Mythology (1942)

What a great book. A brief retelling of major and minor myths, epic poems, plays, etc. This is so much better than most other mythology books I’ve come across that just deal with the gods and goddesses and call it good.

There’s an index in the back for when you just need to remember what the names of the 9 muses are or what Clytemnestra was famous for. There are also introductions to many of the chapters to explain which sources Ms. Hamilton drew upon for which stories and why. It’s very clear that she is intimately familiar with all these ancient writers and is not afraid to give her opinion as to their writing styles or abilities. She also includes several family trees in the book’s appendices to help connect all the confusing dots.

Ms. Hamilton’s writing style is concise and clear, tho she isn’t opposed to an occasional editorial comment or aside on a particular matter. A lot of the shorter stories left me wanting more, but that might have been the point.

As an unexpected bonus, there’s an extra chapter about Norse mythology at the end of the book, with an insightful introduction addressing the ancient Norse mindset and how it would have intersected with the introduction of the Christian gospel.
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An interesting book about (mostly Greek and Roman) mythology. I would have rated this higher but I had a big mythology phase in elementary school so I actually knew many of the stories, though they were very well written. I think this is a great miniature course in mythology for anyone who is interested and doesn't already know a lot about mythology. ( )

This book is an enjoyably written retelling of the major Greek and Roman myths, with a brief introduction to Norse mythology tacked on to the end. Edith Hamilton is clearly at home in the literature; she prefaces each tale with a brief account of which classical sources she used. Taken together, they reflect her reasons for preferring some (Homer and the main Greek tragedians) over others (Ovid, for example), as well as demonstrating that she prizes the ancient Greek world over anything that came before or has come since. There is a sense of freedom in her accounts of goddesses and princesses who scorned marriage and pairs of male heroes, such as Achilles and Patroclus, bound by mutual devotion, as well as married couples whose tender love for each other contrasted with the woes of Zeus and Hera. In general, the gods are flawed and contradictory, needlessly interfering with the world of humans.
Her overview also helps contextualize some of the oldest biblical tales. The recasting of Iphigenia’s fate can be compared to that of Isaac. Both stories seem to reflect an earlier tradition of human sacrifice, but in their present form show a change of heart on the part of tellers of tales and or their audiences, leading to the conviction that no god could want that kind of thing. Also, Iphigenia’s reunion with her brother Orestes bears a likeness to Joseph’s with his brothers in Egypt.
When the book appeared, it undoubtedly served as a handy reference, as well as a book to be read and savored. Nowadays, if I have forgotten just who Calliope was — male, female, a god, human, halfway in between — I would go first to the internet. But Hamilton’s book remains a good read nonetheless.
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Quick run through Greek and Roman myths with some Norse myths somewhat surprisingly tacked on at the end. ( )

wip ( )