Learn about compelling worlds and characters depicted in myths and legends in The Mythology Book. Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Mythology in this overview guide to the subject, brilliant for novices looking to find out more and experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The Mythology Book brings a fresh and vibrant take on the topic through eye-catching graphics and diagrams to immerse yourself in. This captivating book will broaden your understanding of Mythology, with: - More than 80 classics retold and explained in mythology - Packed with facts, charts, timelines and graphs to help explain core concepts - A visual approach to big subjects with striking illustrations and graphics throughout - Easy to follow text makes topics accessible for people at any level of understanding The Mythology Book allows you delve into each myth, discover the meanings behind them, and understand their significance to different cultures worldwide - aimed at adults with an interest in the subject and wanting to gain more of an overview. Here you'll find global coverage of world myths, profiling everything from the well-known tales of the Greeks, Norsemen, and Egyptians to the legends of the Caribbean, the Americas, Oceania, and East Asia. Your Mythological Questions, Simply Explained Learn about myths in this essential guide, from early creation beliefs to classical hero narratives and the recurring theme of the afterlife. Delve into each myth and discover the meanings behind these stories, getting to the heart of their significance to different cultures worldwide. If you thought it was difficult to learn about the many classic stories, The Mythology Book presents key information in a clear layout. Discover Zeus, god of the sky and ruler of the Olympian gods, Loki, the cunning trickster with a knack for causing havoc, Thor with his mighty hammer, and Hades, ruler of the underworld - and much more. The Big Ideas Series With millions of copies sold worldwide, The Mythology Book is part of the award-winning Big Ideas series from DK. The series uses striking graphics along with engaging writing, making big topics easy to understand.

In The Revival of the Anu Cult and the Nocturnal Fire Ceremony at Late Babylonian Uruk, Julia Krul offers a comprehensive study of the rise of the sky god Anu as patron deity of Uruk in the Late Babylonian period (ca. 480-100 B.C.). She reconstructs the historical development of the Anu cult, its underlying theology, and its daily rites of worship, with a particular focus on the yearly nocturnal fire ceremony at the Anu temple, the Bit Res. Providing the first in-depth analysis of the ceremony, Julia Krul convincingly identifies it as a seasonal renewal festival with an important exorcistic component, but also as a reinforcement of local hierarchical relationships and the elite status of the Anu priesthood. "With this study, Krul adds significantly to the research on Babylonian temple rituals in general, providing a useful methodology and survey of secondary sources....This book offers an excellent in-depth analysis of the nocturnal fire ceremony as it could have been celebrated at Hellenistic Uruk. It forms a good starting-point for comparison with and further study of other Late Babylonian rituals from both Uruk and Babylon." - Celine Debourse, Vienna, in: Wiener Zeitschrift fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes 109 (2019) "The book is essentially a commentary on a late cuneiform text from 3rd-century BCE Uruk describing a nocturnal sacrificial ritual held annually on the winter solstice (16 Tevet). The text itself is well known, having first been published by F. Thureau-Dangin in his classic work Rituels accadiens (1921), but this book is the most comprehensive far-reaching commentary on this important text, with valuable extraneous information [...]. There is much valuable data in this book regarding late Babylonian ritual practice, couched in an informative narrative." -Markham J. Geller, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 43.5 (2019)

Hieroglyphs are sacred carvings incised, to convey rebus substantive messages in Meluhha. Symbols associated with divinities and tree of life are Meluhha sacred carvings. Many carvings relate to specific varieties of plants, buds, flowers which are associated with sacredness because they connote -- rebus -- metal artifacts of a kole.l 'smithy/forge' which is, kole.l 'temple'. Archaeological evidences from Ancient Near East point to the practice of worship in temples of divinities associated with these hieroglyphs. Kabbalah of the Ancient Near East is a synonym of agama of Indian tradition with the roots found in Meluhha as a visible language. Both traditions venerate altars as models of temples. What lessons can be learnt from the evidences to delineate the roots of religious experiences of our ancestors? This inquiry primarily based on archaeologically attested artifacts is an incomplete religious inquiry. Kabbalah is a school of thought, a magnificent statement resulting from an intense inquiry into the nature of phenomena including living and non-living forms and cosmic order. One thought is apparent and central. There is some energy which permeates the universe and a name ws given to this energy, calling it by various appellations includes divine creation which can only be modeled on hieroglyphs. The hieroglyphs then become attributes of that divinity manifested in the cultural world order. When the king kneels in adoration in front of an altar which has as the center-piece a mere staff or pole, how did he vocalise the phenomenon which the sculpture has created? Is the sculpture an attempt at representing thought resulting from the inquiry? Or is it just a limited manifestation of the sculptor's life-experience? Or, is it a model of the ziggurat, the temple itself? Ziggurat as a temple is a leap in inquiry. It is a mere accumulation, a piling up of dhatu, earth forms containing minerals and what is left of minerals, may be ashes, after the processes in the crucible, smithy and forge. Or, is it a memory of accumulated memories bequeathed by ancestors in a life-continuum? The agama tradition in ancient India also has its roots in inquiry resulting in representation of attributes in human and non-human forms in an architectural model of a temple. The story of the agama and the kabbalah has to be fully told to understand the boundaries of the sacred observed and practised as religious experience. What is the difference between hakira (philosophy) and darash (inquire, seek ) Is the darash traceable to the Indian traditions of dars'ana? How do Rabbinic meanings ( midrashic) explain the traditions evolved over time, narrated in Tanakh? Is there a cosmic law? The sememe dars'an has its root dRs', 'to see'. Is the seeing mere visual experience or an experience of the conscious mind? The beholding could be a series of flashes or glimpses seen by the inquirer. The cognate wor darash thus becomes a series of events, related or unrelated. events of conscious thought of the devotee. A fantastic metaphor emerges in the Vis'warupa, divine, wondrous manifestation holding many weapons, ornamented with celestial flowers and perfumes. Before such a form, the devotee kneels down in adoration, like Tukulti-Ninurta I (1243-1207 BCE), King of Assyria or like Arjuna in front of Sri Krishna as narrated in the Mahabharata and the Gita. Is there any significance or meaning assignable, from a narrative, which refers to artifacts of gypsum, strong copper and the Magilum boat of Meluhha fame, apart from Anzu who had stolen the tablet of destiny? It appears that Meluhhan artificer who created a writing system referred to strong copper by using the rebus metaphor of the sunflower, karaDa which also connoted 'strong copper' or hard alloy. When copper was hardened by alloying, it became 'useful' or 'meaningful' as a resource for making weapons and tools or as a resource for engaging in trade transactions using the Magilum boat.

"The Saga of the Volsungs" is an Icelandic epic of special interest to admirers of Richard Wagner, who drew heavily upon this Norse source in writing his "Ring Cycle" and a primary source for writers of fantasy such as J.R.R. Tolkien and romantics such as William Morris. A trove of traditional lore, it tells of love, jealousy, vengeance, war, and the mythic deeds of the dragonslayer, Sigurd the Volsung. Byock's comprehensive introduction explores the history, legends, and myths contained in the saga and traces the development of a narrative that reaches back to the period of the great folk migrations in Europe when the Roman Empire collapsed.

It was my intent to make some beautiful and resonant rune sets from local and natural places all over the USA, from the beaches of California to the beaches of Virginia. Some of my favorite sets are made of fragments of the most beautiful petrified wood I have seen. But a Rune set must needs at least the barest minimum of an introduction to their meaning and what to do with them. But remember, this is the barest of bare information wise. So the Rune Set you will receive, once you purchase this booklet, is the truth of what i have to share with you.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1822 Edition.