World Mythology: A Very Short Introduction

World Mythology: A Very Short Introduction is organized around universal motifs: Creation, the Flood, the Hero Quest, the Trickster/Culture Hero, the Pantheons, the High God, and the Great Goddess. David Leeming compares 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 and exposing their universal significance, creating a "world mythology."

David A. Leeming received his BA from Princeton University and his PhD from NYU. He taught for eight years at Robert College in Istanbul and for many years as a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Connecticut. Leeming is the author of many books on the mythologies of various cultures, including the Oxford Companion to World Mythology and The World of Myth.