EXPLORING GODDESSES OF WORLD MYTHOLOGY

Mythical goddesses, kept alive through storytelling, have long held power and meaning for cultures throughout the world.

Nardo explores the stories of female deities through five specific themes, opening with a chapter on mother goddesses before introducing goddesses of nature, death, war, and love. The text provides brief, general information about a variety of figures originating from Roman, Greek, Chinese, Hindu, Polynesian, Norse, and Aztec cultures, among others. Colorful illustrations and photos add visual interest to the pages, while descriptive captions provide context for each image. Informative text boxes throughout provide additional tidbits of knowledge. Similarly, brief selections relay the tales of goddesses, some of whom aren’t included elsewhere in the book; these selections may prove distracting due to their length and interruption of the main text. The book lacks a concluding chapter to tie everything together. Nardo quotes some experts, such as Edith Hamilton, but other sources and recommended reading are less-than-credible websites. The framing of some content is also questionable: For example, Nardo writes that Medusa “secretly made love” to Poseidon, reframing the story of his rape of her in a troubling way. A critical lens is necessary when sorting through the information provided in the book, making this a poor choice for research.

An overview of goddesses that requires readers to don a critical lens due to the unreliability of some sources and passages.