What do you think?
Rate this book
The Myths of Greece and Rome
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.
We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.
We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
394 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1893
187 people are currently reading
630 people want to read
About the author
Hélène A. Guerber
97 books47 followersHélène Adeline Guerber (1859 – 1929), better known as H.A. Guerber, was a British historian most well known for her written histories of Germanic mythology.
Her most well known work is Myths of the Norsemen: From the Eddas and Sagas - George G. Harrap and Co. Ltd., 1908 in London.
Other histories by Guerber include Legends of the Rhine (A.S. Barnes & Co., New York, 1895; new edition 1905), Stories of the Wagner Opera, The Book of the Epic, The Story of the Ancient World, The Story of the Greeks, The Story of the Romans, Legends of the Middle Ages, The Story of the Renaissance and Reformation, The Story of the Thirteen Colonies, and The Story of the Great Republic.
Her most well known work is Myths of the Norsemen: From the Eddas and Sagas - George G. Harrap and Co. Ltd., 1908 in London.
Other histories by Guerber include Legends of the Rhine (A.S. Barnes & Co., New York, 1895; new edition 1905), Stories of the Wagner Opera, The Book of the Epic, The Story of the Ancient World, The Story of the Greeks, The Story of the Romans, Legends of the Middle Ages, The Story of the Renaissance and Reformation, The Story of the Thirteen Colonies, and The Story of the Great Republic.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
July 28, 2012
Having only a basic familiarity with some of the most well-known Greek and Roman myths, I felt that I needed to read this. Guerber presents an overview that surely must cover all the gods and goddesses and mythical mortals whose names survive in our constellations and in our language. I started out taking notes about the relationships among the gods, but soon found it to be overwhelming. Guerber includes a sort of family tree at the end which is baffling, with some gods (immortal, of course) showing up in many generations and, as the stories bear out, married to one goddess or mortal after another. Many of the stories have strikingly similar themes, such as the pride of mortals leading to their downfall, and the certainty that to renege on a promise is to invite punishment. I am pleased that I read the book, but I also admit that I was glad to reach the end of it.
January 23, 2013
The late W M S Russell, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Reading, was a modern-day polymath: classicist, sociologist, biologist (he helped formulate the principle of the three Rs of humane animal experimentation: Reduction, Replacement and Refinement), folklorist (former President and Secretary of the Folklore Society), radio quiz panellist (a sometime stalwart of Round Britain Quiz), raconteur, singer, novelist... Well, you get the picture. I was privileged to be a longtime correspondent of his, and while I never had the opportunity to meet up with him in person I knew him from phone conversations to be knowledgeable, personable and friendly. His premature death was a great sadness to me personally and a loss to his many friends and acquaintances generally.
Bill Russell provided a new introduction to this re-issue, one of a series entitled Myth, Legend and Folklore, the result of a collaboration between Wordsworth Editions and The Folklore Society which it is intended will make the archive of the Society more generally accessible than at any time since its beginnings in 1879. This classic narrative of classical mythology, first published in 1908 and written by British academic Hélène Adeline Guerber, was apparently highly regarded in its day. Though not as famous as The Age of Fable, which I remember from my childhood as the first part of Bullfinch’s Mythology, Guerber’s retelling comments on their origins and significance from a later and more scientific viewpoint, as its opening sentence proclaims:
Mythology is the science which treats of the early traditions, or myths, relating to the religion of the ancients, and includes, besides a full account of the origin of their gods, their theory concerning the beginning of all things.
My review copy from 2000 is actually full of Bill’s handwriting, correcting the handful of typographical errors that had slipped through the editing process to appear in the published version, so I am particularly fond of it. Unlike modern academic tomes, there is no extensive bibliography – indeed, none at all, as Guerber's contemporary references are now all well out of date. However, there remains the nineteenth-century penchant for quoting classical and contemporary poetry at appropriate points in the text. For all that the text reads easily enough, with sub-headings to chop up the text in bite-size chunks and a useful index to locate names (though the numerous but bald page references for Heaven, Earth, Love etc are a bit daunting – a bit of cross-referencing would have been more useful).
