Jean-Pierre Vernant delineates a compelling new vision of ancient Greece that takes us far from the calm and familiar images of Polykleitos and the Parthenon, and reveals a culture of slavery, of blood sacrifice, of perpetual and ritualized warfare, of ceremonial hunting and ecstasies.In his provocative discussions of various institutions and practices including war, marriage, and the city state, Vernant unveils a complex and previously unexplored intersection of the religious, social, and political structures of ancient Greece. He concludes with a genealogy of the study of myth from antiquity to the present, and offers a critique of structuralism.Jean-Pierre Vernant is Professor Emeritus of Comparative Study of Ancient Religions at the College de France in Paris.

A collection of over 200 folk and fairy tales from all over the world, this is the only edition that encompasses all cultures. Arranged geographically by region, this book also includes category index groups that list the stories by plot and character.

Cow People records the fading memories of a bygone Texas, the reminiscences of the cow people themselves. These are the Texans of the don't-fence-me-in era, their faces pinched by years of squinting into the desert glare, tanned by the sun and coarsened by the dust of the Chisholm Trail. Their stories are often raucous but just as often quiet as hot plains under a pale Texan sky. A native Texan, J. Frank Dobie had an inborn knowledge of the men and customs of the trail camps. Cattlemen were as various as the country was big. Ab Blocker was a tall, quiet man who belonged totally to the cattle and the silent plains. But big men often had big lungs. "Shanghai Pierce was the loudest man in the country. He would sit at one end of a day coach and in normal voice hold conversation with some man at the other end of the coach, who of course had to yell, while the train was clanking along. He knew everybody, yelled at everybody he saw." Texas bred tall men and taller stories. There was Findlay Simpson, who played havoc with fact but whiled away the drivers' long, lonely evenings with his tales. Old Findlay told of a country so wet that it bogged down the shadow of a buzzard, and of cattle that went into hibernation during rugged winters; he once spun yarns for three days straight, outlasting his listeners in a marathon of endurance. All real cow people-from the cattle drivers to the cattle owners-lived by a simple code based on the individual's integrity. Bothering anyone else's poke or business uninvited was strictly forbidden, and enforcement of this unwritten law was as easy as pulling a trigger. Honesty was taken for granted, and a cowman's name on a check made it negotiable currency. Yet Texas had its "bad guys"-the crooks, the thieves, even the tightwads. "A world big enough to hold a rattlesnake and a purty woman is big enough for all kinds of people," wrote Dobie. This is the world whose vast and various population the reader will find in Cow People.

'A gorgeous epic . . . Wholly absorbing. I adored it' MARIAN KEYES 'This sweeping, absorbing story is a treat' ADELE PARKS 'A compelling story of female friendship, dark secrets and family bonds that pulls you in and won't let go' ROSANNA LEY 'If you love atmospheric stories about old houses, families and secrets, this is for you' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING 'A gorgeous story to get immersed in' Prima BY SUMMER'S END, THERE WILL BE ONLY ONE . . . 'It's a funny old house. They have this ceremony every summer . . . There's an old chapel, in the grounds of the house. Half-derelict. The Hunters keep bees in there. Every year, on the same day, the family processes to the chapel. They open the combs, taste the honey. Take it back to the house. Half for them -' my father winced, as though he had bitten down on a sore tooth. 'And half for us.' Catherine, a successful barrister, vanishes from a train station on the eve of her anniversary. Is it because she saw a figure - someone she believed long dead? Or was it a shadow cast by her troubled, fractured mind? The answer lies buried in the past. It lies in the events of the hot, seismic summer of 1989, at Vanes - a mysterious West Country manor house - where a young girl, Jane Lestrange, arrives to stay with the gilded, grand Hunter family, and where a devastating tragedy will unfold. Over the summer, as an ancient family ritual looms closer, Janey falls for each member of the family in turn. And she and Kitty, the eldest daughter of the house, will forge a bond that decades later, is still shaping the present . . . 'We need the bees to survive, and they need us to survive. Once you understand that, you understand the history of Vanes, you understand our family.' 'Bewitching, beguiling and utterly beautiful, The Beloved Girls will pull you into their mysterious and enchanted world and never let you go. With a cast of compelling characters and a labyrinthine plot, it's a page-turner of the most luxurious kind - a real escape.' VERONICA HENRY Compelling, immersive and luxurious, THE BELOVED GIRLS is the outstanding new novel from the Sunday Times Top Ten bestselling author of The Garden of Lost and Found and your perfect summer escape.

