient people, in hauntingly poetic prose.Yuri Rytkheu was born in 1930 in the Chukotka Peninsula of the northeastern tip of Siberia, home of the Chukchi, a disappearing people inhabiting one of the most majestic and inhospitable environments on earth.

    This book explores the use of embroidery in such rituals. The Myth and Magic of Embroidery contains embroidered pictures inspired by nature, including plant life, animals, landscapes and sacred places from many origins such as Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Old English. Each chapter contains an adaptation of a legend or fable with illustrations taken from the author's own workbook. The book includes detailed working methods and new design techniques, such as the transformation of traditional ethnic stitches and the translation of designs from ceramics and architecture into motifs for embroidery, enabling the reader to create stunning embroidery pieces of their own.

    Understand the Bible as never before! Orange verses are about "Faith" -- Green verses are about "Love, " etc. Twelve colors for twelve themes. The Bold Line "RM" System distinguishes all spoken words of the Trinity with bold underlining throughout the entire Bible! Includes Deuterocanonicals and Apocrypha. Imprimatur.-- 75 In-Text, Color Maps-- 75 In-Text, Color Maps-- Over 100 In-Text, Color Study Helps and Illustrations-- The Stations of the Cross-- Scripture Reference for Catholic Doctrine concerning the Sacraments-- The Traditional List of Popes-- Much More!

    

    Ghandl was born in 1851 in a small Haida island community off the coast of British Columbia. His world was devastated by waves of European diseases, which wiped out over ninety percent of the Haidas and robbed him of his sight. He became a skilled listener, taking in the myths, legends, and everyday stories of his people. Creatively adapting them, the blind storyteller became a master of his craft. In 1900 John Swanton, with the help of a translator, transcribed a number of Ghandl's narrative poems.Nearly all of the poems in this volume are qqaygaang, narrative poems set in the Haida mythtime of long ago. One story, “The Names of Their Gambling Sticks,” is a qqayaagaang, a story that juxtaposes mythtime and historical time and is the property of a Haida family. Each poem creatively enacts a myth in a way that illuminates and celebrates the traditional world of the Haidas and reveals Ghandl's own acute sense of the foibles and great potential of all human beings. Meticulously and sensitively translated and annotated by Robert Bringhurst, these stories have finally been given the attention they deserve.

    The book emphasizes how David Frawley came to understand and join Hindu Dharma and become a Hindu teacher or Hindu Dharma Pracharaka, which remains central to all his work. Discusses important issues of the relevance of Hindu Dharma to the West and its encounter with Christianity, includes Vamadeva’s 1997 debate with the Archbishop of Hyderabad on the issue of conversions in India.An important book for those who want to see the relevance of Hinduism to modern seekers and Yoga practitioners. It reveals Hinduism as Sanatana Dharma, the Eternal Tradition that is relevant to everyone. It also helps Hindus understand and appreciate their own teachings and practices.

    But what if these beings were more than merely fictions? What if monstrous creatures once roamed the earth in the very places where their legends first arose? This is the arresting and original thesis that Adrienne Mayor explores in The First Fossil Hunters. Through careful research and meticulous documentation, she convincingly shows that many of the giants and monsters of myth did have a basis in fact--in the enormous bones of long-extinct species that were once abundant in the lands of the Greeks and Romans.As Mayor shows, the Greeks and Romans were well aware that a different breed of creatures once inhabited their lands. They frequently encountered the fossilized bones of these primeval beings, and they developed sophisticated concepts to explain the fossil evidence, concepts that were expressed in mythological stories. The legend of the gold-guarding griffin, for example, sprang from tales first told by Scythian gold-miners, who, passing through the Gobi Desert at the foot of the Altai Mountains, encountered the skeletons of Protoceratops and other dinosaurs that littered the ground.Like their modern counterparts, the ancient fossil hunters collected and measured impressive petrified remains and displayed them in temples and museums; they attempted to reconstruct the appearance of these prehistoric creatures and to explain their extinction. Long thought to be fantasy, the remarkably detailed and perceptive Greek and Roman accounts of giant bone finds were actually based on solid paleontological facts. By reading these neglected narratives for the first time in the light of modern scientific discoveries, Adrienne Mayor illuminates a lost world of ancient paleontology. As Peter Dodson writes in his Foreword, "Paleontologists, classicists, and historians as well as natural history buffs will read this book with the greatest of delight--surprises abound."