Every so often someone will lament the passing of an age when to be educated meant being as familiar with the ancient Greek and Roman myths as with your own neighbourhood. For better or worse that is no longer the case but, as with the practice of straitjacketing the English language with the rules of Latin grammar, this knowledge could often constrict the creative imagination. Maybe the passing of time may lead to public re-acquaintance with this ancient matter, resulting in a kind of mini-renaissance.
Or maybe not. Professor Russell’s introduction reminds us nevertheless that classical myths and folk-tales have inspired modern writers in unexpected ways, especially science-fictioneers such as Asimov, Arthur C Clarke, Sprague de Camp and Brian Stableford; one tale-type even provided the name of pioneering rock band The Grateful Dead. And as you yourself read through these various stories, and immerse yourself in tales of boar hunts, and wild hags decapitated by heroes, and kings with animal ears betrayed by barbers, and ships returning with black sails (all classical motifs recurring in, for example, Arthurian legends), you may well begin to wonder if there is anything new under the sun except a change of name and a new context.
http://wp.me/s2oNj1-myth
Bill Russell provided a new introduction to this re-issue, one of a series entitled Myth, Legend and Folklore, the result of a collaboration between Wordsworth Editions and The Folklore Society which it is intended will make the archive of the Society more generally accessible than at any time since its beginnings in 1879. This classic narrative of classical mythology, first published in 1908 and written by British academic Hélène Adeline Guerber, was apparently highly regarded in its day. Though not as famous as The Age of Fable, which I remember from my childhood as the first part of Bullfinch’s Mythology, Guerber’s retelling comments on their origins and significance from a later and more scientific viewpoint, as its opening sentence proclaims:
Mythology is the science which treats of the early traditions, or myths, relating to the religion of the ancients, and includes, besides a full account of the origin of their gods, their theory concerning the beginning of all things.
My review copy from 2000 is actually full of Bill’s handwriting, correcting the handful of typographical errors that had slipped through the editing process to appear in the published version, so I am particularly fond of it. Unlike modern academic tomes, there is no extensive bibliography – indeed, none at all, as Guerber's contemporary references are now all well out of date. However, there remains the nineteenth-century penchant for quoting classical and contemporary poetry at appropriate points in the text. For all that the text reads easily enough, with sub-headings to chop up the text in bite-size chunks and a useful index to locate names (though the numerous but bald page references for Heaven, Earth, Love etc are a bit daunting – a bit of cross-referencing would have been more useful).
Every so often someone will lament the passing of an age when to be educated meant being as familiar with the ancient Greek and Roman myths as with your own neighbourhood. For better or worse that is no longer the case but, as with the practice of straitjacketing the English language with the rules of Latin grammar, this knowledge could often constrict the creative imagination. Maybe the passing of time may lead to public re-acquaintance with this ancient matter, resulting in a kind of mini-renaissance.
Or maybe not. Professor Russell’s introduction reminds us nevertheless that classical myths and folk-tales have inspired modern writers in unexpected ways, especially science-fictioneers such as Asimov, Arthur C Clarke, Sprague de Camp and Brian Stableford; one tale-type even provided the name of pioneering rock band The Grateful Dead. And as you yourself read through these various stories, and immerse yourself in tales of boar hunts, and wild hags decapitated by heroes, and kings with animal ears betrayed by barbers, and ships returning with black sails (all classical motifs recurring in, for example, Arthurian legends), you may well begin to wonder if there is anything new under the sun except a change of name and a new context.
http://wp.me/s2oNj1-myth
January 29, 2012
Revised by Dorothy Margaret Stuart. A formidable tome, retelling a great many of the myths, from creation and the twelve main gods to Bellerophon to the Trojan War to the Aeneid. The language is rich and literate, representative of the time the book was written (originally published in 1907). Guerber also adorns her retellings with excerpts from Milton, Shakespeare, Keats and other poets whose work was drenched in mythological allusion. She finishes the book with some interesting comments on interpretation of myth.