Compiled by one of the first foreign diplomats in Japan, this famous collection of classic tales covers an engrossing array of subjects: ghost stories, fairy tales, folklore, a fascinating eyewitness account of a hara-kiri ceremony, and gripping narratives of vampires and samurai. A treasury of information on Japanese locales, customs, and characters, this volume delights as it entertains, chronicling acts of heroism, devotion, ruthlessness, and chivalry that illuminate the island nation's culture.

Marrakech is the heart and lifeblood of Morocco's ancient storytelling tradition. For nearly a thousand years, storytellers have gathered in the Jemaa el Fna, the legendary square of the city, to recount ancient folktales and fables to rapt audiences. But this unique chain of oral tradition that has passed seamlessly from generation to generation is teetering on the brink of extinction. The competing distractions of television, movies and the internet have drawn the crowds away from the storytellers and few have the desire to learn the stories and continue their legacy. Richard Hamilton has witnessed at first hand the death throes of this rich and captivating tradition and, in the labyrinth of the Marrakech medina, has tracked down the last few remaining storytellers, recording stories that are replete with the mysteries and beauty of the Maghreb.

This is the extraordinary book that initiated the Harmonic Convergence in August 1987 and awakened the world to the Mayan Calendar. In it, Jose Arguelles revealed three revolutionary ideas: that a great moment of human transformation awaited us as we approached 2012: that there are galactic "seasons" and that the Maya accurately recorded them; and that each person had the capability to connect directly with the energy of a beam emanating from the galactic center that contains the power to awaken the higher mind.

Within every woman there is a wild and natural creature, a powerful force, filled with good instincts, passionate creativity, and ageless knowing. Her name is Wild Woman, but she is an endangered species. Though the gifts of wildish nature come to us at birth, society's attempt to "civilize" us into rigid roles has plundered this treasure, and muffled the deep, life-giving messages of our own souls. Without Wild Woman, we become over-domesticated, fearful, uncreative, trapped. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D., Jungian analyst and cantadora storyteller, shows how woman's vitality can be restored through what she calls "psychic archeological digs" into the bins of the female unconscious. In Women Who Run with the Wolves, Dr. Estes uses multicultural myths, fairy tales, folk tales, and stories chosen from over twenty years of research that help women reconnect with the healthy, instinctual, visionary attributes of the Wild Woman archetype. Dr. Estes collects the bones of many stories, looking for the archetypal motifs that set a woman's inner life into motion. "La Loba" teaches about the transformative function of the psyche. In "Bluebeard", we learn what to do with wounds that will not heal; in "Skeleton Woman", we glimpse the mystical power of relationship and how dead feelings can be revived; "Vasalisa the Wise" brings our lost womanly instincts to the surface again; "The Handless Maiden" recovers the Wild Woman initiation rites; and "The Little Match Girl" warns against the insidious dangers of a life spent in fantasy. In these and other stories, we focus on the many qualities of Wild Woman. We retrieve, examine, love, and understand her, and hold her against our deep psyches as one whois both magic and medicine. In Women Who Run with the Wolves, Dr. Estes has created a new lexicon for describing the female psyche. Fertile and lifegiving, it is a psychology of women in the truest sense, a knowing of the soul.

With gorgeous full-color illustrations, ornate decorative elements, lettering in metallic ink, and engaging text, The Language of Flowers: A Fully Illustrated Compendium of Meaning, Literature, and Lore for the Modern Romantic is a treasure for flower lovers. A sumptuous, contemporary anthology of 50 of the world's most storied and popular flowers, each of its entries offers insight to the meaning associated with the flower, and is a fascinating mix of foklore, classic mythology, literature, botanical information and popular culture. Following an introduction that provides a short history of the language of flowers, a fad which reached its peak during the reign of Queen Victoria, each uniquely illustrated and designed entry is an enjoyable read full of history and little-known facts. Here is the story of Tulipmania; how the pansy got its "face," and why the most particular pollination process of a certain orchid has made the vanilla bean a very dear commodity. You'll also dicover how Christian Dior's passion for lily of the valley inspired his classic perfume Diorissimo and its extraordinary bottle; why Oscar Wilde had a penchant for wearing green carnations in his lapel; and how Greeks and Romans believed snapdragons could ward off witchcraft, so they planted them at entryways to their homes. With more than a dozen two-page paintings evoking the romance of noteworthy Victorian gardens and symbolic bouquets, a cross-referenced index of flowers and meanings, and suggestions for further reading, this book is a must for lovers of floriology and Victoriana.

