(10) PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA (1963)

Or How I Found Goddess and What I Did to Her When I Found Her

Particularly when the Goddess in question is the playful goddess of chaos in classical mythology, Eris or Discordia, Image
(9) DAISETZ SUZUKI - ZEN & JAPANESE CULTURE (1959)

Zen's influence on Japanese traditional arts - art, haiku, tea ceremonies, the Japanese love of nature and above all swordsmanship. I've always found swords to have a metaphorical resonance to life and how one lives it. Image
(8) PETER DICKINSON - THE FLIGHT OF DRAGONS (1979)

Here be dragons!

And how! "Speculative natural history", which addresses perhaps the most awesome question of fantasy - what if dragons really existed Image
(7) WESTON LA BARRE - THE GHOST DANCE: ORIGINS OF RELIGION (1970)

"Psychoanalytic account of the birth of religion through the lens of his treatment of the ghost dance religion of native America" Image
(6) JOSEPH CAMPBELL - THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES (1949)

Behold the monomyth! (And the hero's journey) Image
(5) PENGUIN DICTIONARY OF SYMBOLS (1969)

"This is a remarkable dictionary, exploring the vast and various symbols which abound in literature, religion, national identity and are found at the very heart of our dreams and sub-conscious" Image
(4) KATHARINE BRIGGS - A DICTIONARY OF FAIRIES (1972)

A classic book, alternatively titled An Encyclopedia of Fairies, which now seems sadly out of print, by a classic British folklorist - indeed THE classic British folklorist Image
Honorable mention: Alan Froud & Brian Lee - Faeries Image
(3) BARBARA WALKER - WOMEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MYTHS & SECRETS (1983)

She is the goddess and this is her body! Image
(2) BULFINCH'S MYTHOLOGY (1867)

Bulfinch's Mythology still remains a classic reference (and handily in the public domain) - as indeed it was for me as my introduction as a child to the world of classical mythology Image
(1) BIBLE

The Hebrew dreaming and the great messianic ghost dance

The holy book of smiting and begetting

Chosen people and only son Image
My #top10 #mythology #books #tier list

Of course, in a literal sense the Bible is both OT and NT - but for me, if the Bible is my Old Testament of mythology books, then Bulfinch's Mythology and Barbara Walker's Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets are my New Testament Image

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More from @0starkafterdark

1 Aug
Revisiting my #top10 #mythology #books
@Paracelsus1092
@Heghoulian

(5) PENGUIN DICTIONARY OF SYMBOLS (1969)

A collaboration of French writer, philosopher and theologian Jean Chevalier, with French poet and explorer Alain Gheerbant Image
Their literary background shines forth in the lyrical quality or poetic resonance of the entries - although at times the entries can be somewhat overwhelming in the density of their style
As for the book itself, well, it's a dictionary…of symbols. Obviously. Although that understates just how comprehensive the entries are, both in quantity and quality. There's an entry for virtually everything that can be seen as a symbol - animals, plants, objects and concepts
Read 5 tweets
31 Jul
Revisiting my #top10 #mythology
@Paracelsus1092
@Heghoulian

(5) EGYPTIAN

"I am a cowboy in the boat of Ra…
"Who was that
dog-faced man? they asked, the day I rode
from town"…
Go get my eyelids of red paint.
Hand me my shadow
I'm going into town after Set" Image
If there's one of two things I lament about Christianity, it's the decline of the Egyptian pantheon. If only the Roman Empire could have gone the way of the ankh. Or if only the Egyptian gods had returned out of the desert instead of Islam
What's not to love about those funky animal-headed gods and those slinky goddesses? Especially the goddesses - lithe and svelte in their form-fitting dresses, with their golden skin and painted eyes, they would not look out of place as supermodels on a modern catwalk
Read 9 tweets
31 Jul
It's time to launch my #waroftheweek feature - starting with the special mentions for my #top10 wars of #history
@Paracelsus1092
@Heghoulian

(1) TROJAN WAR

Sing, muse, of the wrath of Achilles!

The war that started with an apple and ended with a horse Image
The Trojan War looms largest in literature, with its foundational source, the Iliad, as the rosy-fingered dawn of Western literature
Of course, the Iliad only represents a few days in the tenth (and last) year of the decade-long siege of Troy and is only part of the so-called Trojan Cycle that represents the whole of the war, but comes to us only through other fragments of classical literature or mythology
Read 11 tweets

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