Alan W. Shorter

Every so often I tell myself that my library is ludicrously large and I should get rid of most of it. And then I do something like just happened to me: I think "what I really need is a book that will tell me what American/European tourists knew about the Egyptian gods in the 1930s."

And lo, I already have one.

This book served that purpose quite well. It's also a fairly good, fairly short overview of ancient Egyptian mythology, with lots of quotes from actual texts. Or at least, a fairly good overview of the version of the mythology, and translations of the texts, that influenced 20th century art and literature. As it is 70 years out of date, I wouldn't count on it being accurate for more than that (though there's nothing massively wrong-headed that I noticed.)

The title "Egyptian gods" is actually a bit misleading, though it does have a fairly extensive glossary of gods and their iconography in the back; it focuses mostly on the afterlife narratives and the nature of the religion rather than individual gods, which is probably a more accurate way of telling, but less convenient as a field guide.3… (mehr)