This is a comprehensive and lively introduction to the Greek gods and goddesses, their adventures and the lessons to be learned from their stories.

Religion and magic have often played important roles in Baltic, Eastern European, and post- USSR societies like those in Russia, Romania, Serbia, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, and Estonia. Taken together, the studies presented in this collection suggest that the idea that religion and magic are connected to each other in some consistent, universal way may be nothing more than a reminiscence from nineteenth century anthropology. Further, these studies challenge another part of anthropology's historical legacy: the idea that magic is something that modernity and modernization will transcend. Rather, these studies suggest instead that magic is a form of work that brings modernity into being and helps render it intelligible to those who find themselves engaged in its creation. This volume brings together historical (pre- and post-1989), ethnographic, and areal studies which look at the divergent roles of state, culture, society, tradition, and the individual in enactments of magic and religion. Assessing the role magic and religion have played in the countries of Eastern Europe and beyond before and after the Cold War, it is an absorbing read for scholars of anthropology and history as well as ethnology.

"Ablaze with passion for the one essential task of the monk: total inner transformation." --Brother David Stendl-Rast

"Libraries offering titles on mysticism, inner transformation, or dealing with grief will find this a unique and welcome addition."--"Library Journal"

This powerful book, written by an Episcopal priest, tells of her intense relationship with Brother Raphael Robin, a seventy-year-old Trappist monk and hermit. Both believed that a relationship can continue beyond this life, and here Cynthia Bourgeault describes her search for that connection before and after Robin's death. Bourgeault's previous books include "The Wisdom Jesus" and "Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening."

Matt Hopwood set off with just a small bag and a walking stick, no possessions and an open mind to walk many hundreds of miles the length and breadth of the country. He relied entirely on the generosity of strangers for shelter and asked people to tell him their transforming stories. They did. All of these deeply enthralling, profoundly honest stories weave a web of tenderness, connection, compassion and community. For some people their love story will span decades and tell a tale of romantic love evolving through the passing years. Others' stories express fleeting moments of connection, care, concern. Most love stories are marked by sadness and loss. Some stories are concerned with maternal and paternal love, others with a love of place, a visceral connection with spirit through landscape. Love stories also connect deeply with our identities, in how we belong and how we are welcomed in society. Each story is different. Each beautiful. Each valuable.

A luminous translation of Arabic tales of enchantment and wonder Known to us only through North African manuscripts, and translated into English for the first time, A Hundred and One Nights is a marvelous example of the rich tradition of popular Arabic storytelling. Like its more famous sibling, the Thousand and One Nights, this collection opens with the frame story of Shahrazad, the gifted vizier's daughter who recounts imaginative tales night after night in an effort to distract the murderous king from taking her life. A Hundred and One Nights features an almost entirely different set of stories, however, each one more thrilling, amusing, and disturbing than the last. In them, we encounter tales of epic warriors, buried treasures, disappearing brides, cannibal demon women, fatal shipwrecks, and clever ruses, where human strength and ingenuity play out against a backdrop of inexorable, inscrutable fate. Although these tales draw on motifs and story elements that circulated across cultures, A Hundred and One Nights is distinctly rooted in Arabic literary culture and the Islamic tradition. It is also likely much older than Thousand and One Nights, drawing on Indian and Chinese antecedents. This careful edition and vibrant translation of A Hundred and One Nights promises to transport readers, new and veteran alike, into its fantastical realms of magic and wonder. A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

