Canongate's The Myths books in order

Canongate's The Myths is a major international publishing project that commissioned twenty-one authors from around the world to retell ancient myths in short contemporary novels, with Karen Armstrong contributing A Short History of Myth (2004), the series introduction.
Series · Mythology · Literary Fiction · Short Fiction · Anthology

Reading order

# Title Published Author Buy on Amazon
1 A Short History of Myth 2004 Karen Armstrong Buy
2 The Myths 2005 Karen Armstrong N/A
3 Lion’s Honey: The Myth of Samson 2005 Karen Armstrong Buy
4 The Penelopiad 2005 Karen Armstrong Buy
5 The Helmet of Horror: The Myth of Theseus and the Minotaur 2005 Karen Armstrong N/A
6 Weight 2005 Karen Armstrong Buy
7 Lion’s Honey 2005 Karen Armstrong N/A
8 The Helmet of Horror 2005 Karen Armstrong Buy
9 Where Three Roads Meet 2005 Karen Armstrong Buy
10 Dream Angus 2006 Karen Armstrong N/A
11 Anna In w grobowcach świata 2006 Karen Armstrong N/A
12 Baba Yaga Laid an Egg 2007 Karen Armstrong Buy
13 Binu and the Great Wall 2006 Karen Armstrong Buy
14 The Goddess Chronicle 2013 Karen Armstrong Buy
15 Where Three Roads Meet: The Myth of Oedipus 2005 Karen Armstrong N/A
16 O Conto da Deusa 2008 Karen Armstrong N/A
17 Orphans of Eldorado 2008 Karen Armstrong N/A
18 The Hurricane Party 2007 Karen Armstrong N/A
19 The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ 2009 Karen Armstrong N/A
20 Ragnarök 2011 Karen Armstrong N/A
21 The Song of King Gesar 2013 Karen Armstrong N/A

The Canongate Myths series was an ambitious global project that paired myths with contemporary authors: Margaret Atwood retold Penelope’s story in The Penelopiad, Jeanette Winterson wrote Weight (the Hercules myth), and David Almond wrote Skellig. Armstrong’s A Short History of Myth (2004) opens the series with an argument about why myth matters and what it does that other forms of thought cannot.

The series as a whole is notable for its internationalism — authors from Japan, Iceland, Brazil, and elsewhere contributed alongside the familiar Western names. Armstrong’s theoretical framework provides the intellectual scaffolding for the project, and her book works both as a standalone essay and as an introduction to the longer series.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many books are in the Canongate's The Myths series?

There are 21 books in the Canongate’s The Myths series, published between 2004 and 2013.

What is the first book in the Canongate's The Myths series?

The first book in the Canongate’s The Myths series is A Short History of Myth, published in 2004.

What is Karen Armstrong's contribution to Canongate's The Myths series?

Armstrong wrote A Short History of Myth (2004), which serves as an introduction to the entire series. It traces the role of myth in human culture from the Palaeolithic era to the present, arguing that myth is not falsehood but a form of knowledge that addresses questions science cannot answer.

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