(Part 2) Best products from r/mythology

It depends on what you're drawn to. Are you more interested in interpretation of story for your own personal growth? Or interpretation of films? Or are you looking to create stories?

The best books I know on this subject at least on interpretive myth include:

• Women who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes (sure it's about women's stories which can dissuade some younger men learning about this subject but it's seriously one of the best books on how to interpret a myth out there)
  
• The Hero Within by Carol S. Pearson. This is more if you're trying to find your own personal mythology for instance.
  
• The Water of Life by Michael Meade is tremendous. He does amazing events around the United States and gives good performances as well as talks and storytelling online via his non-profit Mosaic Voices.
  
• To learn more about interpretation and ways to interact with your unconscious, I'd recommend many of Robert A. Johnson's books specifically Inner Work however Transformations of Masculine Consciousness, He, She, We and Living with the Heavenly Goddess are good too depending on what topic you're interested in.
  
• For storytelling, I'd recommend the book Healing Hearts Communities which consists of a collection of stories which are appropriate to use for a variety of modern requirements. So you have stories talking about addiction or violence etc.
  
  In my experience, after Campbell people usually begin to drift toward what their personal myths are. So you have some people who get really into film and get caught on Vogler or Bonnet's work, others who want to go help returning veterans and end up getting really into Odysseus in America. Or people begin focusing on different cultures and religions and move from there.

There have been some feminist evaluations and rewriting of folklore that are interesting, but not something I have pursued. There is no question that historically it tended to be men collecting from men, and some of that caused a skewed perspective. Clearly women were telling stories as often as men: the classic work, Peig, is an excellent autobiography of an Irish storyteller who was incredible for everything she was able to share with collectors.

In addition, there is no question that many of the heroes of the classic folktales were women, and yet the older perspective tended to emphasize men rescuing princesses. This was something that early folklorists said, even though many plots for folktales feature assertive women who get the job done all on their own! The modern scholarship has gone a long way towards correcting that, but at times it seems that it over compensates. Rewriting folktales from a feminist point of view is an interesting exercise, but it takes the primary sources a step away from the original, making it not something that can be evaluated, except in a feminist context, using folklore methodology.

There are also some creative imaginings that postulate the idea that folktales were filled with coded language that allowed older women to explain the ways of the world - and biology - to girls and young women. That's an interesting idea, but there is no evidence that I have seen that can convince an objective reviewer to see that this was the case.

All that said, your interest is far removed from the evaluation of folklore that is part of my background and subsequent research. Sorry - and best wishes.

Egyptian Mythology: a guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt.

https://www.amazon.com/Egyptian-Mythology-Goddesses-Traditions-Ancient/dp/0195170245

Also if you have an audible account/ are interested in audiobooks or online learning Audible has free audiobook versions of The Great Courses Plus lectures on mythology. They’re great lectures.

Ps. If you’re unaware there’s a fun podcast for the casual myth fan called Myths and Legends. Personally I love Jason’s work — it’s a bit trivialized sometimes but it’s good fun. He has a way of crafting narrative out of an amalgamation of varied stories from myth and folklore.

Anything by Geraldine Pinch, an excellent and easily understandable scholar. You can be sure that what she writes is based in sound scholarship and not in the... fanciful reimaginings of modern popular culture.

Her books on ancient egyptian myth, religion, and magic are all marvellous. But a good place to start might be https://www.amazon.com/Egyptian-Myth-Short-Introduction-Introductions-ebook/dp/B003CI90U8

As far as I know, the two main English translations of Journey to the West are Anthony Yu's version and Arthur Waley's version

Its a great story and its an awesome read. Waley's version (just called "Monkey") is a bit more abridged, but its easier to read, and I'd recommend starting with that one.

I am partially commenting here in hopes of coming back to this thread to find a better answer than this one as I am with OP in a desire for mythology books that are just a collection, in as near its entirety as possible, of a certain cultures mythology, organized in a similar manner starting chronologically with the creation story and on up through the dawn of man.

I would love to see such a book covering not only Japanese mythology but also Native American, Aztec, Hindu, Islamic, Jainist, Taoist, ancient Chinese, ancient Germanic, etc...

OP, it's not quite what you are looking for, but I'd recommend Oriental Mythology by Joseph Campbell if you haven't checked it out yet.

Check amazon for reviews.
Don't forget that Urban Legends are the contemporary version of myth and folklore and there are some great books on the subject. Encyclopedia of Urban Legends. This is the one I own. It's pretty comprehensive.

http://www.amazon.com/Mythology-Timeless-Tales-Gods-Heroes/dp/0446574759

This book provides a decent introduction to all the major Greek myths. I'd recommend it as a starting point. Then, once you're fairly familiar with the major characters of the mythology, you can have a better appreciation of things like The Iliad and The Odyssey. It does include an abridged version of both of those, though, so you may or may not want to skip those parts until you read the full versions.

My favourite book on Greek mythology is A Brief Guide to The Greek Myths: Gods, Monsters, Heroes and the Origins of Storytelling. However it might be a little too dense if you're not already familiar with some of the myths. An even briefer guide that I enjoyed is 100 Characters from Classical Mythology: Discover the Fascinating Stories of the Greek and Roman Deities.

If you like Greek and Norse, I'd recommend D'Auliere's Greek and Norse.

Also, I'd recommend fairly tales from the Pantheon Library, which do not have images but will help him to learn to picture them in his mind and pay attention as well. I should give you a warning though: some of them can still be a bit intense and inappropriate to modern listeners, depending on which culture the stories come from.

You're going to especially want to proof-read the European ones for strange acts of violence as well as many other cultures for potential moments of sexuality or bathroom humor. Though the potty humor might be very amusing to your son depending which age he is.

Star Names: Their Lore and Meanings is one of the best books I've seen. It includes lore from Indian, Arabic, Greek, etc mythology as well as bits of poetry. https://www.amazon.com/Star-Names-Their-Lore-Meaning/dp/0486210790

Check your local library for a copy or just buy it as it's pretty cheap.

This has a few excerpts from the book http://www.constellationsofwords.com/stars/Polaris.html

This apparently has a ton of poetry, I didn't read them so I can't speak to their quality http://www.poetrysoup.com/poems/polaris

This apparently has some information regarding Norse myths on the star http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/stars.shtml

This is the full text of another book on star lore https://archive.org/stream/starloreofallage00olco/starloreofallage00olco_djvu.txt

This one is pretty good.

Women in Greek Myth
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0801886503/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_zOnFzb337P1QV

It definitely challenges classical depictions of women in Greek myth.

https://www.amazon.com/DAulaires-Norse-Myths-Ingri-dAulaire/dp/159017125X