I picked this up while helping to set up Bridgman, Michigan's first library. Mrs. Roth, the librarian, having me pegged as a scholarly sort, had me go through their bags and boxes donations in order to recommend retention or removal. One of the donors from this rural community was apparently a fan of ancient history and classics. There were many titles in these areas of which this was one.
Python is a very broad survey of the Delphic myth, drawing in parallels from around the world and from many periods after discussing the Greek sources of the story. As such it is much like those kinds of archetypal analyses and expositions Jungians are wont to make. Personally, I found it rather heavy going.
Just guzzled this all down in one go and have to give it all the stars for such an excellent comparison of the so called 'combat-chaos-creation myth'. What made me happy was that it started at 2500bc and hit up some of my favourite epics like baal cycle/gilgamesh/enuma elish/lugale plus a bunch of lesser known stuff. I also liked that the focus was on the fun things- crazy heroics with gods, battles, bizarre humanoid creatures, magic, superstitions etcetc. There was even a comparison of different magical weapons and superpowers manifested in different myth versions. All in all enjoyable and good selection. I don't agree with some of the conclusions drawn about the formulaic myth elements- a few felt a bit forced-a little like the dragon fixation overshadowing some other monsters/demons that could have been explored in more detail. My main criticism though is that I wish the entire book was focused more on ancient times and didn't keep using greek mythology as the main frame of reference for everything since there's already every single history book in the world looking at the greeks- but i guess thats more of a personal gripe.
This book is still the bible on the topic. Fontenrose did an excellent job of comparing the divergent myths and putting them in their historical context.
Three stars because it was an interesting and well-researched book, but there could have been more information about the connection between the myth and the presence and ritual of the Pythia. Instead it focused only on oracles existing within myth—however the Pythia is an important factor for why the myth was so important in the first place.
Lo he dejado a la mitad. El autor intenta encontrar paralelos entre el mito de Apolo y Pyhton y prácticamente cualquier otro mito en el que un héroe derrota a una criatura maligna. Muchas veces los paralelos que encuentra son bastante endebles y el repaso a los mitos presupone que conoces a los personajes al menos de oídas.
Sólo puedo recomendar leer la parte que a cada cual le interese más, por ejemplo, mitos babilónivos, mitología india, mitología japonesa... porque enfrentarse a esto de principio a fin es muy, muy duro.
Para encontrar paralelismos entre obras de ficción es bastante más útil tvtropes. Id allí y os ahorráis esto...