Her style is on the whole pleasingly arch, as for example when she mentions that Cronus must have been “not of a very inquiring turn of mind” when he swallows a rock instead of Zeus. On the negative side, Guerber often robs the tales of their drama: she skims over such incredible feats as Bellerophon’s destruction of the invincible Solymi, and fails to tell how exactly the sons of Boreas destroyed the harpies, or where King Admetus managed to find and ride a chariot drawn by boars. I also found the tales gutted in places; I’m not speaking of obvious bowdlerization such as references to homosexuality, but surprising omissions such as how Heracles ripped Theseus’ hips when he rescued him from Hades, or why Echo was punished by Hera (it wasn’t just for talking too much). Guerber doesn’t even make it explicit that Achilles refuses to fight in the Iliad! These odd gaps aren’t too distracting, however, as Guerber is usually thorough, and as noted before, her style is entertaining.
Her style is on the whole pleasingly arch, as for example when she mentions that Cronus must have been “not of a very inquiring turn of mind” when he swallows a rock instead of Zeus. On the negative side, Guerber often robs the tales of their drama: she skims over such incredible feats as Bellerophon’s destruction of the invincible Solymi, and fails to tell how exactly the sons of Boreas destroyed the harpies, or where King Admetus managed to find and ride a chariot drawn by boars. I also found the tales gutted in places; I’m not speaking of obvious bowdlerization such as references to homosexuality, but surprising omissions such as how Heracles ripped Theseus’ hips when he rescued him from Hades, or why Echo was punished by Hera (it wasn’t just for talking too much). Guerber doesn’t even make it explicit that Achilles refuses to fight in the Iliad! These odd gaps aren’t too distracting, however, as Guerber is usually thorough, and as noted before, her style is entertaining.
December 12, 2011
This book is very informative and I am glad to say that learned a lot from it. I would like to comment on the fact that the author uses a lot of words throughout the book that are not very common and unless you have an extensive vocabulary, you might want to have a dictionary nearby. The author also does not make the distinction between the Roman names and the Greek names given to the Gods; unless you are already familiar with their names it may require independent research. Aside from that, he does a good job of going through each myth and he even adds snippets of famous works from literature which pertain to the myth being discussed.
August 2, 2014
A fantastic collection of Greek and Roman myths and legends - If your're interested in Homer's or Virgil's but are unsure if you want to read them in their entirety then this book gives you the short versions of all their classic epics. I enjoyed the book and I especially like how's it written and paced, with the main chapters then sub-chapters. It's an easy book to pick up, read a little, and if you're short on time you can read a section quickly and put it down to resume at a different time.
September 1, 2021
Es un libro bastante básico, interiorizarme introductorio a la mitología, por lo que fue perfecto para mí y me quedé con algo que mencionaba en el prólogo que decía: "para poder disfrutar de muchas lecturas de grandes escritores es necesario saber aunque sea un poco de mitología, hay muchas referencias hacerca de estos mitos antiguos y adentrarte en ellos es entrar en una mina de imaginación inagotable".
January 4, 2014
For a quick retelling, for me this book fits the criteria. It's well written and Grueber made it as simple as connect-the-dots as to those myths which are related to each other or in connection with the other. Nevertheless, I'd still prefer Edith Hamilton's Mythology. It's much more detailed.
November 24, 2021
eh. I don't understand why it was titled "Greece & Rome" when the myths were centred around the Roman tellings, and used the Roman names for the characters. I feel that there's better books that explore mythology, but this is a fine introduction, I guess
May 25, 2025
Ms. Guerber (1859-1929) left this wonderful story of Greek and Roman myths to us. Her narrative is clear, concise, engaging, and often times, poetic, as many adjacent lines seem to rhyme, as if an itinerant minstrel was reciting an epic saga. We don't know much about this mysterious author, but she must have had an excellent education and had masterful skills in story telling. I was familiar with some well known stories, Hercules, Troy and Helen, Odysseus, etc. But many minor stories, and some stories behind a few "celebrities", such as the atrocious Sisyphus, who used to rob and kill innocent travelers, were unknown to me. (How many people who use "Sisyphus" as a glamorous name for their businesses know this scandalous background?)
