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- Herausgeber: Booksell-Verlag
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Sprache: Englisch
In "1000 Mythological Characters Briefly Described," Edward Sylvester Ellis provides an exhaustive compendium of mythological figures from diverse cultures, encapsulating their narratives and significance in a format that is accessible yet intellectually stimulating. The literary style reflects an encyclopedic approach, combining clarity with scholarly rigor, making it an invaluable resource for students and enthusiasts of mythology. Ellis contextualizes characters within their respective mythos, illustrating their impact on cultural narratives and illustrating themes such as heroism, creation, and morality. In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading experience: - A succinct Introduction situates the work's timeless appeal and themes. - The Synopsis outlines the central plot, highlighting key developments without spoiling critical twists. - A detailed Historical Context immerses you in the era's events and influences that shaped the writing. - A thorough Analysis dissects symbols, motifs, and character arcs to unearth underlying meanings. - Reflection questions prompt you to engage personally with the work's messages, connecting them to modern life. - Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance. - Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019
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1000 Mythological Characters Briefly Described
Table of Contents
Introduction
Across cultures and centuries, the same human questions take shape as unforgettable names and faces. Edward Sylvester Ellis’s 1000 Mythological Characters Briefly Described presents a compact gateway to that shared imaginative landscape, offering swift identifications of a broad range of figures. Rather than retelling long cycles or arguing scholarly points, it delivers concise sketches that help readers recognize who is who, why a name matters, and where a character belongs within a tradition. The result is a practical companion for orienting oneself in the vast territory of myth, where memory, symbol, and story intersect in enduring patterns.
This work belongs to the tradition of reference handbooks, compiled by the American author Edward Sylvester Ellis, who was active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It situates itself not within a single narrative setting, but across multiple mythological worlds, presenting characters from varied traditions in a uniform, approachable manner. The focus is informational rather than interpretive, making it useful to anyone encountering mythic names in literature, history, or the arts. In this sense, it reflects a period of publishing that valued concise summaries designed to make complex subjects quickly accessible to a broad readership.
Readers can expect a brisk, no-frills experience: clear, compact entries that prioritize recognition and recall over exhaustive analysis. The book is designed for dipping in and out—ideal for checking a passing reference, refreshing memory, or starting a broader exploration. Its voice is steady and neutral, favoring straightforward description and economy of language. That economy is its core promise: it gives you enough to identify a figure’s role and significance, while leaving space for further reading elsewhere. As a result, it functions both as a starting point for newcomers and a handy aide-mémoire for seasoned enthusiasts.
At heart, the volume showcases the breadth of mythic imagination—gods, heroes, heroines, monsters, culture-bringers, tricksters, and guardians—through the shared lens of succinct description. By placing such diverse personages side by side, it foregrounds recurring concerns: creation and order, fate and freedom, transgression and repair, courage and cunning, love and loss. While it does not argue for theories or draw explicit comparisons, the juxtapositions invite readers to notice parallels and contrasts. In this way, it quietly encourages comparative curiosity, prompting questions about how different communities explain the world and encode values through story.
For contemporary readers, the relevance is immediate. Mythic names appear everywhere—in literature curricula, museum labels, film and games—and a reliable, compact guide helps decode those references without demanding specialist background. Students gain a quick anchor for study; general readers get context that enriches enjoyment; writers and creators find a catalog of figures that can spark imagination or lend depth to new work. The book’s brevity makes it a practical tool: it offers essential identifications that clarify rather than overwhelm, supporting a clearer path into more detailed sources when deeper inquiry calls.
The style favors clarity and utility. Entries are concise, focused on who a character is known to be within a tradition and the core associations that define that figure’s place in story. The tone is even-handed and informational, avoiding technical jargon and speculative commentary. This restraint is particularly helpful in a field where variations abound, because it centers on widely recognized attributes and roles. By serving as a dependable baseline, the book helps readers build a mental map: remembering functions, relationships, and spheres of influence without getting lost in specialized debate.
