This Book Is A Result Of The Ongoing Activity Centered On Discovering And Understanding The Mythic, Religions, Social And Legal Underpinnings Of The Ancient Indo-European-Speaking Continuum In Terms Of Their Oldest Or Most Archaic Manifestations. Without Dustcover, Spine Slightly Damaged At Bottom, Ex-Libris, Usual Library Stamps And Markings, Text Absolutely Clean, Condition Good.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1974.

In myth, author Puhvel argues, a human group expresses the thought patterns by which it formulates self-cognition and self-realization, attains self-knowledge and self-confidence, explains its own sources and sometimes tries to chart its destinies. Here, Puhvel unravels the prehistoric origins of the traditions of India and Iran, Greece and Rome, of the Celts, Germans, Balts, and Slavs. Utilizing the methodologies of historical linguistics and archaeology, he reconstructs a shared prehistorical religious, mythological, and cultural heritage. Separate chapters on individual traditions as well as on recurrent themes give life to the book as both a general introduction and a detailed reference.--From publisher description.

From its ancient incarnation as a song to recent translations in modern languages, Homeric epic remains an abiding source of inspiration for both scholars and artists that transcends temporal and linguistic boundaries. The Cambridge Guide to Homer examines the influence and meaning of Homeric poetry from its earliest form as ancient Greek song to its current status in world literature, presenting the information in a synthetic manner that allows the reader to gain an understanding of the different strands of Homeric studies. The volume is structured around three main themes: Homeric Song and Text; the Homeric World, and Homer in the World. Each section starts with a series of 'macropedia' essays arranged thematically that are accompanied by shorter complementary 'micropedia' articles. The Cambridge Guide to Homer thus traces the many routes taken by Homeric epic in the ancient world and its continuing relevance in different periods and cultures.

This highly original study in comparative mythology interprets the Greek myths in the light of the mythologies of other Indo-European cultures: Indian, Celtic, Scandinavian, Roman, Greek, Iranian and Ossetian. Julian Baldick uses a modified version of the schema proposed by the French theorist Dumezil - little known and often misunderstood in the Anglo-Saxon world - to consider the profound connections between such works as the Iliad, the Odyssey, the great Indian epics - the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the Iranian Book of Kings and the Scandinavian Ynglingasaga. The book includes a long critical exposition of the discipline of comparative mythology from its eighteenth-century origins to the revival of the discipline by Dumezil and his followers from 1938 to the present. Also reassessing the profound critique of Dumezil which linked him with far-right ideology, Baldick's book is an important new contribution to work on comparative mythology.

Twenty-two internationally known linguists, anthropologists, and archaeologists discuss such questions as the original home of the Indo-Europeans, their migration, religiomythic beliefs, and legal customs in the most comprehensive treatment of Indo-European culture in recent times.