The Gods of the Greeks

by Karl Kerényi

Drawing on a wealth of sources, from Hesiod to Pausanias and from the Orphic Hymns to Proclus, Professor Kerényi provides a clear and scholarly exposition of all the most important Greek myths. After a brief introduction, the complex genealogies of the gods lead him from the begettings of the Titans and from Aphrodite under all her titles and aspects, to Apollo, Hermes and the reign of Zeus, touching upon the Affairs of Pan, nymphs, satyrs, cosmogonies and the birth of mankind, until he reaches the ineffable mystery of Dionysos. The lively and highly readable narrative is complemented by an appendix of detailed references to all the original texts and a fine selection of illustrations taken from vase paintings. 26 black-and-white illustrations

Genres: Mythology, History, Nonfiction, Religion, Classics, Greece, Reference

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

Károly (Carl, Karl) Kerényi, Ph.D., (University of Budapest, 1919), was one of the founders of modern studies in Greek Mythology, and professor of classical studies and history of religion at the Universities of Szeged and Pécs, Hungary.

Karl Kerenyi is also published under the names Carl Kerenyi and Károly Kerényi, in French as Charles Kerényi and in Italian as Carlo Kerényi.

Reviews

[Daniel Chaikin · Rating 4 out of 5]

67. The Gods of the Greeks by Karl Kerényi
translation: from German by Norman Cameron
published: 1951
format: 286 page paperback (1994 reprint of 1979 edition)
acquired: March
read: Nov 5-12
rating: 4

wikipedia tells me Kerényi was a classical philologist and that he was a Hungarian who spent a year in Switzerland and then never left. Hungry had swung Nazi right. It also tells me that his "scientific interpretation of the figures of Greek mythology as archetypes of the human soul was in line with the approach of the Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung." This curiosity is not in display here, except for a brief comment in the introduction where he says that Greek mythology of interest for the study of human beings and that in the contemporary world that meant "of course, an interest in psychology."

Instead the The Gods of the Greeks is a straight-forward summary of everything the classical sources have to say about the Greek Gods. He cites only about 200 sources and they are all classical. He calls it a mythology of the Greek for adults. It is however, anything but straightforward. The mythology of Greeks is nowhere near as simple as Edith Hamilton, or anyone else presented it. There is simply no consistency, but numerous and endless variations. And presented in this form, in the way Kerényi does, it is a bit overwhelming, a constant barrage of uncondensable information.

"The archaic forms of so many tales have been lost that the whole body of what has reached us and can be presented has become exceedingly compact. This compactness should not be artificially loosened. Already in Ovid we find the archaic spirit has been spoilt in a process of dilution. The author has decided against trying to provide any relief of this kind. The reader's best plan, therefore, is to not absorb too much of this solid fare at a sitting, but to read only a few pages at a time—and preferably more than once, as he would read an ancient poem."

I quickly learned to follow his advice. Somewhere around ten pages at a sitting my eyes would start to cross and pressing any further, I could feel my brain actively shrinking.

What comes out of this is no one single thing. It's something of a massive compilation of information, in a very pure form. It's also striking not only how unstructured all this was, but how one thing was many things and how associations and combinations means that many of these characters whom we see as distinct - Gaia and Ouranos, Cronos & Rhea & Demeter and Persephone, Zeus & Hera, Aphrodite & Adonis, Ares, Athena, Apollo, Hermes, and Dyonisos... Prometheus, Io, Fates, Furies, Typhon etc are merely variations on the same theme - the same god or goddess concept could come in many variations then get recombined and forced apart by divine lineages. Flexibility and openness seems to have been one rule - perhaps variation from many forms of communal isolation and connection might have been another.

Certainly recommended to anyone who wants to know enough about mythology that they can finally rest assured they still really know nothing.

[Edmundo Mantilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

¡Este libro es una joya! Me hubiera gustado conocer a Kerényi, que me recuerda a una de las profesoras más entrañables que he tenido. Admiro su capacidad para conservar los vestigios de misterio en la mitología y a la vez para iluminar aspectos oscuros para quien mantiene un conocimiento insuficiente de la misma. Cada relato preserva esa intrincada conexión que hace de la sensibilidad mítica del pueblo heleno un sistema que hasta ahora nos dice mucho no solo de quiénes somos, sino de quiénes podemos ser. En ese mismo sentido, es un libro que a veces resulta árido y confuso porque se acumulan versiones del mismo mito o distintas historias para una misma diosa, para un mismo dios. No es tanto un desenredo, como aquel precioso enredarse de las palabras y de las historias en nosotros.

