997 reviews for:

Mythology

Edith Hamilton

3.97 AVERAGE


This is simply a reading of various brief stories from Greek mythology, with some commentary in between on the stories and about the different authors and their styles. It's not as engaging as modern fiction, of course, but isn't bad. If you want a sort of Cliff's notes for a wide variety of Greek mythology, this isn't a bad way to go. It did seem rather out of place to randomly throw in an extremely brief segment of Norse mythology at the very end. That shoul have been omitted.
informative
adventurous informative inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced

I was OBSESSED with this book when I was in middle school and recently got my hands on an updated edition. Such a handy and easy to digest resource that covers a broad spectrum of Greek Mythology. Edith is that GIRL.
challenging informative mysterious reflective slow-paced
adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

Hamilton offers a broad overview of Greek and Roman Mythology, editing different versions of the tales into emotional and imaginative stories that feel both their age and a bracing modern engagement. Unfortunately, she also adds on a bare chapter at the end that attempts to address Norse tales, but does so in such a sparing manner as to be wasteful of those rich tales. What's more, she adds on editorial notes indicating she has no love for these stories and declares them a clear subordinate to the Greco-Roman variety. Given her lack of interest and lack of pages given to these stories, the book would actually feel richer and more complete if these final chapters were simply cut out.
adventurous informative medium-paced
adventurous informative medium-paced

This book took me months and month to read, mainly because it was such slow going, combined with small moments that were both trivial but also maddening, that I kept setting it aside. I feel sorry for any students who were forced to read this for school, as the back cover proclaims has happened.

The moments were fleeting, but they wove together as an attempt to inject some commentary into the stories. At best they were distracting, but often they either completely derailed the narrative or were just so insipid or pretentious sounding that I had to finish that particular myth and then set the book aside. I kept reading, though, firstly because I really don't like to leave books unfinished, and secondly because I found value in at least becoming more familiar with all the names in these stories.

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