The religious scholar offers, as the title suggests, a short survey of classical mythology.
Critic Reviews
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Favorable
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Boston Globe Amanda Heller
More intriguing than the historical generalizations in this surface-skimming survey are Armstrong's thoughts on the purpose of myth, which was to create meaning and cohesion in a society by inspiring ''imitation or participation, not passive contemplation."
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Favorable
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Daily Telegraph David Flusfeder
Elegantly argued and consistently thought-provoking.
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Favorable
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Los Angeles Times Susan Salter Reynolds
Armstrong walks us through the ages, from the myths of the Paleolithic hunters, through the Neolithic farmers' rituals to replenish creative energy, through the rise of cities and the separation from nature ("people no longer experienced the sacred as easily as their ancestors") to the "death of
mythology" in the "Great Western Transformation," when logos and fact replaced myth, or at least chased it into the realm of fiction. [30 Oct 2005, p. R11]
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Favorable
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The New York Times Book Review Caroline Alexander
Succinct and cleanly written, [A Short History of Myth] is hugely readable and, in its journey across the epochs of human experience, often moving.
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Favorable
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TLS: The Times Literary Supplement Carolyne Larrington
Armstrong cites George Steiner, asserting that art, like myth and "certain kinds of religious and metaphysical experience", is a "transcendent encounter that tells us, in effect: 'change your life'". This brings A Short History of Myth neatly back to the series of literary retellings which it is designed to introduce, but much has been leapt over on the way, including the subjects of the first two volumes.
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Favorable
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The Guardian Nicholas Lezard
George Eliot's Casaubon, you will recall, was working on the key to all mythologies. This massive work remained uncompleted as he lay on his deathbed. What a pity he did not have this little work to help him on his way.
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Mixed
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The Independent Stevie Davies
Armstrong has provided a valiant and readable account, clearly and concisely written, though as woolly in its methodology as the woolly ponies it describes on the walls of the Palaeolithic subterranean caverns of Altamira and Lascaux.
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Mixed
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Washington Post Elizabeth Hand
[Armstrong's] essay here is serviceable.
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Mixed
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The Spectator Sam Leith
[A Short History of Myth] sets itself too formidable a task to be accomplished in 150-odd pages of non-academic prose.
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Mixed
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Salon Laura Miller
At heart, Armstrong writes about religion, not literature, and her "A Short History of Myth" isn't a very satisfying lead-in to a collection of fictional works.
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Mixed
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Daily Telegraph Christopher Tayler
Armstrong's book is a readable, informed introduction to a fascinating subject, but her emphasis on myth's cultic origins makes it a slightly daunting preface to a series of contemporary retellings.
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Unfavorable
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The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Donald Harman Akenson
[Armstrong] opens with a banality, "Human beings have always been mythmakers," and proceeds to a palpable untruth: "Our modern alienation from myth is unprecedented." [22 Oct 2005]
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