The Glossary and Index is an invaluable addendum. Without it, you would have a hard time to find who is who and who has done what. Unfortunately, this index of proper names lacks general keywords. Suppose you vaguely remember someone, either a mortal or a demi-god, flew so high that his waxed wings melted under the heat of the sun and fell to water and drowned. Who is he? To compensate this lack, I manually added tens of such keywords to this index, e.g. "waxed wing, 222". It would of course be easy if you had remembered his name, Icarus, so you could use the existing index. But as an ordinary mortal myself, I tend to remember the story line or plot better than the names of the characters. Supplementing this index with general keywords makes the index much more useful to me as an occasional writer and also helps me memorize those stories.
The following are my additions in case they may help other readers / writers, who may quote an interesting story or character in these classical myths in writing. (Words in parentheses are not actually added to the index; they are just comments here in this book review only. The page numbers may differ if your edition is not from Dover Publication.)
animal suckles baby, 291
bed, 220 (if you're too short, you're stretched to fit; too long, chopped short)
cannibal, 309 (the Laestrygonian people)
comet, 107 (Berenice's hair)
conceit, ... (too many to list here)
crane, 197 (big birds in Africa that sometimes devour Pygmies' harvest; interesting in that cranes are considered auspicious birds in East Asian culture)
dew, 51 (Daphne)
dragon, 356 (symbol of drought)
dolphin, 152, 304 (saved person from drowning)
equal length of rule, 252 (two brothers alternate in reign; interesting in political history)
floating rocks, 235 (Symplegades, Argonauts or Argo sailors came across)
fountain, 164 (sound of fountain is meaningful speech sound)
freethinker, 169 (Erisichthon, contempt for superstition)
fight to know, 227 (fight first, cast down weapons and embrace later; common in classical Chinese wuxia genre stories)
Gibraltar, 200 (both sides have the name of Hercules' Pillars)
golden fleece, ... (too many to list)
half eye closed, 113 (Argus, never closes both eyes)
half year on earth, half underground, 87 (Adonis in Elysian Fields when underground), 167 (Proserpina in Hades when underground)
human flesh, 194 (Diomedes' horses fed on; Hercules threw him to his own horses)
invisible, 211-2 (Pluto made a helmet whose wearer is invisible, by which Perseus killed Medusa)
Justice, 139 (blindfolded Themis, impartial goddess of justice)
mortal, preferred, 132 (Marpessa, the maiden, wisely preferred the mortal Idas to Apollo, who, if chosen as husband, would remain young and cease to love her when she became old)
mulberry, 95 (turned from white to red, dyed by the blood of Pyramus and Thisbe)
name, fem. but ends with -o, Hero, Echo, Dido (interesting in that feminine names could end with -o, typically for masculine nouns; esp. surprising that Hero is a woman, loved by Leander, who swam the Hellespont to visit her and drowned; reminds me of Maiden's Tower in Istanbul, which is unlikely related)
oak oracle, 233 (a speaking oak is an oracle)
obulus, 138 (Hades river ferryman's fare, a coin customarily laid under the tongue of the dead)
pine-bender, 219 (Sinic, a giant who bent a pine and asked the unsuspecting passer-by or traveler to help and suddenly let go to shoot the passer-by to the sky)
prefer son to daughter, 241 (Iasiu, King of Arcadia, disappointed at daughter Atalanta when she was born)
Romeo & Juliet-like tragedy, 94 (Pyramus and Thisbe, see 'mulberry' above), 226 (Aegeus killed himself mistakenly thinking his son Theseus died)
sacrifice to sea, 127
