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Classical Mythology: Images and Insights 5th (fifth) by Harris, Stephen, Platzner, Gloria (2007) Paperback
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First published January 1, 2000
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About the author
Stephen L. Harris
14 books6 followersLibrarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Stephen L. Harris is Professor Emeritus of Humanities and Religious Studies at California State University, Sacramento, where he served ten years as department chair. A Woodrow Wilson Fellow, he received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell University. A member of the Society of Biblical Literature, his publications include Understanding the Bible (8th edition, 2011); The Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (with Robert Platzner); Classical Mythology: Images and Insights (with Gloria Platzner); Exploring the Bible; and Fire Mountains of the West: The Cascade and Mono Lake Volcanoes, a survey of volcanic hazards on the U.S. Pacific Coast; and for National Geographic Books, Restless Earth, a study of global earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. He contributed the chapter on “Archaeology and Volcanism” to the Encyclopedia of Volcanoes (Academic Press, 2000).
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Stephen L. Harris is Professor Emeritus of Humanities and Religious Studies at California State University, Sacramento, where he served ten years as department chair. A Woodrow Wilson Fellow, he received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell University. A member of the Society of Biblical Literature, his publications include Understanding the Bible (8th edition, 2011); The Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (with Robert Platzner); Classical Mythology: Images and Insights (with Gloria Platzner); Exploring the Bible; and Fire Mountains of the West: The Cascade and Mono Lake Volcanoes, a survey of volcanic hazards on the U.S. Pacific Coast; and for National Geographic Books, Restless Earth, a study of global earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. He contributed the chapter on “Archaeology and Volcanism” to the Encyclopedia of Volcanoes (Academic Press, 2000).
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
May 7, 2017
It is rare that I finish a text book because I find most textbooks dull. This one wasn't too bad, my main issue with this textbook is that it doesn't ease you into anything, it just jumps right in. Also, certain chapters should be rearrange so that the transitions are smooth.
April 14, 2018
Classical Mythology – Insights & Images
by Stephen L. Harris and Gloria Platzner
Third Edition published 2001 by Mayfield Publishing Company Mountain View California, London, Toronto ISBN 0 7674 1549 3
Designed for undergraduate students. Abundantly illustrated with examples of architecture, sculpture and paintings. It includes a great amount of primary material as one would expect from a text book. Easy to read translations of classical narrative poems and epic Greek plays written by Homer, Virgil and other main Graeco-Roman historians and philosophers.
It explores the relationship between myth, art, religion, history and society. Each of the epics are prefaced with explanatory essays to place the story or myth into historical and cultural context.
Bibliography, charts, graphs, maps, illustrations are depicted with extensive captions that serve to provide an informative ‘counterpoint’ to the main text. The student will benefit from this mode of reiteration to ensure a deeper understanding of this complex material.
Although classical mythology is fascinating and anyone who can speak with an intimate knowledge of it is instantly admired, it remains a complex, confusing and confounding subject. To master it would be quite a feat. This book presents the material in user-friendly and is set out in a logical and simple manner so to render the topic as palatable as is possible.
I read Virgil’s Iliad, Homer’s Odyssey and Ulysses Travels while still in high school. I’d heard of Oedipus Rex, Paradise Lost, and wondered about the Oracle of Delphi. However, they were all words, so many words, of which I understood little and remember nought. It was enough to be able to recognise the names and nod sagely when senior colleagues spoke of them. I was an imposter.
It was my fervent desire to someday read this classical literature and hopefully understand it. I found this textbook at a book market some years ago. It has sat patiently all this time on my bookshelf, all 1,000 pages of closely typed small print text. Still not easy to read but I’m determined to finally cross it off the ‘bucket list’.
The book ends with some wonderful art work that I’ve had the pleasure of seeing in major art galleries around the world and excerpts from several epic poems, like Dante’s Inferno, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Tennyson’s Ulysses, Yeats’ sonnet Leda and the Swan (I always think of Sidney Nolan’s wonderful painting of Leda and the Swan that he painted in 1958 and is hung at the National Art Gallery. I never actually knew what that painting was about I just liked it. Now I know, Zeus (king of the gods) is depicted as a swan who seduces Leda.