    Lincoln then turns his attention to the period when myth was recuperated as a privileged type of narrative, a process he locates in the political and cultural ferment of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Here, he connects renewed enthusiasm for myth to the nexus of Romanticism, nationalism, and Aryan triumphalism, particularly the quest for a language and set of stories on which nation-states could be founded.In the final section of this wide-ranging book, Lincoln advocates a fresh approach to the study of myth, providing varied case studies to support his view of myth—and scholarship on myth—as ideology in narrative form.

    Born in a Sikh family of patriots, he was an activist even as a student. He was member of a group of revolutionaries who did not shun the use of arms. They knew that theirs was not a decisive battle against the mighty foreign power. They however wished to rouse the masses into action against the rulers. Bhagat Singh's life story is full of thrilling episodes of bravery and talent in a hostile environment. India achieved freedom sixteen years after Bhagat Singh and his comrades faced the British gallows with undaunted courage.

    He transmitted information and meditation methods in private meetings during the 1970s and 1980s. He anonymously published a number of the first English translations of primary qabalistic texts,and distributed tens of thousands of copies through the Work of the Chariot Trust. This book is the first time that a senior student of the Work of the Chariot has compiled much of the teachings from those meetings on the core principles and practices of the Mystical Qabalah.

    Finally, here is a comprehensive collection of her marvelous works, along with a selection of studies and roughs, an appendix featuring an illustrated treatment of her techniques, and incisive commentary by both award-winning writer John Grant and the artist herself.

    The workbook is a wonderful compilation that also includes custom spreads, and expands upon information introduced on each tarot card.

    As famous in their day as the authors whose stories they illustrated, Wyeth and his gifted colleagues added their unique talents at narrative depiction to numerous fictional works of a century ago, brought back to life in these pages.

    An illustrated story about the relationship between a mother, a daughter, and the Earth.

    

    As the volume progresses chronologically from the rise of a black aesthetic criticism, through the Blacks Arts Movement, feminism, structuralism and poststructuralism, and the rise of queer theory, it focuses on the key arguments, themes, and debates in each period.By constantly bringing attention to the larger political and cultural issues at stake in the interpretation of literary texts, the critics gathered here have contributed mightily to the prominence and popularity of African American literature in this country and abroad. African American Literary Theory provides a unique historical analysis of how these thinkers have shaped literary theory, and literature at large, and will be a indispensable text for the study of African American intellectual culture.Contributors include Sandra Adell, Michael Awkward, Houston A. Baker, Jr., Hazel V. Carby, Barbara Christian, W.E.B. DuBois, Ann duCille, Ralph Ellison, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Addison Gayle Jr., Carolyn F. Gerald, Evelynn Hammonds, Phillip Brian Harper, Mae Gwendolyn Henderson, Stephen E. Henderson, Karla F.C. Holloway, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), Joyce A. Joyce, Alain Locke, Wahneema Lubiano, Deborah E. McDowell, Harryette Mullen, Larry Neal, Charles I. Nero, Robert F. Reid-Pharr, Marlon B. Ross, George S. Schuyler, Barbara Smith, Valerie Smith, Hortense J. Spillers, Sherley Anne Williams, and Richard Wright.

    Unique among textbooks on this topic, our book approaches the study of myth through complete works of Greco-Roman literature, including six complete Greek dramas and generous excerpts from the narratives of Homer, Hesiod, Virgil, and Ovid, and through carefully-chosen examples of Classical works of art, both painting and sculpture. Combining literary masterpieces with the visual arts, this integrative approach offers readers a comprehensive experience with both cognitive and aesthetic appeal.

    Explore the Sacred Goddess Landscape of Glastonbury Avalon with Kathy Jones, Priestess of Avalon

    Beyond the Mist is an introduction to Irish mythology which also explores its contemporary relevance to the mysteries, unknowns, and vicissitudes of life. It explores the various divine and other figures as symbolic aspects of the individual psyche and the unconscious mind, while providing insights into these repressed aspects of our inner life and suggesting appropriate ways of relating to and integrating these qualities.

    All four of these inevitably imply a sacred ethnopharmacology, with traditions going back to earlier ages of the ancient world. When the apostle Paul proclaimed the new Christian Mystery to the factious congregation at Corinth, there was no one who would not understand that this Eucharist was meant to replace the pagan Mystery that had been celebrated for over a millennium just a short distance away up the shore at the sanctuary of Eleusis. These essays attempt to uncover the original food of the sacramental communion.

