A Short History of Myth

“Human beings have always been mythmakers.” So begins best-selling writer Karen Armstrong’s concise yet compelling investigation into myth: what it is, how it has evolved, and why we still so desperately need it. She takes us from the Paleolithic period and the myths of the hunters right up to the “Great Western Transformation” of the last five hundred years and the discrediting of myth by science. The history of myth is the history of humanity, our stories and beliefs, our curiosity and attempts to understand the world, which link us to our ancestors and each other. Heralding a major series of retellings of international myths by authors from around the world, Armstrong’s characteristically insightful and eloquent book serves as a brilliant and thought-provoking introduction to myth in the broadest sense—and explains why if we dismiss it, we do so at our peril.

• The Lost Art of Scripture
• Gilgamesh: A New English Version
• The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions
• The Lost Art of Scripture: Rescuing the Sacred Texts
• Religion as We Know It: An Origin Story
• Ceremony: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
• Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative
• The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness
• Eating in the Underworld (Wesleyan Poetry Series)
• A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam