Mythopedia

A Brief Compendium of Natural History Lore

Adrienne Mayor, Michele M. Angel

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Hardback

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English

Princeton University Pres
07 October 2025

Religion & beliefs; Folklore, myths & legends; History of science; The natural world, country life & pets

Series: Pedia Books

From acclaimed folklorist and historian Adrienne Mayor, an enchanting collection of the ancient myths that emerged out of the wonders

and disasters

of the natural world.

Mythopedia is a fun, fact-filled A-Z treasury of myths inspired by natural events. Bringing together fifty legends from antiquity to the present, this delightfully entertaining book takes you around the world to explore sunken kingdoms and lost cities, accursed mountains and treacherous terrains, and lethal lakes and singing sand dunes, explaining the historical background and latest science underlying each tale.

As soon as humans invented language, they told stories to explain mysterious things they observed around them

on land, in the seas, and in the skies. Even though these tales are expressed in poetic or supernatural language, they contain surprisingly accurate insights and even eyewitness descriptions of catastrophic events millennia ago. Drawing on her unique insights as a pioneer in the exciting new field of geomythology, Adrienne Mayor describes how cultural memories of tsunamis, volcanic disasters, and other massive geological events can reach back thousands of years as the stories were preserved, elaborated, told, and retold across generations. She shows how geomythology is expanding our understanding of our planet's history over eons, revealing the human desire to explain nature and weave imaginative stories intertwined with keen observation, rational speculation, and memory.

With captivating drawings by Michele Angel, Mythopedia is a compendium of many marvels, from the Hindu monkey god Hanuman and his army of bridge-building primates to the terrifying sand demon Shensha shen of China, the gnawing glaciers of Austria, and the vengeful fish-headed snake god Nyami Nyami of Africa's Zambezi River.

By: Adrienne Mayor
Illustrated by: Michele M. Angel
Imprint: Princeton University Pres
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 171mm, Width: 114mm,
ISBN: 9780691247861
ISBN 10: 0691247862
Series: Pedia Books
Pages: 216
Publication Date: 07 October 2025
Audience: General/trade , Professional and scholarly , General/trade , ELT Advanced , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Adrienne Mayor is the author of many books, including The Poison King, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and The Amazons (both Princeton). She is a research scholar in classics and the history of science at Stanford University. Michele M. Angel is an award-winning watercolorist, illustrator, and graphic designer.

Reviews for Mythopedia: A Brief Compendium of Natural History Lore

""This engaging and accessible volume is appropriate for laypeople and scholars of interdisciplinary fields connecting anthropology, disaster studies, folklore, science, and history."" * Library Journal * ""Folklorist and historian Mayor, author of the National Book Award finalist The Poison King, draws on the new field of geomythology to explain the historical background and science behind 53 legends and myths of the earth. . . . A fascinating catalog of ancient cultures and unique geological events."" * Kirkus Reviews *