Larousse World Mythology

560 pp. "...twenty-three authors survey the myths of the world's principal societies with perception. They analyze the form and function of myth, note it variations and evolution, and examine recurrent themes. They range from the dark, cave-bound rites of prehistoric man, through the system of Egyptian gods, the monotheistic patterns of the ancient near east, the Indian pantheon, and the gods and heroes of classical Greece and Rome. In less commonly charted areas they survey the polytheistic cults of northern Europe, the nature spirits of the American Indians, the sacrificial cults of Central America, totemism in Africa, and ancestor and fetish worship in Oceania."--jacket