sacrifice for husband, 200 (Alcestis)
sacrifice as food, 221
sacrifice for wind, 280
single combat, 285, 289
slave, willing, 201 (Hercules willingly took effeminate tasks such as spinning as a slave to Omphale, Queen of Lydia, who he loved)
sunflower, 54 (maiden Clytie admired Sun god Apollo and watched him cross the sky from east to west every day and gods changed her into a sunflower)
talkative, 174 (maiden Lara talked from morning till night and one tale enraged Jupiter, who sentenced her to Hades)
twin, mortal and immortail, 244 (one of the twins, Castor, was a mortal, and the other, Polluz, immortal, who nevertheless asked Jupiter to allow him to die with his brother; they were raised to the constellation Gemini)
winds, 184 (see below for more)
wing, waxed, 222 (Icarus; see above for more)
youth restored, 239 (Aeson, a virtuous king, was too old, whose youth was restored by Medea with magic potion; 'Medea' and 'medicine' are cognates if traced to Proto-Indo-European)
There are some inconsistencies betweem Gueber's account and other sources. For example, she thinks (p.184) the names of the winds are
Boreas, north wind
Corus, northwest wind
Aquilo, west wind
Notus, southwest wind
Eurus, east wind
Zephyrus, south wind
But nowadays, a more popular convention (or myth) is
Boreas or Aquilo, north wind
Notus or Austen, south wind
Zephyr(us) or Favonius, west wind
Eurus or Vultunus, east wind
That's fine. Different sources probably give different accounts. One salient shortcoming of this book is complete absence of references except to the poems she cited. The last chapter, "Analysis of Myths", is an attempt to interpret these myths from a scholarly point of view. The two approaches, from historical linguistics or philology and from anthropology, offer reasonable insight into our ancestors' mind. But such serious research, which takes 27 pages, has no mention of any researcher except once very briefly, Müller, and we have to guess she probably meant Max Müller, the great comparative philologist. Her frequent exact quotes, using quotation marks, are not accompanied by references, which is unthinkable in moderm scholarship. But by consulting Google including Google books, we can tell some of the theories are outdated, too far-fetched, or disproved, such as the so-called Turanian language group, which attempts to mix Indo-European and Semitic languages. Numerous etymologies are unsubstantiated, e.g. 'Daphne' related to Sanskrit 'dawn', 'Athene' or 'Athena' related to a Sanskrit word meaning "to wake", "to know", 'Neptune' meaning "potent", "despot", etc.
In spite of these shortcomings, largely due to the times she wrote the book in and her capacity not as a scholar in any specific discipline, the book is strongly recommended, for its high readability, clarity, and ease of cross-reference, especially supplemented by a general keyword index.
The Glossary and Index is an invaluable addendum. Without it, you would have a hard time to find who is who and who has done what. Unfortunately, this index of proper names lacks general keywords. Suppose you vaguely remember someone, either a mortal or a demi-god, flew so high that his waxed wings melted under the heat of the sun and fell to water and drowned. Who is he? To compensate this lack, I manually added tens of such keywords to this index, e.g. "waxed wing, 222". It would of course be easy if you had remembered his name, Icarus, so you could use the existing index. But as an ordinary mortal myself, I tend to remember the story line or plot better than the names of the characters. Supplementing this index with general keywords makes the index much more useful to me as an occasional writer and also helps me memorize those stories.