[Andréa Carvalho · Rating 5 out of 5]

O autor fez um trabalho de pesquisa significativo. Começa pela cosmogonia grega e depois passa para os Deuses em particular (dos titãs de forma mais abrangente e coletiva) aos principais deuses gregos seus nascimentos, mitos, cultos e mistérios com suas variações temporais e regionais.

Utiliza fontes escritas e também as imagens (mitos ilustrados encontrados na cerâmica), o que é outro ponto interessante pensar na arte pictórica dos vasos como primórdio das histórias ilustradas (quadrinhos 😉).

O leitor se depara com as variações nos mitos, o que é muito legal, nos possibilita ver a evolução cultural e até mesmo as diferenças culturais e psicológicas...
Um prato cheio para quem leu e gostou do homem de mil faces ou tem interesse pelos arquétipos junguianos.

[Steve Cran · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one book that will take you to the very beginning of creation and take you all the way up to the birth and death of Dionysus. Get ready for a roller coaster because that is what Greek mythology really is, a roller coaster. Different Gods and Goddesses are sometimes identified as each other. Sometimes the son is the father to a God depending on the Author that you read. Karl Kerenyi pulled from different sources and they each have their own version. He read from Homer, Hesiod or Orpheus. Kerneyi's style can be tough to get through. He tells the story and then midway gives you explanations and counter explanations. I shall try to give an accurate summary.

Orkeanos was a river god who with his wife gave birth to the Titans and creation. Some say that the Goddess Nyx dropped an egg and the Earth and sky fertilized it cause the egg to hatch. Orkeanos had a wife a wife Thetis and they had a daughter called Tethys. Sometimes those two names are interchanged as though they are the same identity. The next generation was Oranos and Gaia who gave birth to the Titans. The Titans are strong and powerful yet unworthy of worship. Kronos was the king and he was weary of his son, a son usurping his throne. What did Kronos do? He put one son down to the depths of the sea and the others he ate. Zeus would be hidden in a cave and nursed by nursemaids. Zeus was would rise up and challenge the Titans. There were Castrations involved that went through generation to generation. Seems father and sons had issues. Once the Titans were defeated they were banished to Tartarus. After the defeat of the Titans a group of giants rose up. Zeus would later challenge and take on Typhon the dragon. Gaia, Rhea and Thetis are sometimes seen as a triple goddess or three parts of the same being. The trinity theory run through the Morai who are the fates that determine the life of men and gods. The Erinye are avengers, The Grai are triple deities born with grey hairs. At times they are seen as one other times as three. Euribya is a goddess like this andd she is called the steel hearted Goddess.

Demeter or the mother is sometimes conflated with Rhea and or Gaia. Zeus makes love to her or rapes her and begets Persephone and then he rapes her. Hades is scene as a dark cthonic aspect of Zeuss. Hades abducts Persephone with Zeus's permission. This cause Demeter to go into mourning and all of agricultural to shut down. She stop in a kingdom and teaches the mysteries to her followers there. Eventually Persephone returns after eating a pomegranite. Hermes, Hekate and the Helios play a role. Some legend s hold that Persephone never bothered coming back. She reigned as Queen of the underworld. Of course we all know that she returns for part of the year and then goes back to the underworld. The legend does hint at female sovereignty in approving a marriage, which is why Zeus had to do it behind her back.

Persephone is not the only deity to spend part of the year in the land of the dead. A young queen fell in love with her father and begat a child. He was killed in a hunting accident but since Aphrodite loved him so much he only had to spend a limited time of the year there and then he rotates back and forth. With this very reminiscent of Dammuzi and Ishtar. In fact Ishtar is Aphrodite in Greek guise. Ishtar was born from an egg in the river that was pushed up by fish. Aphrodite was born in the sea from the castrated testicle of Ouranos. She was the Goddess of love. At first she was wed to Hephastos the blacksmith good who was a dwarf and lame. But that was not destined to last. She ended up cavorting with Aries, the God of War. Later on she would wed Pygmaliona dwarf king who fell in love with her statue.She would also couple with Hermes and bear children the most noteable is Hermaphrodite.

