Book excerpt: Author Don Nardo examines the ancient civilizations and peoples of Persian mythology. Origin / creation stories, early gods, mythical kings and heroes, and Zoroastrianism are all covered. This volume has a map of ancient Persia, a visual organizer grouping major characters, a table of major characters with name pronunciations and brief descriptions, a glossary, sidebars, fact boxes, and bibliography of sources for further study, and a subject index.