In this book Roger Townsend has collected the most famous myths of the ancient world, as well as many not so familiar. Together they form a choice selection of strange tales, and echo the persistent and engrossing story-patterns which men have made up from the beginning of time and told their children, tales of the making of the world, the coming of the Gods, the creation of mankind, wars between Gods new and old, between Gods and monsters, man's eternal quest for adventure, and his search for an El Dorado, a Valhalla, beyond death. Some of these stories come from ancient Egypt, Babylon and Phoenicia; many were told again and again by the story-loving Greeks, and became the basis for some of their greatest poems and plays. A few of the stories told by the Hittites, the Cretans and the Phrygians have never been retold before. Not only will readers young and old find the famous myths of Isis and Osiris, Prometheus, Demeter and Persephone, Hermes, Pallas Athene, and the Gods of Asgard here-even the Death of Baldur-but others as interesting though hard to find and little known-stories of Marduk and Tammuz and Ishtar (BabyIon), of Telepinu, the strange god of a strange people, the Hittites; of Mithras the Persian; unusual stories of the Egyptian sun-god Ra, and Apollo, the healing god of the Greeks, ranging with forgotten tales of Britomartis from Minoan Crete, and of Janus from the earliest days of Rome. Contents INTRODUCTION: HOW THE MYTHS WERE MADE EGYPTIAN -THE STORY OF RA -ISIS AND OSIRIS BABYLONIAN -MARDUK THE A VENGER -TAMUZ AND ISHTAR -THE ADVENTURES OF GILAMESH HITTITE -LOST TELEPINU PHOENICIAN -BAAL AND ASHTORETH CRETAN -ZAN AND BRITOMARTIS GREEK -THE BATTLE FOR OLYMPUS -PROMETHEUS THE FIRE-BRINGER -DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE -APOLLO THE DRAGON-SLAYER -HERMES THE MASTER-THIEF -PALLAS ATHENA ROMAN -JANUS AND HIS CHILDREN -PHRYGIAN -ATTIS AND CYBELE PERSIAN -MITHRAS, GOD OF THE MORNING SCANDINAVIAN -ASGARD AND THE GODS -THE DEATH OF BALDUR -RAGNAROK