Text books are boring but it’s worth persevering, for anyone wanting to know about Classical Mythology. I’m reading it in stages with breaks inbetween.
by Stephen L. Harris and Gloria Platzner
Third Edition published 2001 by Mayfield Publishing Company Mountain View California, London, Toronto ISBN 0 7674 1549 3
Designed for undergraduate students. Abundantly illustrated with examples of architecture, sculpture and paintings. It includes a great amount of primary material as one would expect from a text book. Easy to read translations of classical narrative poems and epic Greek plays written by Homer, Virgil and other main Graeco-Roman historians and philosophers.
It explores the relationship between myth, art, religion, history and society. Each of the epics are prefaced with explanatory essays to place the story or myth into historical and cultural context.
Bibliography, charts, graphs, maps, illustrations are depicted with extensive captions that serve to provide an informative ‘counterpoint’ to the main text. The student will benefit from this mode of reiteration to ensure a deeper understanding of this complex material.
Although classical mythology is fascinating and anyone who can speak with an intimate knowledge of it is instantly admired, it remains a complex, confusing and confounding subject. To master it would be quite a feat. This book presents the material in user-friendly and is set out in a logical and simple manner so to render the topic as palatable as is possible.
I read Virgil’s Iliad, Homer’s Odyssey and Ulysses Travels while still in high school. I’d heard of Oedipus Rex, Paradise Lost, and wondered about the Oracle of Delphi. However, they were all words, so many words, of which I understood little and remember nought. It was enough to be able to recognise the names and nod sagely when senior colleagues spoke of them. I was an imposter.
It was my fervent desire to someday read this classical literature and hopefully understand it. I found this textbook at a book market some years ago. It has sat patiently all this time on my bookshelf, all 1,000 pages of closely typed small print text. Still not easy to read but I’m determined to finally cross it off the ‘bucket list’.
The book ends with some wonderful art work that I’ve had the pleasure of seeing in major art galleries around the world and excerpts from several epic poems, like Dante’s Inferno, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Tennyson’s Ulysses, Yeats’ sonnet Leda and the Swan (I always think of Sidney Nolan’s wonderful painting of Leda and the Swan that he painted in 1958 and is hung at the National Art Gallery. I never actually knew what that painting was about I just liked it. Now I know, Zeus (king of the gods) is depicted as a swan who seduces Leda.
Text books are boring but it’s worth persevering, for anyone wanting to know about Classical Mythology. I’m reading it in stages with breaks inbetween.
December 10, 2022
This is a good overview of classical mythology. I appreciate the structure of introduction and then heavy emphasis of providing the source material. The book is good while he focuses on the topic of actual classical mythology. It gets sketchy when he tries to make connections with the Bible. His parallels are not strong.
May 27, 2018
I went into my Greek and Roman myth class (that used this book) knowing nothing, but I learned SO much by the end—mostly thanks to this book. It’s not very well organized (the worst was random anachronistic tangents in every chapter) but I still learned a lot, and that’s what counts!
December 14, 2020
If you are a fan of Greek Mythology, then this book is for you. It is so detailed and so complete with not just the Gods, but the family trees, and what each character represents. I would buy this again if I didn't already have two copies of it!
December 27, 2022
This was one if my assigned texts for a Classical Myth & Lit course in college. It gives an easy to understand background in the mythology, as well as sections dedicated to the "original texts", which includes Homer's Epics and several plays.
dnf
July 25, 2022besides being interesting, it was pretty opinionated-- and a lot of the chapters just went on and on not really saying much.
Want to read
March 2, 2023Recommended to me by a very nerdy coworker
May 7, 2013
This work thoroughly explores the fundamentals of Grecco-Roman mythology, presenting the facts on the writers and the cultural details as well as venturing the various psychological interpretations on these myths. This is not a work of psychology and nor is it a dry commentary on the "entertaining superstitions of primitive peoples" which tends to be the norm among school textbook studies on the subject. This work instead shows an exquisite balance of historical, artistic (countless photographs of sculptures, pottery art, and paintings), literary and psychological perspectives, and the result is an invaluable resource for any modern student trying to understand ancient mythology.