The Compendium of Magical Beasts is a definitive field guide that explores the anatomy of mythology's most elusive creatures, compiling the findings of controversial early twentieth century cryptozoologist, feminist, and explorer Dr. Veronica Wigberht-Blackwater. Approaching the fantastic with a scientific eye, Dr. Veronica explains the history, habits, and biology of each creature's existence with equal attention to detail. Her research is accompanied by stunning scientific illustrations of each specimen's anatomy, providing a comprehensive view of creatures most often dismissed as pure fantasy. Combining biological fact with folklore, cultural studies, and history, this volume is crucial to science both fringe and mainstream. Locked in a dusty attic for almost a century, Dr. Wigberht-Blackwater's trailblazing work was recently discovered by writer Melissa Brinks, who spent months transcribing the journals she found. Brinks joined forces with artist Lily Seika Jones to digitize the doctor's amazingly detailed anatomical diagrams in order to share these revolutionary findings with the world for the first time. The Bestiary: Mermaid, Unicorn, Wild Man, Gnome, Werewolf, Troll, Fairy, Jackalope, Winged Horse, Centaur, Minotaur, Vampire, Dragon, Sea Monsters/Loch Ness/Kraken, Goblin, Sphinx, Phoenix, Harpy, Cyclops, Banshee, Incubus/Succubus, Nymph, Ghoul, Selkie, Kelpie

If wonder tales are not abundant in England, other kinds of folktales thrive: local traditions, historical legends, humorous anecdotes. Many of the favorite tales which English-speaking peoples carry with them from childhood come from a long tradition--stories as familiar to Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Spenser, and their many contemporaries as they are to us.
"This is a fine, homely feast, immediately intelligble. . . ."--"Times Educational Supplement "
." . . should be of special concern to Americans since many of the tales are parallel to or the source of our own folk stories."--"Choice "
"This is entertainment, to be sure, but is also part of man's attempts to comprehend his world."--"Quartet "
""Folktales of England "is by all odds the most satisfactory general collection of folktales to come out of England since the advent of modern collection and classification techniques."--Ernest W. Baughman, "Journal of American Folklore "

Pearl, a dream vision, presents its poignant story of the education of a misguided Christian soul in metrically intricate and verbally ornate stanzas that add up to an overarching numerical design. Together with these two, Patience, Cleanness, and Saint Erkenwald make up the complete works of their anonymous author. All exhibit the dramatizing powers and metrical virtuosity of a master-poet. But none became part of the established literary canon until the second half of the nineteenth century, when the single manuscript copies in which they survive were edited and printed. Taken together, these works offer us a wide-ranging portrait of life in the late Middle Ages from the point of view of an independent-minded, learned, and cosmopolitan Englishman, a man as conversant with the conduct of life in great households as with Christian tradition and doctrine. He knew, among other things, how to sail a medieval passenger ship from its mooring to open sea, how to dress the carcass of a deer or a boar at the end of a royal hunt, and how a knight might flatter a noble and beautiful lady in the most intimate of situations while politely evading her seductive overtures.

There are zombies among us! From the rotting hordes of TV's The Walking Dead to the blockbuster nightmare of 28 Days Later, our popular culture is overrun with the ravenous undead. But where do these strange creatures come from? In this fascinating book, artist and writer John Cussans tracks the zombie from Hollywood back to its origins in the voodoo folklore of Haiti. At once a visceral analysis of dubious racial myth, pop-cultural history and philosophical provocation, Undead Uprising asks how voodoo possession and zombie labourers have come to mould Haiti's fascinating national identity.

Primitive art is inseparable from primitive consciousness and can be correctly understood only with the correct socio-cultural context. This book examines the ancient art of Siberia as part of the integral whole of ancient society.

"I lived in a haunted apartment." Davisson opens this definitive work on Japan's ghosts, or yurei, with a personal tale about the spirit world. Shifting from anecdotes to deep research to translation of ancient ghost stories, he explores the persistence of yurei in modern Japan and their continued popularity throughout the West. Color images of yurei appear throughout the book.

Introduce your little one to fables and fairy tales from around the world with this spellbinding series of board books for children. Every day, an old woman fetches water from the river using two pots. One of the pots leaks, but the old woman sees the good that the leaking pot brings to the world. This charming re-telling of the Chinese tale is the perfect length for bedtime reading and Maja Andersen's colourful illustrations bring the magic and wonder of the tale to life. It is sure to be a storybook that little ones will treasure forever.

In this volume Levi-Strauss explores the mythologies of the Americas, with occasional incursions into European and Japanese folklore, tales of sloths and squirrels interweave with discussions of Freud, Saussure, "signification," and plays by Sophocles and Labiche. The author also critiques psychoanalytic interpretation and defends the interpretive powers of structuralism.