Mythology: Mega Collection

By: Scott Lewis

Narrated by: Madison Niederhauser, Oliver Hunt

Length: 31 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's Summary

An Important Update: A Navigation Guide (PDF) including a detailed chapter-by-chapter breakdown is now available in your Audible Library after purchase.

Do you know how many wives Zeus had? Or how the famous Trojan War was caused by one beautiful lady? Or how Thor got his hammer?

Give your imagination a real treat. This Mega Mythology Collection of eight audiobooks is for you.

Some of the topics covered are:

• Mount Olympus and the 12 Olympian gods and goddesses, and then beneath the surface to the gloomy world of Hades.
• Classic Celtic Myths such as The Life of Cú Chulainn
• How did Odin form the world from Ymir’s body and make men and women from wood?
• Who are Loki’s children, and why does Odin fear them?

And more stories of Greek, Celtic, Norse, Japanese, Hindu, Chinese, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian Mythology!

The eight manuscripts included in this collection are Books 1 to 8 of the Classical Mythology Series by Scott Lewis.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio. 

©2018 Scott Lewis (P)2018 Scott Lewis

An interesting set of introductions.

This was a really interesting introduction to the mythologies of several of history's most fascinating cultures.

First, the narrators. Honestly, it was a little strange going back and forth between two narrators between the different mythology books. It was minimally jarring though.

In both cases, the narration is skilled and the voices are pleasant to listen to. In the few cases where a character voice is needed, each one was unique and skillfully created.

Okay, the important thing to understand is this book is not a 30-hour dive into one mythology. Even though there is likely enough material in EACH ONE to offer that, this is a collection of introductions to the mythologies of the ancient Greek, Celtic, Norse, Mesopotamian, Japanese, Chinese, Egyptian, and Hindu worlds.

Each one is fascinating and informative in its own right, and has left me wanting to learn more.

Just a couple of cautionary points.

These stories, while accurate as far as I can tell, do not conform to modern sensibilities. Especially in the western mythologies, we are faced with rampant sexism, rape, incest, and other things that we might consider atrocity in the modern world but were commonplace and, in some cases, expected during their time.

And while it is not excessive and only mildly jarring, there are a number of typos and incorrect word usages (such as the word "imperical" when the author clearly meant "imperial"). I would say the occurrence is limited to an average of less than one per 30-60 minutes of the audiobook.

All in all, I really enjoyed this collection and I would really like to see the author expand these books to be deeper dives into the mythologies of each culture.

86 people found this helpful

Hard to navigate the book.

The stories that are told are good, for me who is totally new to mythologies it's helpful to have so many introductions to different mythologies.

With that said, the book would be so much better if there was an index for all chapters, now they are just numbered.
It's not smooth at all if you want to skip something or revise

35 people found this helpful

Too many inconsistencies

I'm only on the first chapter and I already found too many inconsistencies for me to even learn anything further from this book. I'm a lover of Greek Mythology, and this book states that Persephone is the daughter of Hera in one area, then the daughter of Demeter in the next. It is common knowledge that she is the daughter of Demeter. Listening further, it also states that Aphrodite is also known as the Goddess of War, which we all know she is most famous as the Goddess of Love. And I'm only on the first hour or so of listening. So, if there are this many mistakes and inconsistencies in an area I'm familiar with, I'd hate to learn anything from a myth I'm unfamiliar with, which will leave me confused as to what the truth actually is. I don't know if it's the narrator making the mistakes or the book itself, but editing and double checking the information before publishing would have been really helpful.

13 people found this helpful

i'm not even through the first section and...

Correct me if I'm wrong classical scholars, but Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, not Hera. That was a part of the whole spring time thing? Hera is NOT the goddess of Fertility, marriage yes, fertility no.
This text is not accurate. I'm only on the second chapter of the first section and I've already said, 'Um, what?' 10 times. They refer to Leda (of the swan incident) as one of Zeus' "wives".
Do not pay money for this book. I want mine back and I want this book removed from my library. Thank goodness it starts with greek mythology which I actually know fairly well, if I had started with Japanese or Indian mythology I would have had no idea.

68 people found this helpful

Table of Contents

This is the type of "information" that requires a table of contents which would have been so easy to add in place of chapter 1, 2, 3...Also, the male narrator sounds like he's 'reading' when he should be 'telling' a story

33 people found this helpful

Disappointed

Greek Mythology section was more like an encyclopedia of gods and heros rather than a telling of actual myths. Too much repetition since many of the individuals were in the same stories and many stories were covered over and over for each character.

Mesopotamian chapters too long, Asian chapters too short. Mesopotamian section included multiple different versions of the same myths with minor differences and no explanation of why these were important other than it “reflected views of those in power”, no kidding. Spent considerable part of Chinese section describing the meaning of different colored dragons which seemed pointless.

Norse section seemed to be the best laid out and therefore the most entertaining.

The narrator’s different voices were almost laughable especially when trying to voice a woman. It also seemed that many of the Asian men were also narrated with the reader’s “feminine” voices.