Most sections of the textbook end with a relevant excerpt from an ancient author's famous work, cementing the student's understanding of the ideas taught in each chapter. Homer's Iliad and Odyssey are appended to the chapters on the varying types of Greek heroes, his Hymns are also used at the end of chapters devoted to the study of the gods Dionysus, Apollo, and Demeter. Hesiod's Theogony and Works and Days are used to augment the survey of the entire Olympian pantheon, and Plato's "Myth of Er" (from the end of Republic) finishes off a study on the ancient Greek beliefs on the afterlife. The book then dives into a study on Greek tragic theater, covering the three major playwrights: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The plays chosen to be studied are excellent choices for understanding each playwright: the entire Orestia trilogy and Prometheus Bound are used for studying Aeschylus, the first two plays in Sophocle's Oedipus trilogy and Euripide's plays Medea and Bacchants are included as well. Receiving the full copies of those plays alone is worth the price this book is often sold at in the used bookstores. The last quarter of the book is devoted to studying Roman mythology as well as a short and general survey of post-Roman mythology. Several small excerpts of poets from Dante to Shelley are included at the very end, but the majority of this section of the book covers the Roman tradition and as such Ovid and Virgil are studied therein. Several famous names in Greek literature and theater are missing from the book, but their omission makes complete sense to a study devoted specifically to mythology. The only one that surprised me is the absence of excerpts from and only very sparse discussion of the tale of Jason and the Argonauts.
One of the greatest benefits to reading this book is the list of recommended reading material that ends each chapter. So many titles I've taken note of and then either read or begun thumbing through and have found my interest in classical mythology more intensely stimulated than I could have imagined. The choices of those recommended titles is outstanding and I would conclude that the authors are very well-read on the ancient Greeks/Romans.
I'd recommend this work as a "start here" book to anyone beginning a study on Grecco-Roman literature and mythology. It covers all the important works, picks the most relevant excerpts, saturates the reader with pictures of ancient works of art, and provides stunningly insightful commentary on the subject from the various perspectives needed for developing a love and understanding of classical mythology.
Most sections of the textbook end with a relevant excerpt from an ancient author's famous work, cementing the student's understanding of the ideas taught in each chapter. Homer's Iliad and Odyssey are appended to the chapters on the varying types of Greek heroes, his Hymns are also used at the end of chapters devoted to the study of the gods Dionysus, Apollo, and Demeter. Hesiod's Theogony and Works and Days are used to augment the survey of the entire Olympian pantheon, and Plato's "Myth of Er" (from the end of Republic) finishes off a study on the ancient Greek beliefs on the afterlife. The book then dives into a study on Greek tragic theater, covering the three major playwrights: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The plays chosen to be studied are excellent choices for understanding each playwright: the entire Orestia trilogy and Prometheus Bound are used for studying Aeschylus, the first two plays in Sophocle's Oedipus trilogy and Euripide's plays Medea and Bacchants are included as well. Receiving the full copies of those plays alone is worth the price this book is often sold at in the used bookstores. The last quarter of the book is devoted to studying Roman mythology as well as a short and general survey of post-Roman mythology. Several small excerpts of poets from Dante to Shelley are included at the very end, but the majority of this section of the book covers the Roman tradition and as such Ovid and Virgil are studied therein. Several famous names in Greek literature and theater are missing from the book, but their omission makes complete sense to a study devoted specifically to mythology. The only one that surprised me is the absence of excerpts from and only very sparse discussion of the tale of Jason and the Argonauts.
One of the greatest benefits to reading this book is the list of recommended reading material that ends each chapter. So many titles I've taken note of and then either read or begun thumbing through and have found my interest in classical mythology more intensely stimulated than I could have imagined. The choices of those recommended titles is outstanding and I would conclude that the authors are very well-read on the ancient Greeks/Romans.
I'd recommend this work as a "start here" book to anyone beginning a study on Grecco-Roman literature and mythology. It covers all the important works, picks the most relevant excerpts, saturates the reader with pictures of ancient works of art, and provides stunningly insightful commentary on the subject from the various perspectives needed for developing a love and understanding of classical mythology.
October 2, 2014
This was the text for my Fall 2011 Classical Literature and Mythology class.
It is a decent text, which uses (mostly) complete classical works along with the authors' analyses and interpretations. The authors do make use of a couple different kinds of analysis throughout but they are distinctly biased towards feminist interpretations. I am not saying that that is a bad thing--in fact, it is a much needed correction to years and years of classical/myth scholarship--but they sometimes just go a bit too far.
We read about 4/5ths of this, along with many other things as handouts and the complete text of Lysistrata so I am calling it read.
