Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes, 75th Anniversary Illustrated Edition

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It's almost as bad as Bulfinch telling the readers which myths are Christian enough to be included and which had to be shortened/changed for his "genteel" readers. It is precisely the original stories I want to be told about or at least I want a thorough comparison! While I was pleased to see that Hamilton had included the Volsunga saga in the chapter about Norse mythology (in many books it is replaced by the Nibelungenlied which was penned much later), she dismissed the saga by saying that the story is so well-known thanks to the Nibelungenlied that the original can be told briefly and THAT is an absolute no-go for me.

So, I thought I'd throw in these words about this quite wonderful book, most of which I've never read in the decades that I've owned it (basically having used it as a reference book). Most wanted for crimes against humanity are Aphrodite, Hera, Athena, Poseidon and Apollo. Nevertheless, none of the Olympians could be considered Angels and they’ve all got blood on their hands by the closing of this book. P.S. This also can serve as a good reference text when approaching Greek Myths, but still by itself it's quite engaging.I like how Edith Hamilton represents the gods, she’s clearly not a fan of most of them, also her explanation of the Eleusinian Mysteries is the clearest I have come across so far. We hear the tales of Jason and the Golden Fleece, Cupid and Psyche, and mighty King Midas. We discover the origins of the names of the constellations. And we recognize reference points for countless works of art, literature, and cultural inquiry--from Freud's Oedipus complex to Wagner's Ring Cycle of operas to Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra.

This book makes me feel smarter," says my GR friend in her review of this book. I worked the same for me. Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, disrespected the Goddess Leto by exclaiming to the people that they should worship and burn incense to her and not to the Goddess. Leto’s children, Artemis and Apollo avenged their mother by killing all 14 of Niobe’s children. Story after story of this kind, of vengeful acts and lust for power are what you can expect here. This is not the Disney adaptation, folks! Significant families in Greek mythology: the house of Atreus, the royal house of Thebes, and the royal house of Athens

Hamilton proves herself extremely knowledgeable, not only with regard to the Greek Myths but, about the times in which they were composed as well. More often than not she shares with us the particular poet’s version she has taken inspiration from in her retelling and any others she has borrowed from as supplementation. You actually finish the book with a pretty good idea of who all the major authors of Greek and Roman Mythology were and some of their storytelling traits. I don't really mind if she disses Hercules, but her gratuitous dissing of my boy Ovid really didn't win her any points.

Edith Hamilton, an educator, writer and a historian, was born August 12, 1867 in Dresden, Germany, of American parents and grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A. Her father began teaching her Latin when she was seven years old and soon added Greek, French and German to her curriculum. Hamilton's education continued at Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut and at Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from which she graduated in 1894 with an M.A. degree. The following year, she and her sister Alice went to Germany and were the first women students at the universities of Munich and Leipzich.I believe, deep in my heart, that everyone who has attended high school in the past twenty to thirty years or so (in the United States, at least) owned a ratty, most likely used copy of this work at one time or another. This book has been on the required reading list of so many schools that nearly everyone has seen it, owned it, and opened it at least twice. Edith Hamilton may have written Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes more than a half century ago and she may have been fairly ancient when she did so, but she still put out one seriously readable book!

Intelligence did not figure largely in anything he did and was often conspicuously absent." (about Hercules)Moreover, the one thing I expect at the very least from an encyclopedia of mythology is a good overview. Such an overview MUST include immensely important classics like the Gilgamesh epos! However, this book does not. Other cultures aren't even referenced. If she had titled her book correctly, I really wouldn't mind. It's a nice book about the very much related mythology of the Greeks and the Romans. However, I really need to point this out again: this is supposed to be a comprehensive work of mythology as a whole!