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

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May I dream a most splendid dream in which my lips meet those of the blessed Aphrodite herself, only to awaken and find, in horror, that I am merely tongue-wrestling the three heads of Cerberus! There are drawings by Steele Savage, some full-page (in my Mentor edition of sometime after 1970, which was at the time the forty-fourth printed of Hamilton's book, first printed in 1940.

I get that it's not for everyone, but if you want to learn more about mythology in general, this is the book for you. But before I let it go, I picked up Hamilton's book, and checked out the index entries for Eumenides (248) and Furies (see Erinyes) - so to Erinyes, where among other entries was (Orestes pursued by, 246-248) - which closed the circle. It's adequate, but never more than that - it never takes off, even in those obvious places where you think it must. No one in modern times has shown us more vividly than Edith Hamilton 'the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome. And I am one of those people who will flip back to the family tree or index pages to refresh my memory - which is probably one of the many reasons why it took me so long to read this.

These reasons are unsavory and political, the stories are later, and they are unsatisfactory in the extreme, compared to the Volsungasaga.

All her knowledge came from classic literature; she has never been to Greece, and never participated in archaeology.

Finally, it should be noted that Hamilton's retelling of the Greek myths is based solely on her study of the classical literature - she had never been to Greece, and had no archaeological experience. I declared August "History Month" and read, amongst various others, Bulfinch's Mythology of which I was quite disappointed. The main body of work is about the Greeks, added to by Roman mythology (which mostly is adapted Greek mythology if we're being honest).

Well, I am just trying to be a gracious hospitable host allowing my foreigner friends happy during their visit. But it’s special because it is a cohesive, somewhat comprehensive, and clear retelling of the many stories of gods and heroes of ancient Greece and Rome.I found this helpful to help me continue to get a handle on how this vast subject is connected to Ancient History and Human History; as I was listening to it I had so many moments where small scraps made a few more things a little bit clearer for me. The introduction includes commentary on the major classical poets used as sources, and on how changing cultures have led to changing characterizations of the deities and their myths. Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes is a book written by Edith Hamilton, published in 1942 by Little, Brown and Company. 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. Mythology" even comes with a bunch of nifty illustrations, done by someone with the improbable name of Steele Savage (with a great fondness for winged horses, apparently).