My other (bigger) gripe is that it uses middling-at-best translations. I realize that is to keep cost down but still. Also there are no footnotes with the texts to explain matters of translation or the alternate terms used for, say, the Greeks and Trojans, or that someone may have two names in the text, and so on.
It is a decent text, which uses (mostly) complete classical works along with the authors' analyses and interpretations. The authors do make use of a couple different kinds of analysis throughout but they are distinctly biased towards feminist interpretations. I am not saying that that is a bad thing--in fact, it is a much needed correction to years and years of classical/myth scholarship--but they sometimes just go a bit too far.
We read about 4/5ths of this, along with many other things as handouts and the complete text of Lysistrata so I am calling it read.
My other (bigger) gripe is that it uses middling-at-best translations. I realize that is to keep cost down but still. Also there are no footnotes with the texts to explain matters of translation or the alternate terms used for, say, the Greeks and Trojans, or that someone may have two names in the text, and so on.
Read
January 26, 2017An interesting read
My class touches strictly on the Greek myths; the reader will find that Hesoid and Homer are discussed sufficiently for most needs. A reader looking for a broader take should be pleased with both the Roman exceprts and the more contemporary interpretations (Auden, Boland) drawing on these myths. The post-colonial crowd may take umbrage at the lack of "diversity" but this book contains enough for an undergraduate needing a firm understanding of Greek myth, whether it be for comparative religion or general humanities work.
My class touches strictly on the Greek myths; the reader will find that Hesoid and Homer are discussed sufficiently for most needs. A reader looking for a broader take should be pleased with both the Roman exceprts and the more contemporary interpretations (Auden, Boland) drawing on these myths. The post-colonial crowd may take umbrage at the lack of "diversity" but this book contains enough for an undergraduate needing a firm understanding of Greek myth, whether it be for comparative religion or general humanities work.
Read
January 16, 2011Yes, I'm reading a thousand-page textbook. But it's well written, and I feel like it's time to get an in-depth study of myth rather than just little bits here and there from Bulfinch or from "encyclopedias" of mythology. What I like about this one is it has Homer and Hesiod and Sophocles and all those in their entirety, so I can read the original texts as well as the modern-day explanations.
September 1, 2008
Really the best book of Classical Mythology I've ever read. EVERYTHING you want to know about the world of Greek myths. It's written for adults, not children, however, and adults with an inquiring mind though not necessarily an academic background. If you have an academic background, this is still a great reference book.
January 4, 2013
This was assigned for a class that didn't even really reference the book at all. I tried reading it on my own but never got very far. But, what of it I did read it was pretty interesting, but a little dry as most serious-business books are. If you're hard core into mythology, I would recommend this for but, if not, only a casual reader-this is probably not for you.
December 11, 2012
Nicely informative with great reading selections. In fact, the primary works included are the true beauty of this book. You'll go beyond Homer (though his work is there, too) and read Hesiod, Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles, Ovid, Virgil, and some less-known works -- with the convenience of it all in one volume. I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in Classical mythology.
December 19, 2014
If you are at all interested in classical mythology, this is the book to read first. It has everything (including Roman mythology and all the plays you could want) and it presents it in a clear and readable way. We didn't read all of the chapters for class, but I'm going to go through and read them just for fun!
July 10, 2011
This is a great book for teaching. It is full of art and has several excerpts from the major mythology works (Odyssey, Metamorphosis, Aeneid, Hesiod....). It's an easy read and very well structured. I highly recommend this book to any teacher or lover of mythology.
May 31, 2016
This is one of only five "textbooks" that I kept from college. Harris and his colleagues have done a wonderful job anthologizing a huge swath of Greek and Roman myths. Top-tier translations are interspersed with insightful and varied analysis that provides important context for these works.
August 16, 2009
Very good presentation. It grouped myths according to themes, making the study of mythology more comprehensible and applicable. The writing was intriguing and enjoyable.
June 26, 2013
Not my first foray into mythology, but I'm on a bit of a spiritual quest at the moment.
August 24, 2012
This is the text book I used for teaching. I think it is well organized and easier to comprehend than some of the other options.
December 24, 2014
One of the most informative and comprehensive collections/dissertations on Greek myth - very engaging and accessible.
November 24, 2015
the author is totally sexist -.-
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews