世界の神話を比較してみると、それぞれが民族や文化・文明と結びついていることがわかると同時に、神話には人類の創造や「神」という概念のようなテーマやモチーフが存在することに気づかされます。本書はギリシア、エジプト、スカンジナビア、アメリカ先住民、アフリカ、ポリネシア、ユダヤ、キリスト教、ヒンドゥーなどさまざまな文化圏の例を、それぞれが抱いた理想として捉え比較分析し、神話に流れる世界共通の本質・意義を考察します。
 

• Comprehensively collects myths in a way not done previously in other collections
• Offers lively retellings of stories that entertain as well as teach
• Provides analysis of myths geared to both academic and general audiences

   
The mythologies of the world are collective cultural dreams, and as such should be analyzed first from cultural perspectives. How do myths of the ancient Egyptians or Greeks, for instance, reflect the realities of the Egyptian and Greek cultures? When compared, however, mythologies reveal certain universal themes or motifs that point to larger trans-cultural issues such as the place of the human species in creation or the nature of deity as a concept.
    
World Mythology: A Very Short Introduction is organized around the universal motifs. Creation, the Flood, the Hero Quest, the Trickster/Culture Hero, the Pantheons, the High God, the Great Goddess. Veteran mythology scholar David Leeming examines examples of each motif from a variety of cultures—Greek, Egyptian, Norse, American Indian, African, Polynesian, Jewish, Christian, Hindu—treating them as reflections of the cultures that "dreamed" them. He compares and analyzes them, exposing their universal significance and creating a "world mythology."