Aries was Zeus's least favorite. Hermes was born from Zeus and an nymph named Maia.He would start out his life by tricking a tortoise and killing it and stealing it's shell to make a musical instrument. Next he would steal Appollo's cattle. This caused a dispute and Hermes would give him the musical instrument later on. There was an exchange of gifts. Hermes is a master thief, flatterer and word smith. He would beget Pan, a satyr type being. He would make his way to Olympus and be adoptd by Dionysys another hormed deity. Hephastos was the first born of Hera and Zeus but was cast out for being ugly.

The book has lots of info. It tells about the four generations of human being. Also covered is the life and death of Dionysus. This book is packed with information. I read through it really quickly but it is dense. Hope you enjoy.

[Giorgia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Se penso che mi manca l'altra metà del saggio, un po' muoio dentro. Comunque Kerényi fa un ottimo lavoro di ricostruzione delle differenti versioni del mito, indagando con attenzione le origini degli stessi, scavando nel profondo anche le storie che diamo per scontate e riteniamo più lineari.

[Bookstopher Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tore through this book as a kid need to revisit it

[Mesoscope · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not a review of the content, it is a review of the translation of the Thames & Hudson 1951 edition, which is very terrible. The langauge is unidiomatic and often painful to read, and the translation is marred by omissions from the German edition I posess, as well as by outright errors.

I searched this book unsuccessfully for an indication of who rendered it into English - it does not appear to be stated. It should be treated as unreliable.

[Delia Colvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best books for research on Greek mythology! I use this book as my "go to" for great research on ancient Greece. In all of my research I've found his to be some of the best around.

[Amahlia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good for compilation of the majority of Greek Deities, and their myths etc.

[Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published in 1951, this collection of Greek mythology contained a diverse grouping of stories. I loved that it not only told the most common versions made popular by Ovid, but delved into Hesiod, as well as showing how the tales changed with the locations. The reading can be a bit choppy at times as the author will bring up a god, only to state that his/her story will be continued later. Choppy reading aside, I found this book to be a good source of the various versions of Greek mythology, and greatly enjoyed the read. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in reading about the lesser known versions of these well known myths.

[Patricia G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este libro es de una erudición y una maestría que según lo empiezas ya sabes que no va a salir nunca de tu biblioteca. Es mi segunda lectura de esta obra de Karl Kerényi. He repasado mis dos mitos griegos favoritos: el de Apolo y Dafne y el de Hades y Perséfone. Una maravilla. Un libro inolvidable.

[CivilWar · Rating 5 out of 5]

By far the best single-volume (well, for divine mythology: heroic myth is vol 2 here) work on Greek Divine Mythos you'll ever read, because it is all the qualities of incredible erudition, of well thought-out connections between the many various versions of a tale which came down to us, which made Kerenyi's other, more in-depth studies (see Dionysus -Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life specially for what I mean with all of this, although in its complexity it does genuinely get hard to follow).

Multiple times, as Kerenyi goes through most or all of Greek divine myth, I caught myself in shock at how I already knew the two myths and even some of their importance, yet had not made the connection.

Per example: that the whole Medusa story with Perseus, in heroic saga, just comes (very blatantly too) from a very ancient myth, preserved at Arcadia, where Poseidon chases Demeter to rape her while she's looking for Persephone: she changes into a mare to run, but Poseidon turns into a horse to chase her, and is successful in his assault, from which Achilles' soothsaying magical horse is born. Furious, Demeter turns into Demeter Erinyis, her hair turns into snakes and she gains a fearful countenance as she goes inside a cave to hide, causing a terrible famine.

This is a myth I was already familiar with, because it is one of identifiably ancient age, namely the Mycenaean age: in the tablets, Poseidon and Demeter (though the latter only under cultic titles) seem to be consorts, though not in a divine marriage (Zeus and Hera are identifiably already one); additionally, we already find the word erinyis in the Linear B tablets, three of em from Knossos, in both plural and singular forms. That this myth dates to the Mycenaean period and records an era where the two great chthonic deities were much more important and took on a similar role to Hades and Persephone, and that mother and daughter deities were much less separate from one another, is clear and hardly deniable.

But I had never made the connection between this tale, and the Medusa story as told in Ovid's Metamorphoses: yes, it turns out, unlike what the idiots say - those who affirm, as if to outdo the idiots on Tumblr who insisted on telling "the REAL hidden, Medusa story", who now insist that Ovid made his story out of whole cloth and that the Medusa really was "always a monster". But the two stories are blatantly the same: a gorgon and an Erinyis are in a multitude of contexts the same thing, there is a rape by Poseidon, a transformation into the same snake-haired monster, the birth of the horse, the exile to a place signifying the underworld, it is the same and realizing this was a real Eureka moment.

Besides tying stories together like that, he ties others still more impressively for how oblique the tie would be. In short, it is impressive how much of the divine myths Kerényi manages to tell here, in a way both entirely familiar and entirely alien for how many alternate traditions, and reconstructed (properly, no Robert Graves fanfic of mythology) versions, he tells here.

For further analysis you should read his books, the "Archetypal Image of..." series, specially the Dionysus one, but for a single monograph this is as good as it gets. I'm very looking forward to seeing his work on Heroic myths next.

[Federica Tabanelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una buona antologia per chi vuole approfondire la principale mitologa greca

[Teri · Rating 1 out of 5]

The back of this book says it is a “lively and highly readable narrative”. That is a lie.

This book is actually an incredibly dense academic text focused primarily on etymology. The book is organized based on different categories of greek gods so any stories are told out of chronological order with multiple versions of the same story somehow being told in parallel. The author is devoted to scholarly accuracy so he does not add any narrative embellishment or analysis that would make this book remotely interesting.

By the time I realized what this book truly was, I had already sunk in enough time to feel motivated to finish the book so I could write this review.

Unless you are getting an advanced degree in greek mythology, do not read this book.

[Pattycita Ptvh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Como su nombre lo dice solo trata de Dioses desde la cosmogenesis, pasando por los titanes, dioses olímpicos hasta antes de la época heróica.... Es un libro diferente no son simples narraciones de mitos, cada historia es una compilación de fuentes relacionadas con ese mito haciéndolo más interesante, diverso y atractivo al lector

[Ivan Gutierrez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es una recopilación mitológica de uno de los más reconocidos eruditos en religión antigua, quien en este volumen abarca lo dicho y escrito acerca de los dioses.
De manera amena aborda la mitología griega exponiendo sus variantes y sus fuentes sin abrumar al lector con notas al pie
A pesar de la forma tan comprensible en que está escrito, deja percibir en todo momento su rigor académico.

[Donne · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only got about halfway through this book before I gave it up. When reading greek mythology, I prefer to read it in story form, which is just so much more interesting and enjoyable. Greek mythology that reads like and encyclopedia is sooo boring.

[Kas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really good, quality, informative place to start if you want to dive further into Greek mythology, especially if you're looking for something closer to the original myths and not watered down, distorted versions.

[Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the definitive work on the Greek Gods and their meaning. You just know that Kerenyi senses the subtle realities behind what he is writing about.

[Cristina Landa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exhaustivo

[Carmen Coto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es un lindo libro de referencia, pero es un toque pesado como lectura de corrido. Tiene un hermoso nivel de detalle, igual.

[Kara Demetropoulos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. This was precisely the book I needed to read, at precisely the right time. (Don't you love when the universe does you a solid like that?)

The premise is straightforward - this is a comprehensive overview of the the main deities associated with ancient Greek mythology, written by Carl Kerenyi, a preeminent scholar of transpersonal psychology and close associate of Carl Jung.

