12/1/22

Scholarly in a way that most retellings of the Greek, Roman, and Norse myths are not. A discussion of the originals of many of the stories, with commentary. Quotations from translations of the poets. A discussion of the purpose and meaning of the myths and what place they have in our cultural heritage.

The illustrations by Steele Savage seem rather arbitrarily chosen. I found the color illustrations by Jim Tierney in the 25th anniversary edition unappealing, but the decorations were fine and the book itself is pleasantly bulky. Both editions have quite a few family trees. ( )

Includes index.

I remember reading parts of this in high school and liking it then, but rereading this book in it's entirety those are just found memories. For the most part, I didn't really enjoy this book. This is more for beginners or high schoolers, which could also make people love this book.

I just kept finding more flaws than reasons to like this book. First off, the Norse part of this book was pointless. I'm not sure why she had it in here either. I feel like if your going to talk about other culture's myths at least add other cultures. I feel like she intentionally snubbed other myths.

I hated her commentary. Every time she talked about where she got the myths I want to tell her to shut up and just tell the tale. She made Ovid look like a fool sometimes. She also picked which version of a myth she like better making the other versions she though were less important.

The chapters where she retold the Odyssey and the Iliad I thought were pointless too. Having read those to book earlier this year I felt it was repetitive. She managed to take Homer's stories and make them sound less interesting. I did like her chapters on the heroes though, maybe because they don't really have books just for there story.

There are better mythology books out there, this isn't one of them. It's a super popular book though. I can see why. Like I said this is for beginners. This was better than Bullfinch which I had issues with that book too. This should get credit too just for the fact a woman wrote it, which was rare at her time.

I'll most likely look at this book from time to time. It's a good reference book. This isn't really good to read the whole thing over and over. I thought it was short stories, but it's more encyclopedia entries. ( )

A refresher in the Greek and Roman gods, in preparation for reading some classic literature later in the year. ( )