    Definitive and lively articles focus on the great tales and traditions of the age and includes information on daily and nightly customs andactivities; religious beliefs of the pagan, Christian, Muslim, and Jew; key works of oral and written literature; traditional music and art; holidays and feasts; food and drink; and plants and animals, both real and fantastical.While most books on medieval folklore focus primarily on the West, this unique volume brings together an eclectic range of experts to treat the subject from a global perspective. Especially remarkable are the surveys of the major medieval traditions including Arab-Islamic, Baltic, English, Finno-Ugric, French, Hispanic, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Jewish, Scandinavian, Scottish, Slavic, and Welsh.For anyone who has ever wanted a path through the tangle of Arthurian legends, or the real lowdown on St. Patrick, or the last word on wolf lore--this is the place to look.The contributors:Ulrich Marzolph -- Arab-IslamicThomas A. DuBois -- BalticJohn McNamara & Carl Lindahl -- EnglishThomas A. DuBois -- Finno-UgricFrancesca Canad� Sautman -- FrenchSamuel G. Armistead -- Hispanic�va P�cs -- HungarianJoseph Falaky Nagy -- IrishGiuseppe C. Di Scipio -- ItalianEli Yassif -- JewishStephen A. Mitchell -- ScandinavianJohn McNamara -- ScottishEve Levin -- SlavicElissa R. Henken & Brynley F. Roberts -- Welsh

    This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

    Including more than 30 stories from the world's six most populated continents, this lavishly illustrated book contains beloved and lesser-known tales from Greece, Rome, Egypt, Scandinavia, the Americas, Japan, India, and Uganda that will keep readers and listeners enthralled.

    Ancient elements of Iroquoian cosmology are the heart of the saga: Sky-world, the fall of Sky-woman, the creation of Earth upon Turtle’s back, and the creation of mankind and early society by the twins. Various versions have been passed down from generation to generation, but the story has never before been published in the Oneida language. The Oneida Creation Story makes this majestic and beautiful story available in both Oneida and English for the first time. This special bilingual edition also features earlier translated versions of the Creation Story, a discussion of its cultural and historical contexts by Oneida Indian historian Anthony Wonderley, and lexicons cross-referenced to the story.

    Nothing else on this scale or depth is available in any western language. Three broad classes of material are included: foundation myths of ancient states and clans, ancient folktales and legends, modern folktales. Each narrative contains information on its source and provenance, and on its folklore type, similarities to folklore types from China, Japan and elsewhere.

    “She will cause the destruction of countless warriors.” And so begins one of the most fabulous stories of all time. Mahabharata plunges us into a wondrous and ancient world of romance and adventure. In this exciting new rendition of the renowned classic, Krishna Dharma condenses the epic into a fast-paced novel that fully retains the majestic mood of the original. A powerful and moving tale, it recounts the history of the five heroic Pandava brothers and their celestial wife. Cheated of their kingdom and sent into exile by their envious cousins, they set off on a fascinating journey in which they encounter mystical sages, mighty kings, and a host of gods and demons. Profound spiritual themes underline the enthralling narrative, making it one of the world’s most revered texts. Culminating in an apocalyptic war, Mahabharata is a masterpiece of suspense, intrigue, and illuminating wisdom.

    peerless... " --The Key Reporter..". this book is a first. It will be a standard... Comprehensiveness as well as the clarity of the headnotes should make it endure." --Choice..". so good as it stands... one should simply be happy to have it." --The Journal of the History of Ideas..". an original, compendious, and highly useful contribution to historical and mythographical scholarship." --The American Scholar"The Rise of Modern Mythology is a voice of reason in the contemporary maelstrom of international religious violence and American pluralism; more than any book I know, it exposes the roots of the Western appropriation of non-Western mythologies, from Lawrence of Arabia and Omar Khayyam to Tibetan Buddhism in Hollywood and Krishna Consciousness in airports. This is a book that we need now." --Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions, The University of Chicago

    This presentation of materials allows the reader to appreciate Gaelic culture from its own point of view in its proper cultural context.Gaeldom is the heir to the deeply rooted Celtic societies of Scotland. During the early medieval period, an elite culture common to Scotland and Ireland flourished and developed political and intellectual institutions. After the disruption of the Viking Age, the MacDonald Lords of the Isles cultivated a renaissance of Gaelic culture in a stable principality. Yet, in the last several centuries, Gaelic culture and language have been suppressed and stigmatized as primitive and doomed for extinction.The premises of these stereotypes are re-examined with a post-colonial outlook that places Gaeldom in a wider cross-cultural context. This book investigates the general features of Gaelic clan society in the latter medieval period as well as its responses to institutionalized Anglicization since the mid-eighteenth century. Poetry, songs, and tales, supplemented by the accounts of insiders and travellers, illuminate the traditional way of life. The oral tradition, social organization, morality, sense of place, ecology, cosmology, music, and the role of language are examined. This is an essential and accessible source-book for scholars, students, and all enthusiasts of Scottish culture.

