Review of Francis West, ed. 'Myth and Mythology'. Papers from the Australian Academy of the Humanities Symposium 1987. Canberra: Australian Academy of the Humanities, 1989, pp. vi + 166.

As the 'Introduction' makes clear, the Symposium was intended to range over Acts, Sciences and the Humanities, - and so to touch on folk-lore, theology, scientific explanations of the natural world, myth in history, and on the use of myth by particular writers. Some approximation to this plan is achieved in its eight printed papers. Thus the present volume constitutes an Australian mediation over the field of myth, concentrating particularly on theories developed over the last 150 years. ... Rather do we have a number of excellent perspectives by scholars treating of the role of myth in particular areas of their fields.