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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
Can you give stars to Edith Hamilton? It seems wrong somehow.
adventurous
challenging
informative
medium-paced
I have loved the Greek mythology as told by Hamilton for a very long time. I have fond memories of re-reading it before going to Greece in 2005. Looking forward to picking it up again for a primer on Norse mythology.
informative
medium-paced
Grade 6, OBMC, thankyou to my English teacher Ms. Cruz, for lighting that spark to make me love books ✨
This wasn't a personal favorite but I can't fault Edith at all. She does a splendid job introducing all the most important Ancient Greek myths, with interesting analysis on how Greek gods came to be, and linking the stories directly to the sources. Her judgment on the different Greek writers is also funny, and I appreciate her deep-dive into different translations.
However this is a very hefty, academic and introductory text into Greek mythology and as someone who's already familiar with most of the myths I found myself wanting to skip most of the chapters. Edith was mostly just recounting the tales as presented in the original source material in a very one-note way so there wasn't anything new or interesting for me to takeaway from the text. Also the brief inclusion of Norse myths at the end felt pointless.
However it's a great source for someone who doesn't know much about Greek myths and wants to dive into it!
However this is a very hefty, academic and introductory text into Greek mythology and as someone who's already familiar with most of the myths I found myself wanting to skip most of the chapters. Edith was mostly just recounting the tales as presented in the original source material in a very one-note way so there wasn't anything new or interesting for me to takeaway from the text. Also the brief inclusion of Norse myths at the end felt pointless.
However it's a great source for someone who doesn't know much about Greek myths and wants to dive into it!
informative
sad
slow-paced
This book garners four stars from someone who is less than fluent in Greek mythology, somewhat to her bafflement. I may have been one of the first generations of schoolkids who was not assigned this book in my Humanities class. I wish I had been; the myths here are very accessible, the heroes and gods very human-like. the unspeakable tragedy and violence is referred to here unblinkingly. But I can understand that someone looking for something more nuanced, more detailed, might be disappointed by such a book. For me, however, it was a great read and a wonderful entry point to the wider world of Greek and Roman mythology.
sooo dry like how did she make greek mythology boring ??