Indo-European Poetry and Myth

Indo-European Poetry and Myth is a 2007 non-fiction book on comparative Proto-Indo-European mythology by the British philologist and classicist Martin Litchfield West.

Published by Oxford University Press, the book is a work of comparative religion focused on Indo-European literature and religion. Rather than relying solely on linguistic reconstruction, West also examines shared concepts and mythological motifs across the various Indo-European traditions.^[1] Like Indogermanische Religion (2025) by Norbert Oettinger and Peter Jackson Rova, it builds on a comparative method of reconstruction previously established by Calvert Watkins in How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics (1995).^[2]

Reception

An article in The New Yorker described it as "the most comprehensive treatment" of Indo-European mythology available in English.^[2] American Indologist Wendy Doniger praised in as the "definitive book on Indo-European language and religion" in the London Review of Books.^[3]

Nagy, Gregory (2008). "Review of M. L. West, Indo-European Poetry and Myth (Oxford 2007)". Indo-European Studies Bulletin. 13: 60–65. ISSN 1533-9769.
Nagy, Gregory (2010). "The Origins of Greek Poetic Language - (M.L.) West Indo-European Poetry and Myth. Pp. xiv + 525. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. Cased, £80. ISBN: 978-0-19-928075-9". The Classical Review. 60 (2): 333–338. doi:10.1017/S0009840X1000003X. ISSN 0009-840X.
Doniger, Wendy (2008-04-10). "The Land East of the Asterisk". London Review of Books. Vol. 30, no. 07. ISSN 0260-9592. Retrieved 2026-01-15.