A potent pantheon of gods, heroes engaged in epic battles, fearsome mythical creatures and supernatural transformations - such fantastical elements infuse Greek myths with a wonder and excitement that's hard to beat. These tales of love, courage, conflict and intrigue, shared for thousands of years, still exercise a powerful influence on our modern lives. This comprehensive collection of mythic stories brings to life the origins of the Greek gods and their dominion over the world of humankind. Here you'll find Zeus and hades, Artemis and Aphrodite, with stories of demi-gods and humans alike. Jason and the Argonauts, Perseus the Gordon-Slayer and the heart-breaking tales of Troy sit alongside myths of crime and punishment, love and courage and the adventures of Heracles. Part of Flame Tree's epic collection of myths and legends, classic tales and modern short stories.

First published in 1964, Indaba, My Children is an internationally acclaimed collection of African folk tales that chart the story of African tribal life since the time of the Phoenicians. It is these stories that have shaped Africa as we know it.

This book rethinks Northeast India as a lived space, a centre of interconnections and unfolding histories, instead of an isolated periphery. Questioning dominant tropes and assumptions around the Northeast, it examines socio-political and historical processes, border issues, the role of the state, displacement and development, debates over natural resources, violence, notions of body and belonging, movements, tensions and relations, and strategies, struggles and narratives that frame discussions on the region. Drawing on current and emerging research in Northeast India studies, this work will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of politics, human geography, sociology and social anthropology, history, cultural studies, media studies and South Asian studies.

Commemorative Events emphasise remembering. They are held on the anniversaries of significant past events, either annually or after significant time periods. Commemorative events provide fascinating insight into how societies see themselves, their heritage and their identity. These events however carry high propensity for controversy as memory and identity are highly subjective and other stakeholders hold different views of what should be commemorated and why. This is the first book to provide an in - depth critical examination of commemorative events, particularly what they mean to societies and how they are used by governments as well as impacts on other stakeholders. The book fully explores these issues by reviewing all the major types of commemorative events including, nationhood or independence, wars, battles, famous people and cultural milestones from varying geographical regions and stakeholder perspectives. By doing so the book furthers understanding of these types of events in society as well as furthering knowledge of social and political uses and impacts of events. This thought provoking volume will be valuable reading for students, researchers and academics interested in events.

"Eve of the Festival" is a study of Homeric myth-making in the first and longest dialogue of Penelope and Odysseus ("Odyssey "19). This study makes a case for seeing virtuoso myth-making as an essential part of this conversation, a register of communication important for the interaction between the two speakers. At the core of the book is a detailed examination of several myths in the dialogue in an attempt to understand what is being said and how. The dialogue as a whole is interpreted as an exchange of performances that have the eve of Apollo's festival as their occasion and that amount to activating, and even enacting, the myth corresponding within the Odyssey to the ritual event of the festival.

In this book, first published in 1987, Wolfgang Mieder follows the intriguing trail of some of the best known pieces of folk literature, tracing them from their roots to modern uses in advertising, journalism, politics, cartoons, and poetry. He reveals both the remarkable adaptability of these tales and how each variation reflects cultural and historical changes. Fairy tales, legends, folk songs, riddles, nursery rhymes, and proverbs are passed from generation to generation, changing both in form and meaning with each use. This book will be of interest to students of literature.

Wonderfully written and beautifully presented , The Outlaws of Medieval Legend brings the popular heroes of the Middle-Ages to life. Featuring both famous - Robin Hood and William Wallace - and now forgotten rogues such as Gamelyn and Fulke Fitzwarin, this book explains the popularity of these semi-mythical figures, and how their stories appealed to the common people of the Middle Ages.
Long unavailable, and now featuring a new introduction from the author, this is the perfect book for anyone with a fondness for medieval history and folklore.

'Impossible to summarise and delightfully absorbing, Hadley's book is comfortably the most unexpected history book of the year' Sunday Times A luminous journey through a thousand years of folklore and English history. Once upon a time in a Hertfordshire field, an ancient yew tree hid a dragon hunted by a giant named Piers Shonks. Today, the dragon and its slayer are the survivors of an 800-year battle between rural legend and national record, storytellers and sceptics. In this brilliant and lyrical history, Christopher Hadley journeys from churches to tombs to manuscript margins, to explore history, memory and legend, and the magical spaces where all three meet.

