Descripciones mejoradas de Syndetics:

This unique and fascinating volume features every type of deity from every culture in all regions of the world, from prehistory to the present.

Guide to the Gods features the familiar gods and goddesses of the ancient Near East, as well as those of Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas: deities associated with creation, with the heavens, with the earth, with the weather, and with nearly every aspect of human life-from love, sex, marriage, and economic endeavors to prophecy, ritual, magic, and healing. The deities are categorized by function and attribute, and entries are alphabetized within each category. Every entry includes at least one citation to a printed primary or secondary source.

Guide to the Gods represents a major contribution to the fields of anthropology, religious studies, and folklore. Students, scholars, researchers, and writers will find it an invaluable research tool. This work is an entertaining and important reference source that will be a necessary addition to public, academic, and school library collections.

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This guide is a labor of love from its author, who spent well over a decade on its completion. It admirably fulfills its stated goal to be "a finding list, not an encyclopedia" (p. x). Its broad scope, excellent bibliography, and unique arrangement by function of deity are major advantages. For readers wanting more information about gods and goddesses listed than their functions and the cultures associated with them, references are given after each entry. Covering Western and non-Western deities, present and past, in more than 20,000 entries, this volume overcomes the classical (Greek-Roman antiquity) bias of most works on this subject. Manfred Lurker's The Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses, Devils and Demons (CH, Jan'88), Leach's nearest counterpart, has similar range and a grouping of deities by function and symbol in its two appendixes, but covers far fewer of them (about 1,800 entries in 451 pages). In the guide under review, having separate chapters for different kinds of deities highlights similarities among them instead of their geographic/cultural differences. Recommended for larger public and academic libraries, upper-division undergraduate and up.-C. Hendershott, New School for Social Research

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Marjorie Leach is an independent scholar specializing in mythology.