We start at the beginning, with the primordial deities of Okeanos, Tethys, Chaos, Gaia, Eros, and Night. The first few chapters are essentially a Greek cosmology, the birth of the ancient Greek universe. Next up, we venture into the Titanomachy, and the introduction of such well-known figures as Kronos, Rhea, the serpent-monster Typhon, the Giants, the Kyklopes/Cyclops, and the almighty Zeus himself. The book moves from there into the Pre-Olympian Deities (i.e. the Moirai, Hekate, Eurybia, Styx, Iris, and a number of familiar monsters such as Skylla/Scylla, the Gorgons, the Sirens, the Harpies, and the Erinyes). From here on out, each section of the book is dedicated to a different main deity, whose multiple portrayals and characteristics, as well as shifting depictions over time, are explored in much more detail. These are, in order: Aphrodite, the Great Mother, Zeus, Athena, Apollon/Apollo, Artemis, Hera, Ares, Hephaistos, Metis, Leto, Maia, Hermes, Pan, the Nymphs, Poseidon, Hades, Persephone, Demeter, and Dionysus. There is an entire chapter dedicated to depictions of the sun and moon (which were not necessarily "deities" in the Greek pantheon... but, it's complicated.) And, finally, we have one of my personal favorite chapters, a detailed exploration of the birth of mankind, featuring Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Pandora.

As I said, I enjoyed every moment of this book. Kerinye cautions the reader to move through the stories slowly, to savor them, appreciating the myth almost the way you would a poem. Read it, let it marinate, sit with it, ponder, and then maybe even read it again. The book is structured in a way that makes this approach highly accessible - each section is split into multiple mini-chapters, only 1-5 pages long in length, united under a common theme. (I did not follow his advice, since I'm currently binge-reading for a thesis paper, but I do plan to re-read, sipping-style when I have more time).

One of the things I enjoyed most about Kerenyi's approach is the stark, no-frills manner in which he presents the information. It is clear he is abundantly knowledgeable on the subject matter, and because of this, has developed a deep wisdom about how the material should be arranged and presented as well. In the introduction, he expressly states the purpose and parameters of the text: he will not be straying into later depictions of the gods, remaining strictly in the realm of original "myth" (a term which he describes in greater, fascinating detail in the same introduction). He differentiates sharply between that which belongs to "heroic saga" and that which belongs to "mythology", and will alert the reader if that threshold is being approached. His proposal for the text is intriguing - he intends to weave the original source material back into a kind of "mythological story-telling", while remaining as authentic to the classic sources as possible, relying on no contemporary psychological analysis conducted in later years. Yet... underpinning the whole manuscript is an appreciation for human psychology, and a fervent motivation to understand more about our own lives, through learning more about the lives of the ancients. (Seriously, the introduction to this text is not to be skipped, if you really want to understand and appreciate this text in its fullest capacity).

All this being said, Kerenyi's style is not going to be for everyone. He presents the myths frankly - crisp, precise, and free from analysis or speculation. He does not scurry to fill in any gaps, or bridge plot points for continuity's sake - because his primary objective is accuracy. There's a great deal of genealogy in this book, and lots and lots and lots of deities called by more than one name, with multiple epithets, contradicting story-lines, converging biographies, and seemingly infinite variations on genealogy. This is not streamlined - it's messy and can even be overwhelming, if you weren't expecting a stream of information this chaotic.

For me, this is a book I'll return to again and again. It's a bedtime story, a meditation prompt, and a scholarly resource all in one. Also, there are quite a few ancient images scattered throughout that enhance the text immensely.

[Roberto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Por el título del libro el lector espera encontrar un libro, otro más, sobre mitología griega. O, como suele ocurrir, un elenco de cuentos (mythos) sobre dioses helenos, una traslación más o menos resumida de lo contado por los autores clásicos. Mhyto, sí, pero no logos. La obra de Kerényi discurre, venturosamente, por otros derroteros.
Los relatos (mythos) están. No sólo un relato, sino varios sobre el mismo tema: yuxtapuestos, encadenados, sustitutivos, hasta contradictorios; con sus respectivas referencias bibliográficas. El autor apunta cuales pueden ser más antiguos sin insinuar que estos necesariamente sean más genuinos que los posteriores, sino momentos distintos de una cultura viva, en transformación, que se acomoda a sus leyendas y adapta éstas a las necesidades del momento.
Las genealogías divinas también se exponen en su diversidad. No siempre, casi nunca, hay una historia única; sino varias, entrecruzadas, debidas en ocasiones no al momento histórico sino al lugar pues algunas historias son puramente locales y no compartidas por toda la geografía helena.
Como buen filólogo clásico ofrece el significado antiguo, casi primigenio, de los nombres propios lo que permite en ocasiones entender mejor el mito. Por otro lado, la exposición de Kerényi no es totalizadora, no cuenta todos los relatos sino que olvida los que no considera pertinentes, aunque explicita su omisión.
El autor: erudito, historiador de las religiones, filólogo, mitólogo, antropólogo cultural; se convierte a lo largo de las páginas del libro en un nuevo rapsoda reviviendo los antiguos mitos ergo invitando al lector a hacerlos suyos. No habla de los griegos como individuos ajenos y pretéritos sino que continuamente apela a palabras como “nosotros”, “nuestras historias”, “nuestras creencias”, “pensamos”, … Como rapsoda olvida conscientemente, recrea sin inventar nada pero añadiendo con su interpretación, ordena y clasifica, apenas explica pero invita al conocimiento.