For the price the total amount of information was huge but would have been so much better if the content and narration were not so lackluster.

9 people found this helpful

A good introduction

This book gives a great start to many of the world's mythologies.
It is well read by the two narrators.
If one just wants to know the bare bones of a cultures origin, this is a pretty good start.

4 people found this helpful

Good delight

Delight yourself with these fascinating, captivating , informative and educative stories. This book is a mega guide with more than one story from the author. it delivered in depth knowledge and satisfying details.

6 people found this helpful

Bite-size knowledge nuggets.

only about 2 hours in. This is a surface-level anthology/academic encyclopedia of information on the various mythologies, not at all the collection of actual myths I was expecting. Narrator is good, but the material is educational, not entertaining, and often repeats the basics (retelling Greek god stories several times, for example).

2 people found this helpful

Wonderful collection of mythology!

This massive collection of mythology covers cultures from around the world. I was already familiar with classical Greek mythology, but it's a pleasure to learn about the stories central to other populations. This book is an absolute powerhouse with over 31 hours of material, and it's great just to let it play and immerse myself in the hero's journey through other worlds.

The chapters in the book aren't clearly demarcated, and it can be difficult to skip from one story to another -- or even from one culture to another. Still, the narrator reads clearly and articulates words well, so speeding up the playback works well. I plan to put my kids to sleep on many nights with stories of Celtic or Mesopotamian myths, and I love that this book provides so many stories. Definitely recommended.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

2 people found this helpful

Schoolboy Errors - 25 x 5 stars misleading

Having listened to some excellent mythology books on audible- mainly from Greek but also Norse- I bought this to learn some myths of cultures I wasn,t as familiar with.

I have only listened to just under two hours of this but I don't see my 1 star review as premiture.

It begins (and ends for me) with the Greek myths. The errors begin early on referring to a dispute Zeus settled between Hera and Hades over Persephone- not as it should have been between Demeter and Hades.

The next blinding error appears in the passage describing Apollo. Talking of the music contest between Pan and Apollo- Lewis says Apollo turns Midas EYES? Into the eyes of a Donkey for judging in Pan's favour. The logic of that is crazy even if you don't know the myth it's a far more logical thought to think Midas must have the EARS of a donkey to think Pan is sounds superior.

A passage relating to the Trojan war during the overview of Aries states that Athena Aries' lover and the god of love and beauty persuades him to join the Trojan side. Aphrodite is of course the true god of love and beauty and lover of Aries.

I honestly find it mindblowing this has 25 5 star reviews and that was one of the main reasons I bought the book. This should not be in the market let alone rated 5/5. I am no mythology scholar but someone who has basic knowledge of the Greek myths. This should have been proof read/listened to before release by someone who actually knows the myths to correct errors. Hard to believe it hasn't.

I have lost faith in this audiobook as a result of the basic inaccuracies and have no confidence to continue to the myths of cultues I know less well as I believe I will be learning with further inaccuracies. This is hugely dissapointing as the main reason for purchase was broadening my knowledge into new cultures.

I hope this helps you save your time, money and allows you to avoid similar dissapointment.

90 people found this helpful

Inconsistent and incorrect

I got this book as a lover of mythology, and will I know a fair bit about Greek myth I was interested I all the other mythologies covered.
Greek myth is the first chapter covered. And I found that there were a few errors within the first few minuets. Errors that are later corrected. I only listened for 35 minutes total before giving up.

24 people found this helpful

Erm it's wrong

I'm a big fan of Greek mythology and I enjoy roman and Egyptian mythology as well. thought I should learn about others and thought this book looked good as an introduction to new mythology. I'm not listening 10 minutes when the reader (who has a nice story voice) says that Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Hera when in all the old Greek mythology stories it states that Persephone is the daughter of demeter not hera. if this book gets something this well know wrong I don't trust it to introduce me to mythology I don't know.

19 people found this helpful

terrible

consistent errors in the stories,
Names are consistently mispronounced
Narrator has awful reading cadence
AVOID

12 people found this helpful

Informative but monotonous and dreary naration

Very interesting if you can get by the monotonous almost robotic natation
I was unable to put up with it sadly

3 people found this helpful

like someone reading a telephone directory

struggled to get past the first few chapters.not for ordinary people without à classical èducation

2 people found this helpful

terrible pronunciation

interesting stories made intolerable by incorrect pronunciations (esp. of names). it's also quite an abridged account which leaves out many interesting stories/aspects.

2 people found this helpful

A list

Mmmm could be better it’s like listening to a shopping list. Very disappointed. Try again. Perhaps it’s the narrator.

2 people found this helpful

Love the stories

However I am disappointed that the Norse section seems to, literally be a copy of Neil Gainman’s Norse Mythology and would’ve liked some different myths to be told.

4 people found this helpful

Facts

I actually got what i expected from this book. The length of the book almost put me off but after taking time to listen i discovered it was well narrated and the time actually fits. I love the introduction, actually got me prepared for every chapter of the book.

2 people found this helpful