The following are my additions in case they may help other readers / writers, who may quote an interesting story or character in these classical myths in writing. (Words in parentheses are not actually added to the index; they are just comments here in this book review only. The page numbers may differ if your edition is not from Dover Publication.)
animal suckles baby, 291
bed, 220 (if you're too short, you're stretched to fit; too long, chopped short)
cannibal, 309 (the Laestrygonian people)
comet, 107 (Berenice's hair)
conceit, ... (too many to list here)
crane, 197 (big birds in Africa that sometimes devour Pygmies' harvest; interesting in that cranes are considered auspicious birds in East Asian culture)
dew, 51 (Daphne)
dragon, 356 (symbol of drought)
dolphin, 152, 304 (saved person from drowning)
equal length of rule, 252 (two brothers alternate in reign; interesting in political history)
floating rocks, 235 (Symplegades, Argonauts or Argo sailors came across)
fountain, 164 (sound of fountain is meaningful speech sound)
freethinker, 169 (Erisichthon, contempt for superstition)
fight to know, 227 (fight first, cast down weapons and embrace later; common in classical Chinese wuxia genre stories)
Gibraltar, 200 (both sides have the name of Hercules' Pillars)
golden fleece, ... (too many to list)
half eye closed, 113 (Argus, never closes both eyes)
half year on earth, half underground, 87 (Adonis in Elysian Fields when underground), 167 (Proserpina in Hades when underground)
human flesh, 194 (Diomedes' horses fed on; Hercules threw him to his own horses)
invisible, 211-2 (Pluto made a helmet whose wearer is invisible, by which Perseus killed Medusa)
Justice, 139 (blindfolded Themis, impartial goddess of justice)
mortal, preferred, 132 (Marpessa, the maiden, wisely preferred the mortal Idas to Apollo, who, if chosen as husband, would remain young and cease to love her when she became old)
mulberry, 95 (turned from white to red, dyed by the blood of Pyramus and Thisbe)
name, fem. but ends with -o, Hero, Echo, Dido (interesting in that feminine names could end with -o, typically for masculine nouns; esp. surprising that Hero is a woman, loved by Leander, who swam the Hellespont to visit her and drowned; reminds me of Maiden's Tower in Istanbul, which is unlikely related)
oak oracle, 233 (a speaking oak is an oracle)
obulus, 138 (Hades river ferryman's fare, a coin customarily laid under the tongue of the dead)
pine-bender, 219 (Sinic, a giant who bent a pine and asked the unsuspecting passer-by or traveler to help and suddenly let go to shoot the passer-by to the sky)
prefer son to daughter, 241 (Iasiu, King of Arcadia, disappointed at daughter Atalanta when she was born)
Romeo & Juliet-like tragedy, 94 (Pyramus and Thisbe, see 'mulberry' above), 226 (Aegeus killed himself mistakenly thinking his son Theseus died)
sacrifice to sea, 127
sacrifice for husband, 200 (Alcestis)
sacrifice as food, 221
sacrifice for wind, 280
single combat, 285, 289
slave, willing, 201 (Hercules willingly took effeminate tasks such as spinning as a slave to Omphale, Queen of Lydia, who he loved)
sunflower, 54 (maiden Clytie admired Sun god Apollo and watched him cross the sky from east to west every day and gods changed her into a sunflower)
talkative, 174 (maiden Lara talked from morning till night and one tale enraged Jupiter, who sentenced her to Hades)
twin, mortal and immortail, 244 (one of the twins, Castor, was a mortal, and the other, Polluz, immortal, who nevertheless asked Jupiter to allow him to die with his brother; they were raised to the constellation Gemini)
winds, 184 (see below for more)
wing, waxed, 222 (Icarus; see above for more)
youth restored, 239 (Aeson, a virtuous king, was too old, whose youth was restored by Medea with magic potion; 'Medea' and 'medicine' are cognates if traced to Proto-Indo-European)
There are some inconsistencies betweem Gueber's account and other sources. For example, she thinks (p.184) the names of the winds are
Boreas, north wind
Corus, northwest wind
Aquilo, west wind
Notus, southwest wind
Eurus, east wind
Zephyrus, south wind
But nowadays, a more popular convention (or myth) is
Boreas or Aquilo, north wind
Notus or Austen, south wind
Zephyr(us) or Favonius, west wind
Eurus or Vultunus, east wind
That's fine. Different sources probably give different accounts. One salient shortcoming of this book is complete absence of references except to the poems she cited. The last chapter, "Analysis of Myths", is an attempt to interpret these myths from a scholarly point of view. The two approaches, from historical linguistics or philology and from anthropology, offer reasonable insight into our ancestors' mind. But such serious research, which takes 27 pages, has no mention of any researcher except once very briefly, Müller, and we have to guess she probably meant Max Müller, the great comparative philologist. Her frequent exact quotes, using quotation marks, are not accompanied by references, which is unthinkable in moderm scholarship. But by consulting Google including Google books, we can tell some of the theories are outdated, too far-fetched, or disproved, such as the so-called Turanian language group, which attempts to mix Indo-European and Semitic languages. Numerous etymologies are unsubstantiated, e.g. 'Daphne' related to Sanskrit 'dawn', 'Athene' or 'Athena' related to a Sanskrit word meaning "to wake", "to know", 'Neptune' meaning "potent", "despot", etc.
