David thought his days of fighting monsters were over. After two years of peace with his wife in Paris, a new danger has emerged. The world-devouring creature Fenrir has broken free of his prison, intent on finding Acacia and taking back what she possesses. That isn’t the only evil afoot… Rumors abound that an old adversary has returned, and madness itself seeks to claim David. Yet those enemies are nothing compared the new incarnation of Nyx, who will stop at nothing to use Fenrir’s abilities to destroy the world. With time running out, David must band together with old friends and new allies to save both the human world and the world of myth and legend.
The fight to save the world is just beginning. Waking on the outskirts of Le Havre, David has no memory of his past or who he’s left behind. Nyx has erased his existence, but there is hope: face the mysterious Moirai, the weavers of the Curtain, and have a new fate woven. With old enemies on his trail and no one in the human world able to see or hear him, he must traverse the places and people of the past to regain his memories before everything falls under Nyx’s shadow.
Two years after saving Acacia, the last living sphinx, from the night goddess Nyx, David Sandoval is happily married and settled down to a quiet life in Paris. But soon new monsters are after him from the other side of the Curtain, which separates the human world from the world of myth and legend. David discovers that a world-devouring creature, Fenrir, has broken free of his prison and is hunting Acacia for something she possesses and if he gets it, he can finally fulfill his fate to consume all existence. Reluctantly leaving behind his loving wife, David heads off in search of Acacia and his friend Gullin, the Master Huntsman who is trained to slay the most dangerous beasts ever known. But there is great evil afoot. Madness itself wants to claim David, for what purpose, no one knows. And there is rumor than an old adversary has returned, quite different from the last time David and Acacia saw him... Those enemies are nothing, however, compared to the new incarnation of Nyx, whose desire for the most prized gift of all Fenrir s ability to destroy any world will make him stop at nothing to attain it. The new god also knows what to do to ensure David will not interfere with his plans, as the young man did with the previous Night goddess. Old friends and new allies band together in this continuing adventure of the Scholar and the Sphinx, as both their worlds could soon come to an end.
"There is something of a paradox about our access to ancient Greek religion. We know too much, and too little. The materials that bear on it far outreach an individual's capacity to assimilate: so many casual allusions in so many literary texts over more than a millennium, so many direct or indirect references in so many inscriptions from so many places in the Greek world, such an overwhelming abundance of physical remains. But genuinely revealing evidence does not often cluster coherently enough to create a vivid sense of the religious realities of a particular time and place. Amid a vast archipelago of scattered islets of information, only a few are of a size to be habitable."—from the Preface In On Greek Religion, Robert Parker offers a provocative and wide-ranging entrée into the world of ancient Greek religion, focusing especially on the interpretive challenge of studying a religious system that in many ways remains desperately alien from the vantage point of the twenty-first century. One of the world's leading authorities on ancient Greek religion, Parker raises fundamental methodological questions about the study of this vast subject. Given the abundance of evidence we now have about the nature and practice of religion among the ancient Greeks—including literary, historical, and archaeological sources—how can we best exploit that evidence and agree on the central underlying issues? Is it possible to develop a larger, "unified" theoretical framework that allows for coherent discussions among archaeologists, anthropologists, literary scholars, and historians? In seven thematic chapters, Parker focuses on key themes in Greek religion: the epistemological basis of Greek religion; the relation of ritual to belief; theories of sacrifice; the nature of gods and heroes; the meaning of rituals, festivals, and feasts; and the absence of religious authority. Ranging across the archaic, classical, and Hellenistic periods, he draws on multiple disciplines both within and outside classical studies. He also remains sensitive to varieties of Greek religious experience. Also included are five appendixes in which Parker applies his innovative methodological approach to particular cases, such as the acceptance of new gods and the consultation of oracles. On Greek Religion will stir debate for its bold questioning of disciplinary norms and for offering scholars and students new points of departure for future research.
Conveniently sized yet large in scope, National Geographic Essential Visual History of World Mythology an irresistible treasure to own and to give."--BOOK JACKET.
Writers, game designers, teachers, and students ~this is the book youve been waiting for! Written by storytellers for storytellers, this volume offers an entirely new approach to word finding. Browse the pages within to see what makes this book different:
A guide to the religions of the world and to the concepts, movements, people, and events that have shaped them. It includes features such as: entries on religious movements and concepts, historical and legendary figures, divinities, religious sites and ceremonies; images that show sacred places, vestments, rituals, objects, and texts; and more.
David thought his days of fighting monsters were over. After two years of peace with his wife in Paris, a new danger has emerged. The world-devouring creature Fenrir has broken free of his prison, intent on finding Acacia and taking back what she possesses. That isn't the only evil afoot... Rumors abound that an old adversary has returned, and madness itself seeks to claim David. Yet those enemies are nothing compared the new incarnation of Nyx, who will stop at nothing to use Fenrir's abilities to destroy the world. With time running out, David must band together with old friends and new allies to save both the human world and the world of myth and legend.
