title: Introduction to Mythology: Contemporary Approaches to Classical and World Myths
author: Eva M. Thury
description: <br />"<em>Introduction to Mythology</em> is a first-class textbook. I have looked around at many other texts and there are very few with the breadth and depth of this book."--Marjorie Berman, <em>Red Rocks Community College</em>
zlib_text: 
  
  
  ## Don’t Know Much About® Mythology
  
  
  Everything You Need to Know About the Greatest Stories in Human History But
  Never Learned
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Kenneth C. Davis
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  For my Muse,  
  Joann
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I want to know what were the steps by which men passed from barbarism to
  civilization.
  
  
  —VOLTAIRE
  
  
  
  
  
  Throughout the inhabited world, in all times, and under every circumstance,
  the myths of man have flourished; and they have been the living inspiration of
  whatever else may have appeared out of the activities of the human body and
  mind….
  
  
  —JOSEPH CAMPBELL,  
  The Hero with a Thousand Faces
  
  
  
  
  
  We have not met our forgotten ancestors, but we begin to sense their presence
  in the dark. We recognize their shadows here and there. They were once as real
  as we are. We would not be here if not for them. Our natures and theirs are
  indissolubly linked despite the aeons that may separate us. The key to who we
  are is waiting in those shadows.
  
  
  —CARL SAGAN and ANN DRUYAN,  
  Shadows of Forgotten Ancesto