In spite of these shortcomings, largely due to the times she wrote the book in and her capacity not as a scholar in any specific discipline, the book is strongly recommended, for its high readability, clarity, and ease of cross-reference, especially supplemented by a general keyword index.
May 2, 2015
Very entertaining return to myth and legend.Well written spiced with poetical quotations and
a comprehensive addendum for prononuciation.
I was reading this at the time of the Olympic games and was really ticked off at the Norwegian
ladies soccer official.At the time I was reading the story of the flute playing contest between
Apollo and Pan. Pan was king Midas's man and awarded the contest to Pan.Apollo being incensed with
the injustice causes generous sized ass's ears to grow on either side of his head.
So if you see a Norwegian soccer official with abnormally large ears.Its my fault!
"The god of wit,to show his grudge,
Clapt asses ears upon the judge;
A goodly pair,erect and wide,
Which he could neither gild nor hide." SWIFT.
a comprehensive addendum for prononuciation.
I was reading this at the time of the Olympic games and was really ticked off at the Norwegian
ladies soccer official.At the time I was reading the story of the flute playing contest between
Apollo and Pan. Pan was king Midas's man and awarded the contest to Pan.Apollo being incensed with
the injustice causes generous sized ass's ears to grow on either side of his head.
So if you see a Norwegian soccer official with abnormally large ears.Its my fault!
"The god of wit,to show his grudge,
Clapt asses ears upon the judge;
A goodly pair,erect and wide,
Which he could neither gild nor hide." SWIFT.
September 11, 2020
I read this book in middle school (it was one of our required books). As required reading usually goes, I didn't expect to especially like it. But the stories were written so fascinatingly that they really pulled me in! They were succinct enough to hold my interest and descriptive enough to paint vivid pictures of the myths. It ignited an interest in classics for me, and I'm still taking Latin 7 years later. I'm grateful to have been assigned this book.
August 12, 2016
shared this book with my daughter as her school were teaching myths and legends with some bizarre variations. It has a lot of concise stories that won't overly tax a child's concentration BUT (big but) you do have to dumb down the vocabulary to a childs understanding as some of them used would confound an adult.
July 29, 2011
One of the least useful books on mythology that I own. Its format is a listing
April 9, 2012
A fantastic collection that perfectly balances ease of reading and informativeness. Cover to cover it is wonderful.
January 6, 2013
Great reference, and well written. Very easy to dip in and out of as well. the language is dated though, and the logic of its argument, in places, is weak
September 6, 2016
Be prepared for a long read.
October 3, 2024
a lengthy and for me fragile read since the book I was reading was given to my grandfather in 1911 by his mother - signed copy inside. I thoroughly enjoy this version of the myths- it is easily relatable and connected to with so many times I hear these names and stories referred to. It is a masterful work, simply told and undramatic, the stories create their own drama. I remember reading this book sixty years ago when staying with my grandparents in their house and sitting in my grandads rocking chair engrossed so i didnt notice being called for meals. I think it might be one of those books that got me interested in storytelling and the notion of the heroes journey - as well as higher beings who looked out for you, or not in this case. So well worth the read. This book is a treasure for me in so many ways but without good content I still wouldn't recommend it.
