Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines

March 1, 2014

The late Monaghan's (interdisciplinary studies, DePaul Univ.; The Book of Goddesses and Heroines) 2009 two-volume set is condensed here into a single volume, maintaining its usefulness but losing the images and the essays on other researchers and writers on the subject that were in the earlier work. The goddesses are divided by culture, region, and religion, which allows for easy maneuvering through the descriptions. For example, Africa is subcategorized according to "African Pantheon," "Egyptian Pantheon," and "African Diaspora Pantheon." Each culture has a brief, two- to three-page introduction that provides valuable historical background and sets the scene for the descriptions of goddesses that immediately follow. Monaghan's descriptions of over 1,000 goddesses and heroines provide varying degrees of detail. The majority of descriptions are shorter than a traditional encyclopedia would provide, but enough information is present to meet the needs of most readers. Access is easy with a clear table of contents and index, and researchers and scholars will find the bibliography at the end highly valuable. Monaghan also provides reader-friendly use of in-text citations by providing only the author's last name at the end of each entry to correlate to the bibliography with full information. No other book on this topic is as complete. VERDICT By an author widely considered the contemporary leader in the study of goddesses, Monaghan's book will be worthwhile to not only researchers and scholars familiar to this subject but also to the layperson simply looking to browse and learn. Recommended for public and academic libraries with religious studies, mythology, or women's studies programs.--Jason L. Steagall, Gateway Technical Coll., Elkhorn Lib., WI

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2014
Previously published as a two-volume set in 2009, this revised paperback edition contains more than 1,000 entries on goddesses and heroines from around the world. The material is divided into geographic sections: Africa, Eastern Mediterranean, Asia and Oceania, Europe, and The Americas. Europe is treated with the most granularity, with roughly 140 pages divided into eight subsections. The sections and subsections open with a few pages of introduction, followed by entries for each individual goddess or heroine, arranged alphabetically within each region. Entries range from a scant paragraph to nearly a page in length. Each entry has at least one source text, but a significant portion have several (more than 10 in some cases). These sources are listed in a bibliography, which lists for each region both primary sources (indicating in translation and oral when applicable) and other sources. Author Monaghan was a pioneer in contemporary women's spirituality, and her perspective here has the flavor of radical feminism, where goddesses have been lost to the repressive patriarchy. When regarded as the work of a single author, this text shows an impressive depth of knowledge; however, in its use as an actual work of reference, the exclusion of non-English references and the exclusion of online material limit the scope of this encyclopedia. The Encyclopedia of Goddesses & Heroines is a good introductory reference for students at the undergraduate level.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)