Taken together, 1000 Mythological Characters Briefly Described offers a disciplined introduction to a sprawling subject, a reminder that clarity can coexist with wonder. It is not an endpoint but a launchpad—one that equips readers to approach longer epics, scholarly studies, and artistic reinterpretations with confidence. In an age of abundant but uneven information, its curated succinctness remains valuable. It marks out the contours of a vast terrain, then invites further travel, helping newcomers and seasoned readers alike keep their bearings as they navigate the enduring stories humanity tells about itself.
Synopsis
1000 Mythological Characters Briefly Described, by Edward Sylvester Ellis, is a compact reference that catalogs named figures, places, and objects from mythology. Organized alphabetically, it offers quick identifications aimed at readers who encounter mythic allusions in literature, history, and art. Each entry summarizes a figure’s domain, attributes, relationships, and notable associations, keeping explanations terse and factual. The book avoids critical debate and storytelling in favor of concise definitions, often noting alternate forms of a name. The work’s central purpose is utility: to provide a ready guide to key names across the mythological record without extended commentary or interpretive framing.
The introductory material states the handbook’s scope and method. Ellis emphasizes breadth with restraint, privileging names most frequently cited in classical education and general reading. Greek and Roman traditions receive substantial space, while notable figures from Norse, Egyptian, and other civilizations appear in proportion to their presence in common sources. Entries focus on the most recognized traits—parentage, sphere of influence, emblems, and kinships—omitting speculative variants unless widely attested. The alphabetical arrangement enables rapid consultation; cross-references direct the reader from variant spellings to principal forms and between related characters. The tone remains neutral, providing identification rather than analysis or narrative synthesis.
Coverage of Greek and Roman mythology forms the backbone of the book. Olympian and Titan genealogies are outlined through compact notes on Zeus and Jupiter, Hera and Juno, Athena and Minerva, and other divine counterparts. Heroes and heroines appear in similar fashion, with brief descriptions specifying lineage and the cycles with which they are associated, such as the Trojan War, the Argonauts, and Theban legends. Personified abstractions—Fate, Victory, Sleep—are identified alongside nymphs, muses, graces, and lesser divinities. The entries typically mark Roman equivalents, common epithets, and emblematic attributes, allowing readers to trace relationships without recounting the long narratives of epic or tragedy.
The selection extends to Norse and Germanic materials, concisely describing the Aesir and Vanir, leading figures like Odin, Thor, and Freyja, and the cosmological setting of Asgard, Midgard, and the world-tree. Dwarfs, giants, and elves are noted with their characteristic roles, while pivotal concepts—Valhalla or an ultimate world-ending battle—are defined without elaboration. Variant spellings and anglicized forms are acknowledged, guiding readers from alternate names to principal entries. The treatment is consistent with the handbook’s overall method: identifying a figure’s function and relationships, naming emblematic weapons or animals when relevant, and pointing to associated beings through short, factual cross-references.
Egyptian deities and sacred beings are included in brief entries that identify domains, attributes, and familial ties. Gods such as Ra, Osiris, Isis, and Horus are outlined with emblematic symbols and relationships, alongside Anubis, Thoth, Sekhmet, and others. Near Eastern figures—drawn from Mesopotamian, Phoenician, and related traditions—appear where commonly referenced, with succinct notes on roles like fertility, war, or the underworld. Mythic locales and objects, including realms of the dead or ritual items, receive similarly compact treatment. The emphasis remains on recognizable identifications rather than regional variations, providing a straightforward guide to names encountered in general reading and reference.
Selections from South and East Asian traditions appear in proportion to their circulation in Western reference works of the period. Entries name primary Hindu deities—Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva—and their consorts, as well as widely known avatars and heroes. Where included, Buddhist and Chinese figures are noted by role and attribute, such as merciful bodhisattvas or celestial administrators, and Japanese names are identified in relation to sun, storm, or sea. The descriptions remain brief, foregrounding domains, emblems, and kinships, and may point to common alternate spellings or titles. The intent is recognition and orientation, not exhaustive treatment of regional texts or schools.
The compendium also registers names from Celtic, Slavic, and other European folk traditions where they appear in literary or historical allusion. Local deities, mythic kings and queens, heroic champions, and tutelary spirits receive capsule identifications, as do personifications of natural forces and virtues. Alongside major pantheons, the book surveys countless minor figures—river nymphs, rustic gods, household spirits—whose names frequently punctuate poetry and art. Genealogical links are stated when clear; otherwise, entries confine themselves to the function and emblem by which a figure is recognized. As elsewhere, the approach favors standard forms and cross-references between closely related names.
Not limited to persons, the work defines celebrated places, artifacts, and events. Realms such as Elysium or Tartarus, objects like the aegis or caduceus, and episodes emblematic of a cycle are introduced with a line or two that situates them within a tradition. The same technique distinguishes monsters, hybrids, and sacred animals, identifying their attributes and associations without recounting full tales. Alternative titles, Latinized and Hellenized forms, and occasional thematic groupings help readers navigate clusters of related entries. The consistent brevity allows rapid confirmation of meaning while preserving the context necessary to understand how a name functions in classical and later literature.
Because it is arranged as an alphabetical lexicon, the book does not culminate in a thesis; its effect is cumulative. By progressing from one concise entry to the next, readers acquire a working map of mythological names and their standard associations across numerous traditions. The closing entries simply complete the catalog, reflecting the same neutral, utilitarian tone as the opening. The overarching purpose is clear: to furnish a dependable, quickly consulted key to mythological references without argument or embellishment. In doing so, Ellis provides a compact aid for students and general readers who need orientation amid the vast corpus of classical and comparative myth.
Historical Context
Although a reference work rather than a narrative, the book’s implicit “setting” spans the geographies and eras from which its figures arise: the Bronze and Iron Age Near East (Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, c. 3000–539 BCE), Pharaonic Egypt (c. 3000–30 BCE), the archaic and classical Greek world (Homeric to Hellenistic, c. 800–146 BCE), and Rome (Republic to Empire, c. 509 BCE–476 CE). It also reaches to the medieval North (Norse myths recorded in Icelandic sources, c. 13th century), South Asia’s Vedic and Puranic traditions (circa second millennium BCE to early modern codifications), and East Asian mythic cycles. The editorial vantage point is late 19th–early 20th century United States, where Edward S. Ellis compiled a compact, popular dictionary for a mass reading public.
The late 19th-century American explosion in mass print and public education decisively shaped Ellis’s project. The Common School movement, institutionalized in Massachusetts under Horace Mann from 1837, steadily raised literacy; U.S. census data show illiteracy declining from about 20% in 1870 to under 8% by 1910. Publishers capitalized on this: Beadle and Adams launched Beadle’s Dime Novels in New York in 1860, and Ellis became one of the best-known contributors to this cheap, portable format. Postal reforms, notably the 1879 U.S. Postal Act establishing favorable second-class rates, cut distribution costs for periodicals and reference booklets. Parallel infrastructure matured: the American Library Association was founded in 1876; Andrew Carnegie’s philanthropy funded more than 2,500 library buildings worldwide between 1883 and 1929, over 1,600 in the United States, placing compact reference works on open shelves. The Chautauqua movement (from 1874) and lyceum circuits spread adult education, encouraging concise handbooks suitable for lectures, clubs, and schools. These developments created demand for affordable, quick-reference compendia that distilled vast bodies of knowledge into entries a few lines long. Ellis’s dictionary fits this ecosystem precisely: it offers standardized spellings, cross-cultural reach, and digestible definitions compatible with school recitations, debating societies, and the needs of newspapers and encyclopedic readers. Its alphabetical form mirrors the period’s drive toward classification and indexical control of information, visible in library cataloging reforms of the 1890s and the proliferation of cyclopedias. In short, a confluence of rising literacy, cheap print, postal policy, library expansion, and adult-education networks made a one-volume roster of mythic figures not only feasible to publish at scale but practically inevitable.
Archaeological discoveries and decipherments between 1822 and 1900 restored ancient pantheons to public view. Jean-François Champollion’s decipherment of hieroglyphs (1822) unlocked Egyptian deities such as Osiris and Isis; Austen Henry Layard’s excavations at Nimrud and Nineveh (1845–1851) and Henry Rawlinson’s 1857 cuneiform breakthrough led to Assyrian-Babylonian names entering print. George Smith’s 1872 announcement of the Flood Tablet from the Epic of Gilgamesh electrified audiences. In the Aegean, Heinrich Schliemann’s campaigns at Hisarlik (Troy) and Mycenae (1870–1876) and Arthur Evans’s work at Knossos from 1900 revived myth-anchored places—Priam’s Troy, Minos’s Crete. Ellis’s entries reflect these discoveries by stabilizing the spellings and identities that archaeology had thrust into popular discourse.
Institutional translation projects globalized access to non-European mythic materials. The Royal Asiatic Society (founded 1823) and the American Oriental Society (1842) fostered philological study; most consequentially, Max Müller’s Sacred Books of the East (50 volumes, 1879–1910, Oxford) placed the Rigveda, Upanishads, Dhammapada, and related texts before English readers. Missionary presses and university chairs in Sanskrit, Pali, and Semitic languages multiplied in the 1880s–1900s. As names like Indra, Agni, and Kuan Yin entered classroom and newspaper vocabulary, compendia became necessary tools. Ellis’s book mirrors this influx by accommodating Hindu, Buddhist, and other Asian figures alongside Greco-Roman, creating a single alphabetized field of religious personae.
Mass immigration and interfaith encounters reframed the United States as a laboratory of world cultures. Between 1880 and 1920, over 23 million immigrants arrived, with Ellis Island opening in 1892 as the federal gateway. The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago hosted the World’s Parliament of Religions, where figures such as Swami Vivekananda and Anagarika Dharmapala introduced Hindu and Buddhist ideas to large American audiences. Public curiosity about comparative belief systems surged. A compact dictionary of deities and heroes answered practical needs of teachers, journalists, and civic clubs seeking to reference unfamiliar pantheons, positioning Ellis’s compilation as a tool of cultural navigation in an increasingly plural society.
Government-backed ethnology normalized the cataloging of myth. The Smithsonian’s Bureau of American Ethnology, founded in 1879 under John Wesley Powell, published annual reports recording names, motifs, and cosmogonies among Plains, Southwestern, and Northwestern peoples. Parallel museum programs and fieldworkers (and later anthropologists like Franz Boas) emphasized accurate transcription over romantic invention. This institutional habit of listing and cross-indexing spirits, culture heroes, and tricksters conditioned readers to meet Indigenous, African, and Pacific names in reference form. While centered on the best-known classical and Old World deities, Ellis’s dictionary participates in this broader taxonomy-first approach by juxtaposing diverse mythic systems within a single consultable register.
Civic classicism and curricular reforms kept Greco-Roman antiquity culturally central even as electives widened. Charles W. Eliot’s presidency at Harvard (1869–1909) relaxed mandatory Latin and Greek, yet classical mythology remained embedded in high school readers and college survey courses. The neoclassical “White City” at the 1893 Chicago fair and state capitol architecture reinforced the prestige of Olympus and Rome in American public life. School anthologies and popularizers such as Bulfinch’s Mythology (1855–1863) circulated pantheon names widely, creating a baseline of recognition that a dictionary could refine and expand. Ellis’s work thus aligns with educational practice by standardizing spellings, genealogies, and variant traditions for classroom and civic use.
By arraying gods, heroes, and spirits from many civilizations on a single plane, the book both democratizes knowledge and exposes the era’s tensions. It critiques provincialism by inviting readers to weigh Zeus beside Shiva or Isis, fostering secular comparison over sectarian hierarchy. Yet its condensed, taxonomic format also reflects and subtly critiques class divides: inexpensive, portable reference turns elite “classical” capital into shared cultural currency. At the same time, the selective emphasis and nomenclature reveal the period’s Eurocentric angles and imperial habits of classification. In making the unfamiliar legible, Ellis’s compendium participates in, and implicitly questions, the politics of who names, orders, and authorizes the world’s past.