March 8, 2019
Good overview
This is a good reference for a casual reader or someone just getting started with mythology. The author summarizes a number of myths, covering all the major Greek and Roman gods, listing all their known names. Recognizable literature is sprinkled in where appropriate. She ties them together with what analogy they are making or what belief they support. She also includes a wealth of information on the complicated relationships between all the characters.
It's a good reference but I found it a bit dry to get through as a book. I like the index at the back that makes it easy to get to a specific character or story.
This is a good reference for a casual reader or someone just getting started with mythology. The author summarizes a number of myths, covering all the major Greek and Roman gods, listing all their known names. Recognizable literature is sprinkled in where appropriate. She ties them together with what analogy they are making or what belief they support. She also includes a wealth of information on the complicated relationships between all the characters.
It's a good reference but I found it a bit dry to get through as a book. I like the index at the back that makes it easy to get to a specific character or story.
June 27, 2017
This was a very interesting book, and although I have already read a lot of the more well known myths in more depth this brought up lots I had never head of. It is informative and thoughtful. It is also funny at times because the 'gods' seem to really like turning things into other things to be helpful but really who would want their ships turned into water nymphs or be turned into a bird or constellation of stars? But it was a good read, and about what I expected from the book.
February 18, 2018
The copy I read was published in 1893 and presented the various Greek myths along with quotations taken from poets who alluded to the mythology and included artwork interspersed appropriately in the text. The last three chapters of mythology were retelling of The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid. Finally, the author included a map, an analysis of the myths, a genealogy chart, a listing of the artwork, an index to the poetry quotations, and a detailed glossary and index.
May 28, 2020
good general overview of greek myths but it doesnt go into a lot of detail about both. writing style is sort of muddled and transitions between subjects leaves a lot to be desired. probably ideal reading for someone just becoming familiar with greek myths.
also achilles gay as hell lol
also achilles gay as hell lol
July 29, 2025
A really good overview of a huge amount of mythology complete with poetic quotations and detailed information. Unfortunately ruined by its unwavering interpretation of the myths in very odd ways that use racist and anti-Indigenous narratives of religious evolution to uphold Christian supremacy.
February 21, 2018
Nice overview of the origins and myths of the major deities, with a nice amount of storytelling, though at times the language used is a bit flowery for a smooth flow.
Read
December 29, 2019A little hard to get through, but I definitely learned a lot from it.
June 22, 2022
Que el libro contenga extractos de poemas de distintos poetas para contarnos las historias de los diversos seres mitológicos me ha parecido algo muy original.
February 16, 2025
There was a lot of misinformation, but it did provide a starting point for myths if you are interested.
May 24, 2025
No thanks. I know it’s old but there’s not retelling going on. Just summaries. Gotta love the minimization and erasure of rape and homosexuality…
July 2, 2013
Hasta la fecha el mejor libro de mitología greco-romana que he leído, y eso que he leído como media docena desde entonces. Guerber guía al lector más ignorante de mitología a través de uno de los panteones más diversos del mundo. Guerber muestra no solo la cantidad de mitos asociados con los dioses pero también explica las variaciones geográficas que son la causa detrás de las variedades de poderes asociados con los dioses. En su afán de mostrar a los dioses como los griegos, y después los romanos, los entendieron, Guerber va a textos primarios y muestra al lector fragmentos de poesía clásica en donde los atributos de los dioses no son solo mencionados sino también en los que muchas veces se encuentran su origen. Finalmente, Guerber termina el libro con una de las mejores discusiones psicológicas sobre el origen de estos mitos en el ámbito social, cuál era su propósito y porque han perdurado tanto tiempo. Definitivamente lo recomiendo a cualquiera que ha sentido intriga sobre las miles de referencias mitológicas que forman parte de la literatura mundial.
Want to read
November 21, 2010Source cited by Sutcliff. --
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews