The Penguin Book of Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt Paperback – August 1, 2011

This is a scholarly guide accessible to the generalist of the grand millennium march of Ancient Egyptian religion and mythology, organized by community, diety and cult. The sheer length through time, breadth through the regions and ultimately the ancient world, evolution of the religion with syncretism and changing practices, make this synthesis very difficult to organize: this is a solid one volume solution. Strongly recommended.

I’m not an expert on ancient Egypt, but the effort and scholarly research of the writer is palpable throughout the text. It touches on various subjects, including mythology, history, daily life, and literature. It’s very dense and not an easy read but highly rewarding and deeply informative.

This is a hefty little tome. Not for the faint of heart. There's more religious information than mythological (although sometimes they're one and the same). This is a great resource for research or writing. I wouldn't recommend it for summer reading or anything.

The book came fast and the brief introduction of Egyptian history was very informative giving insight into the culture that produced these myths and legends. The Mythology is giving and a great commentary comes a long with it. If you want to learn the myths and legends. I highly suggest checking this book out!

Enjoyable. Author's style is scholarly, but with occasional pleasant informality. Recommended for intermediate enthusiasts.

Tyldesley makes a worthy offering to the neophyte student of Egyptian mythology who wants more than a basic overview. While far from complete, it offers more depth than many works on Egyptian mythology aimed at the beginner, and in many cases offers some historical context relevant to the myths and legends in question. She also helpfully appends a dramatis personae and chronological table at the end, which the reader will find invaluable in keeping straight in their mind the dozens if not hundreds of characters that populate these pages; even though it represents only a slim fraction of the totality of the Egyptian mythos, the reader may still find themselves overwhelmed by the sheer number of personalities depending on their degree of familiarity with the subject.Not being an expert myself there's little I can offer in terms of critique, but I find one out of the four sections of the book being specially dedicated to women to be a tad fulsome, as though "good taste" required it. No doubt Sekhmet and Hathor deserve a place in the sun, and Isis' fame reached beyond the borders of Egypt even in ancient times, but it seems the gods of political correctness are those to whom Tyldesley is ministering here.In any case that is little more than a quibble; on the whole this is a valuable and scholarly work on a fascinating subject, one which serves as more than simply an introduction. Tyldesley has done the beginner a great service, having "given bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothing to the naked and a boat to him who could not cross the River."

Very Good for anyone who are interested in Egyptian mythology.

I used it for a magazine article and needed some original texts to be translated in Dutch.It's a good first guide for anyone who wants to study the ancient Egyptian way of thinking