    Today he is remembered for his political and scientific views and his brilliant sculptures. Inner Portraits provides a major survey of his work as draftsman, painter, and sculptor.

    Although the story of Rama (Ramkatha) has generated many tellings, most people are familiar with a few authoritative texts, such as those by Valmiki, Tulsidas, or the television serial by Ramanand Sagar. This volume expands our understanding of Ramkatha by focusing on tellings that question aspects of such dominant texts.Through analysis of oral and written narratives, exegesis, plays, songs, rituals, and poetry, the contributors demonstrate the centrality of questioning within the Ramayana tradition and chart the many forms such interrogation takes. The book demonstrates how questioning safeguards the diversity and capaciousness of the Ramayana tradition.

    It explores the ways in which the terms 'Viking' and 'Viking Age', both unknown in 1800, were invented, explored and popularised during thenineteenth century. The material examined - published and unpublished - includes novels, poems, plays, lectures, reviews, secondary school textbooks, saga-stead travelogues, private correspondence, art and music, as well as dictionaries, grammars and scholarly editions of eddas and sagas. In the cast of characters Sir Walter Scott, William Morris, Edward Elgar and Rudyard Kipling appear alongside long-forgotten amateur enthusiasts from Lerwick to the Isleof Wight. We follow the pursuit of Viking-related archaeology, dialectology, folklore, philology, runology and mythology. We see the old north used to legitimise many concepts and causes - from buccaneering mercantilism and imperial expansion to jury trial and women's rights. In drawing this wide range of materials together, Andrew Wawn presents a comprehensive and colourful account of the construction and translation of the Viking Age in Queen Victoria'sBritain.ANDREW WAWN is Professor of Anglo-Icelandic Studies at the University of Leeds.

    Most of the tales in this volume are those of Peter Christen Asbjornsen and Jorgen Moe from their Norwegian folk-tales, translated by Sir George Dasent.

    These tales have long held a fascination for both scholars and general readers, but there is no satisfactory, comprehensive treatment of them in print. This anthology presents a selection of the most important studies of the subject, to which is added a number of new essays representing the current state of scholarship. A general introduction is provided and an extensive bibliography.Containing the most important critical materials for an understanding of the Irish Otherworld Voyage legends, this anthology will be of interest and use to teachers and students of early Irish history and literature, comparative literature and mythology.

    Written in simple narrative style, it takes us through Shakta imagery, philosophy, beliefs, customs, history, folklore and myth.The book reaches to young and old alike, bringing together tales of Adi-Maya-Shakti, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Parvati, Kali, Durga as well as several village-goddesses such as Kanyakumari, Vaishnav-devi, Bahucharmata and heroines such as Anasuya, Arundhati and Savitiri.Highlights include lucid explanations and a pictorial key to numerous symbols associated with Shakta customs and Tantrik rituals, a map showing important Devi temples, a bibliography for those interested in learning more and over 150 illustrations.“Let me meditate on the supreme goddess who is existence itself, who sits on the lotus, who rides the tiger, who plays the lute, whose divine form dazzles gods, demons and humans, whose womb contains Time and Space, who embodies cosmic energy, who holds in her hands the implements of life and the instruments of death, who spins the cycle of existence as she creates and destroys all that is, was and will be and who empowers and enriches devotees with the ability to accept and appreciate the unfathomable universe.”

    What if the texts were read for clues about Earth in its struggle to be creation?This hermeneutic can be related to other recognized approaches to the Bible, from historical criticism to ecofeminist criticism.The Earth Bible Series provides fresh interpretations of the Bible. Scholars from diverse areas such as the Americas, South Africa, and South Australia focus on specific passages helping readers listen to and identify with the Earth as a presence and voice in the text.

    From the descriptions of the supernatural power of the "fairy" harp in Elfland in the Scottish ballads to the sacred music of God's Heaven in the Christian Saints' Lives, the Celtic sources provide a rich and varied selection of references to music and its perceived supernatural power and influence.

    

    Enjoy communal or family-oriented events, involving historical, religious, or folk traditions such as reenactments, preparation of foods or natural medicines, the performing arts, and games and crafts. Some of the origins are known; others remain shrouded in mystery, surviving only as habit or superstition. Don't miss out on a single festival; they're all annotated with dates, starting times, directions, and a description of what goes on. Revive old customs yourself, cooking customary meals and playing time-honored games. For easy reference, symbols appear beside each event, explaining whether it's a sing-along or a commemoration, a pagan or harvest ritual, a contest or sport, a fair or carnival. It's the only complete guide to Celtic folk customs that still go on today.