«El rapsoda constituye una pieza esencial en la maquinaria de la epopeya. Es a la vez editor y librero, y también bibliotecario, pero al mismo tiempo es más que todo eso: es a la vez coautor tardío y en calidad de tal posee el derecho de modificar el texto. Se trata de un potestad legítima que nadie le niega, como no sea, tal vez, su propia conciencia.» (Ismaíl Kadaré. “El expediente H”)

[John Of Oxshott · Rating 3 out of 5]

For most of my reading life up to the age of about 25 I got by with Everyman's Classical Dictionary edited by John Warrington, which has concise summaries of all the classical myths and legends. I always felt a little deprived since one of my friends had several rather impressive works by Robert Graves, which she claimed to have read from cover to cover multiple times.

After I'd been earning a salary for a few years I bought my own copies of Robert Graves's books in a second-hand bookshop but, to my great disappointment, I found them indigestible. Then I was recommended this book, The Gods of the Greeks, by an American occultist who insisted it was necessary to take classical mythology seriously if you wanted to change the modern world, which, of course, I did.

I'd never heard of Karl Kerenyi up to that point but it turned out he was a favourite of Jung's and we all know that Jung actually did change the world, so I snapped it up.

It's a compact book and I was ready to dive in and read it from cover to cover in a single sitting but the author advises caution.

"The reader's best plan ... is not to absorb too much of this fare at a sitting, but to read only a few pages at a time -- and preferably more than once, as he would read an ancient poem."

Chastened, I took this advice so literally that I have only just finished the book, some thirty-odd years later.

One of the problems with Kerenyi's approach is that he holds in his head so many different versions of each tale and with such erudite knowledge of his sources that he is must somehow try to do justice to all of them, sometimes within a single sentence. This kaleidoscopic presentation of competing histories makes it impossible for the reader to take in even the most basic linear sequence of events.

With hindsight, I realised that Everyman's Classical Dictionary, which had been recommended by one of my English teachers, was the perfect reference tool because it just gave me the stories without any of the scholarly distractions.

However, I recently came across an even better book, quite by chance, which will be the subject of my next review.

[Alessia♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una raccolta completa e veramente esaustiva di tutti i miti greci. A tratti un po' pesante a causa dell'impostazione accademica del testo, l'autore ha una conoscenza immensa della materia, elenca spesso diverse varianti di un solo mito assieme ad una lunga genealogia di Dei ed eroi. Da leggere con pazienza e solo se si è davvero interessati all'argomento.
(Meglio avere già una buona conoscenza di base della mitologia e del teatro greco per comprendere meglio certi passaggi)

[Javi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Demasiado técnico
Sin ser un problema del libro, más bien mío, me ha resultado muy difícil seguir tal cantidad de datos, me ha parecido muy denso, enrevesado, me esperaba otra cosa, algo más lineal, sin tantas referencias y vueltas de rueda a la misma historia.

[XAVIEE 1234 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mitología para adultos, un ensayo de investigación exhaustivo que nos lleva al origen de todo relato separando por área y fuente. Muy bien documentado.

Indispensable conocer los mitos antes de leerlo, no es un libro introductorio.

[Wojtek Konieczny · Rating 5 out of 5]

9/10

[Paul Keller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tough read: every ten pages I wanted to take a nap. However, brings the point home that there is not ONE Greek mythology but nearly and infinite amount of variations.

[David Hollywood · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful companion to its partner book 'The Heroes of the Greeks', which together provide virtually all of what we might need to learn about the Greek Myths.