'This is a treasure ... Such a celebration of the wheel of the year' JACKIE MORRIS, CILIP Kate Greenaway winner of The Lost Words on The Hare and the MoonCatherine Hyde follows the journey of the bee and the sun in a calendar of glorious full colour paintings that celebrate the sensory delights of herbs and spices, seasoned with bee and plant lore. From the rising and setting of the Pleiades, from sunrise to sunset, the bee and the sun work in harmony, a miracle of nature, growth and new life. Beneath the shifting constellations, equinoxes and solstice markers, as the bee progresses from plant to flower, acclaimed artist Catherine Hyde pays tribute to the magic and mystery of nature. Snippets of ancient bee beliefs and plant folklore are complemented by paintings of ginger, cardamon, marjoram, vanilla, nutmeg, basil, juniper, lavender and many more delights. A book to treasure, and an ode to the wonder of nature.

Alluring, nurturing, dangerous, and vulnerable the yamamba, or Japanese mountain witch, has intrigued audiences for centuries. What is it about the fusion of mountains with the solitary old woman that produces such an enigmatic figure? And why does she still call to us in this modern, scientific era? Co-editors Rebecca Copeland and Linda C. Ehrlich first met the yamamba in the powerful short story "The Smile of the Mountain Witch" by acclaimed woman writer Oba Minako. The story revealed the compelling way creative women can take charge of misogynistic tropes, invert them, and use them to tell new stories of female empowerment. This unique collection represents the creative and surprising ways artists and scholars from North America and Japan have encountered the yamamba.

Fashion in the Edwardian period underwent some quite revolutionary changes. The delicately coloured, flower-and-lace-trimmed trailing gowns and elaborate hairstyles worn by tightly corseted fashionable ladies in the early years of Edward VII's reign would transform into the boldly coloured, dramatically stylized Eastern-inspired kimono wraps, slender hobble skirts, ankle-skimming tunic dresses and turbans of 1914 on the eve of the First World War. This book presents the story of women's and men's dress through this exciting period, and is a fascinating addition to the bestselling Shire fashion list that already includes Fashion in the Time of Jane Austen and Fashion in the Time of the Great Gatsby.

We all know "there's no such thing as monsters," but our imaginations tell us otherwise. From the mythical beasts of ancient Greece to the hormonal vampires of the "Twilight" saga, monsters have captivated us for millennia. Matt Kaplan, a noted science journalist and monster-myth enthusiast, employs an entertaining mix of cutting-edge research and a love of lore to explore the history behind these fantastical fictions and our hardwired obsession with things that go bump in the night. "The Science of Monsters" tackles the enduring questions that arise on the frontier between fantasy and reality. Did dragons really exist? What inspired the creation of vampires and why are we so drawn to them? Are we close to making "Jurassic Park" a reality by replicating a dinosaur from fossilized DNA? Kaplan takes readers to the forefront of science, where our favorite figures of horror may find real-life validation.

Reducing Bodies: Mass Culture and the Female Figure in Postwar America explores the ways in which women in the years following World War II refashioned their bodies-through reducing diets, exercise, and plastic surgery-and asks what insights these changing beauty standards can offer into gender dynamics in postwar America. Drawing on novel and untapped sources, including insurance industry records, this engaging study considers questions of gender, health, and race and provides historical context for the emergence of fat studies and contemporary conversations of the "obesity epidemic."

A gripping and groundbreaking history of how ancient cultures developed and used biological, chemical, and other unconventional weapons of war Flamethrowers, poison gases, incendiary bombs, the large-scale spreading of disease: are these terrifying agents of warfare modern inventions? Not by a long shot. In this riveting history of the origins of unconventional war, Adrienne Mayor shows that cultures around the world have used biological and chemical weapons for thousands of years-and debated the morality of doing so. Drawing extraordinary connections between the mythical worlds of Hercules and the Trojan War, the accounts of Herodotus and Thucydides, and modern methods of war and terrorism, this richly illustrated history catapults readers into the dark and fascinating realm of ancient war and mythic treachery.

Reducing Bodies: Mass Culture and the Female Figure in Postwar America explores the ways in which women in the years following World War II refashioned their bodies-through reducing diets, exercise, and plastic surgery-and asks what insights these changing beauty standards can offer into gender dynamics in postwar America. Drawing on novel and untapped sources, including insurance industry records, this engaging study considers questions of gender, health, and race and provides historical context for the emergence of fat studies and contemporary conversations of the "obesity epidemic."

In 2016, social media users in Thailand called out the Paris-based luxury fashion house Balenciaga for copying the popular Thai "rainbow bag," using Balenciaga's hashtags to circulate memes revealing the source of the bags' design. In Why We Can't Have Nice Things Minh-Ha T. Pham examines the way social media users monitor the fashion market for the appearance of knockoff fashion, design theft, and plagiarism. Tracing the history of fashion antipiracy efforts back to the 1930s, she foregrounds the work of policing that has been tacitly outsourced to social media. Despite the social media concern for ethical fashion and consumption and the good intentions behind design policing, Pham shows that it has ironically deepened forms of social and market inequality, as it relies on and reinforces racist and colonial norms and ideas about what constitutes copying and what counts as creativity. These struggles over ethical fashion and intellectual property, Pham demonstrates, constitute deeper struggles over the colonial legacies of cultural property in digital and global economies.

Coffee Culture: Local experiences, Global Connections explores coffee as (1) a major commodity that shapes the lives of millions of people; (2) a product with a dramatic history; (3) a beverage with multiple meanings and uses (energizer, comfort food, addiction, flavouring, and confection); (4) an inspiration for humor and cultural critique; (5) a crop that can help protect biodiversity yet also threaten the environment; (6) a health risk and a health food; and (7) a focus of alternative trade efforts. This book presents coffee as a commodity that ties the world together, from the coffee producers and pickers who tend the plantations in tropical nations, to the middlemen and processors, to the consumers who drink coffee without ever having to think about how the drink reached their hands.

Wonderful catalog real and fanciful beasts: manticore, griffin, phoenix, amphivius, jaculus, many more. White's witty erudite commentary on scientific, historical aspects enhances fascinating glimpse of medieval mind. 128 black-and-white illustrations.

This study deals with three domains of food which raise complex epistemological, political and moral issues. Through an examination of a wide range of material drawn from anthropology, history, literature and political economy, the author discusses the relationship between food and entitlement, gender, notions of the body and development. Food is shown to be a powerful metaphor for our sense of self, our social and political relations, our cosmology and our global system.

Foundations of Flat Patterning and Draping: For the Female Form provides the foundational tools necessary for success in the techniques of flat patterning and draping clothes and costumes. This book begins with the basics of taking measurements, preparing the fabric for draping, and preparing the dress form. The following chapters explore flat patterning and draping practices for bodices, skirts, pants, dresses, sleeves, collars, cuffs, and facings through detailed step-by-step instructions, checklists, and numerous diagrams. The bodice drafting instructions in this book, specifically, are a new method that accommodates all bust and cup sizes. There are instructions for small and large cup sizes allowing for a fit that does not gap at the armscye as typically happens with previous patterning methods, and additional sections for bodices and sleeves and how to manipulate them to create alternate looks. The techniques in this book generalize across sizes and shapes making it universally applicable for the student technician, as well as the person the garment is being developed for. Each method of drafting and draping has been class-tested and proven to produce well-fitting garments. Presented in an accessible format with clear instructions and detailed illustrations, this book is well suited for use as a textbook for the undergraduate college instructor teaching costuming or fashion, as well as for the student or individual learning on their own in theatre, film, or fashion industries.

From the sands of Alexandria via the Renaissance palaces of the Medicis, to our own times, this spiritual adventure story traces the profound influence of Hermes Trismegistus -- the 'thrice-great one', as he was often called -- on the western mind. For centuries his name ranked among the most illustrious of the ancient world. Considered by some a contemporary of Moses and a forerunner of Christ, this almost mythical figure arose in fourth century BC Alexandria, from a fusion of the Egyptian god Thoth and the Greek god Hermes. Master of magic, writing, science, and philosophy, Hermes was thought to have walked with gods and be the source of the divine wisdom granted to man at the dawn of time. Gary Lachman has written many books exploring ancient traditions for the modern mind. In The Quest for Hermes Trismegistus, he brings to life the mysterious character of this great spiritual guide, exposing the many theories and stories surrounding him, and revitalizing his teachings for the modern world. Through centuries of wars, conquests and religious persecutions, the fragile pages of the teachings of Hermes Trismegistus have still survived. This is a book for all thinkers and enquirers who want to recover that lost knowledge and awaken a shift in human consciousness.

First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book constitutes the first attempt to gather into a single body as many Judeo-Spanish tales published in Latin characters as could be assembled. It represents a major contribution to Sephardic and Hispanic studies, as well as to comparative folklore scholarship in a world-wide perspective.