    My relations are with me," says Billie McKenney, one of the matriarchs of the complex family of Choctaws searching for peace as the white world rapidly encroaches on their tribal land, politics, and values. In her first collection of stories, Native American writer Devon A. Mihesuah chronicles the lives of several generations of a close-knit Choctaw family as they are forced from their traditional homeland in nineteenth-century Mississippi and endure unspeakable sorrows during their journey before settling in southeastern Oklahoma.Blending family lore, stark realism, and vivid imagination, The Roads of My Relations relays a strong sense of Choctaw culture and world view in absorbing tales of history and legend. Unfolding through the voices and actions of family members, confused half-bloods, and unlikely heroes—not all of them living or even human—the stories tell of the horrors of forced removal, the turbulence of post Civil War Indian Territory, the terrifying violence suffered at the hands of immortal Crow witches, and the family's ultimate survival against forces of evil. Time-traveling ghosts, mysterious medicine men, and eerie shape-shifters share the pages with proud matriarchs, mischievous schoolgirls, and loving siblings.Together, these interwoven stories express the strength and persistence of a tribe whose identity and pride have survived the disruptions of colonialism. With The Roads of My Relations, Devon A. Mihesuah has created a universal and timeless exploration of heritage, spirituality, and the importance of preserving and passing on tradition.

    This extensive volume finds new wonder in the universality of common themes and familiar motifs -- such as three wishes, the importance of trials, and the power of a kiss -- and helps give an added understanding of the ancient traditions, magical beliefs, and myths of cultures from all over the globe. One hundred comic anecdotes, tall tales, and fables are also included for even more reading enjoyment. Filled with the magical heritage of cultures around the world, this volume captures the rhythms and the sense of wonder of traditional storytelling at its best.

    Drawing on diverse disciplines including classics, anthropology, psychology, and literary studies, this product of twenty years' scholarship provides a detailed typology of the hero in Western myth: birth, parentage, familial ties, sexuality, character, deeds, death, and afterlife. Dean A. Miller examines the place of the hero in the physical world (wilderness, castle, prison cell) and in society (among monarchs, fools, shamans, rivals, and gods). He looks at the hero in battle and quest; at his political status; and at his relationship to established religion. The book spans Western epic traditions, including Greek, Roman, Nordic, and Celtic, as well as the Indian and Persian legacies. A large section of the book also examines the figures who modify or accompany the hero: partners, helpers (animals and sometimes monsters), foes, foils, and even antitypes. The Epic Hero provides a comprehensive and provocative guide to epic heroes, and to the richly imaginative tales they inhabit.

    Best known as the adviser of the young King Arthur, he was also a famous seer, whose books of prophecies have been reprinted countless times since the Middle Ages. he continues to appear in modern times, in film--most recently in the blockbuster King Arthur--TV, and fiction, and is still the subject of study today, as an exponent of shamanism and ancient wisdom.Arthurian expert John Matthews examines the many guises of Merlin--as seer, prophet, lover and magician, and as an inspiration to people from all walks of life. Here we see the possible historic origin of Merlin as a Celtic leader, the later literary forms of his growing legend in the myths of King Arthur, and his more recent manifestations in visionary works, as the prototype of characters such as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars films, Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series, and Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

    Many who practice it do not know that there is a lost, star-based zodiac, entirely distinct from the well-known circle of twelve sun signs. Although not wrong on its own terms - the popular sun sign profiles do work- astrology it is wrongly defined as "the language of the stars." Quest for the Zodiac corrects this error and recovers the visible star patterns observed in ancient times. The distinction between sign stereotypes and the real-sky constellations is astounding and revolutionary.The mythic images of the constellations, not the signs, present a new approach to the age-old question: What is destiny? In the code language of the constellations, myths and archtypal themes reflect the long-term experience of humanity. In the author's formulation, the star zodiac is a visionary tool for detecting the way each individual can advance on the learning curve of the human species. In effect, we each have a second horoscope, but its message is transpersonal, not ego-centered. Sun sign astrology examines and elucidates personality, but with the star zodiac we discover the innate genius of the person. Quest for the Zodiac proposes a new method of interpreting life-patterns. It breaks the 2000-year-old monopoly astrology holds on the interactivity of psyche and cosmos. This is the future of astrology, and the astrology of the future.

    In this work, Samuel Byrskog employs models from the interdisciplinary field of oral history as presented by Paul Thompson, coupled with insights from cultural anthropology, in order to examine the interaction between the present and the past as the gospel tradition evolved."

    Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.