Monthly Archives: March 2024

Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Mythologies

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Afterlife (Egyptian Mythology) – free divine gallery sample art from OldWorldGods

 

I don’t have a religion – I have a mythology.

Indeed, I have a top ten of them. As much as I enjoy mythology, not all mythologies are equal. Arguably not even the same mythology, as like the proverbial river of Heraclitus, you cannot step into the same mythology twice, as it is constantly evolving, with many variants, often inconsistent with each other. Some mythologies just resonate better with me than others.

Hence this is my top ten ranking of mythology – or perhaps top ten mythologies? Mythos – or mythoi? My myths and sacred mysteries? Whatever. They are not ranked by the extent to which they still form part of an active religion, their duration or number of adherents, or by their cultural impact or influence, but by my personal interest in them – although this tends to overlap with one or more of the previous criteria, particularly my top two entries, which are the standouts both to me and for Western culture in general.

Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Books

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Free ‘divine gallery’ sample art from OldWorldGods

 

I live in a mythic world.

Mythology has been a subject that has fascinated me since childhood, when I read it avidly – and still does as I read it now, hence my Top 10 Books of Mythology.

These are my books of myth and mystery. I’m not going to seek to define mythology for this top ten. It seems to me that people who have studied it far more than I have differ substantially in their definitions of it and I’m not sure that there’s any easy or singular definition in any event. By its nature, myth overlaps with mystery. It is what it is.

Nor am I going to seek to distinguish myth or mythology from overlapping categories such as folklore or legend. If I might use religious metaphor, mythology tends to be defined in a ‘high-church’ sense involving divine beings or sacred narratives, while folklore or legend tend to be defined in a more ‘low church’ sense involving figures or narratives closer to humans and nature. And while we’re on that point, I’m not going to seek to distinguish myth or mythology from the overlapping subjects of religion or ritual. To extend that metaphor, I’m going with a broad church approach here. I don’t have a religion – I have a mythology.

The only thing I would seek to distinguish myth or mythology from is the colloquial or popular usage of the word myth to connote some collectively or commonly held belief that has no basis in fact, or any false story. I use myth or mythology without any implication as to whether any belief or narrative may be understood as true or otherwise.

So that said, here are my Top 10 Books of Mythology.