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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
These stories are so familiar, so integrated in our life. But the source material is intimidating without some guidance. Where to start?
This book introduces you to the characters and the family histories along with the various authors and their works. You get a sense of what influenced each unique telling.
It is a starting point. Or as much as you ever need to know. Your call. But it condenses a fantastic amount of information into less than 500 pages. And while I'm sure it cuts some emotional corners, the death of Hector is still thrilling, the return of Odysseus still bittersweet; Philomela's weaving is still delightfully clever. I had to go elsewhere to learn how to pronounce a lot of the names, but otherwise it's all there.
This book introduces you to the characters and the family histories along with the various authors and their works. You get a sense of what influenced each unique telling.
It is a starting point. Or as much as you ever need to know. Your call. But it condenses a fantastic amount of information into less than 500 pages. And while I'm sure it cuts some emotional corners, the death of Hector is still thrilling, the return of Odysseus still bittersweet; Philomela's weaving is still delightfully clever. I had to go elsewhere to learn how to pronounce a lot of the names, but otherwise it's all there.
informative
medium-paced
Informative, interesting and straight-forward telling of the greatest myths. Hamilton is marvelous and breaking down the characters (giving you both Greek and Roman info) and making their often crazy and elaborate stories and histories concise, yet thorough enough to give the readers a clear idea of the personalities and motivations. Something I also particularly like is her brief introductions to each section where she not only cites her sources (be it Homer, Ovid or Euripides) but gives the reasons for her using their specific versions and the characteristics of their work. The book also has a splendid tone-and-context setting introduction.
Anyone who has been interested in learning a little about mythology, but has been a little intimidated by the many pages of the Iliad or the epic poetry of most Grecian writers would find this book useful and an entirely agreeable alternative. Or for the readers like me, who have read Homer, Aeschylus and Sophocles but wants a much more modern break-down of the complex works, this book will happily suit your needs as well.
In the end, she even covers stories and legends outside the canon of Greek and Roman mythology, including some of the stories of the constellations known so well today. She also briefly covers Norse mythology which, while lesser known, is still kind of interesting.
Anyone who has been interested in learning a little about mythology, but has been a little intimidated by the many pages of the Iliad or the epic poetry of most Grecian writers would find this book useful and an entirely agreeable alternative. Or for the readers like me, who have read Homer, Aeschylus and Sophocles but wants a much more modern break-down of the complex works, this book will happily suit your needs as well.
In the end, she even covers stories and legends outside the canon of Greek and Roman mythology, including some of the stories of the constellations known so well today. She also briefly covers Norse mythology which, while lesser known, is still kind of interesting.
Kind of a stepping stone to other works like Bulfinch's. Handy, concise, bite-sized retellings of ancient myths.
informative
slow-paced
informative
medium-paced