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Greek Mythology: A Traveler's Guide from Mount Olympus to Troy by David Stuttard, David Stuttard
generalheff's review
5.0
This book contains 22 chapters dealing with a different part of The Ancient Greek world (Mycanae, Troy, Sumnium etc) and details some of the myths that are related to that place. For an area like Troy the links are fairly obvious; other areas such as Thebes have a web of mythological links that only keen mythological fans will know.
Such a structure runs the risk of each chapter being totally separate to all the others and there being no reward to reading the book as a book, and rendering it a mere encyclopaedic guide. Thankfully, The authors have intricately woven together many myths across chapters: Heracles turns up several times and stories are related forwards and backwards to places described elsewhere in the book. As such, there is a genuine reason for reading this book all in one go, something definitely not true of many guidebooks on mythology.
The descriptions themselves are clear and engaging. Some sections could be longer perhaps but overall, from a modest knowledge of these stories, I felt I gained a real sense of the fascinating web of stories attached to many parts of Greece. It has really made me want to visit Greece (and other countries) with this book to follow the step by step instructions around some of the sites, which are put at the back of each chapter and are a great practical addition.
Such a structure runs the risk of each chapter being totally separate to all the others and there being no reward to reading the book as a book, and rendering it a mere encyclopaedic guide. Thankfully, The authors have intricately woven together many myths across chapters: Heracles turns up several times and stories are related forwards and backwards to places described elsewhere in the book. As such, there is a genuine reason for reading this book all in one go, something definitely not true of many guidebooks on mythology.
The descriptions themselves are clear and engaging. Some sections could be longer perhaps but overall, from a modest knowledge of these stories, I felt I gained a real sense of the fascinating web of stories attached to many parts of Greece. It has really made me want to visit Greece (and other countries) with this book to follow the step by step instructions around some of the sites, which are put at the back of each chapter and are a great practical addition.
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