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: Myth: A Very Short Introduction
  
  This book by Robert A. Segal is a concise, elegant, erudite overview of the
  major nineteenth and twentieth century theories of myth, using the Adonis
  narrative as a litmus test case for various approaches.  
   _Alan Dundes, Professor of Anthropology and Folklore,  
  University of California, Berkeley_
  
  A delightfully clear, engagingly organized, and remarkably comprehensive
  treatment of theories of myth.  
   _Ivan Strenski, Holstein Family and Community Professor, Department of
  Religious Studies, University of California at Riverside_
  
  This is the most helpful orientation to the field of mythological studies that
  I have ever encountered.  
   _John Beebe, M.D., Past President, The C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco_
  
  Segal writes to be understood and to instruct … One learns from the book much
  that will encourage and ease further reading.  
   _William M. Calder III, William Abbott Oldfather Professor of the Classics,
  University of Illinois at Urbana/Champai