Greek Folk Tales

by Anonymous, Alexander Zaphiriou (Translator)

Greek folk tales descend from Aesop and Greek antiquity, as well as medieval storytelling in the pivotal south-east Mediterranean world that linked Christianity, Islam and Byzantium. These tales, told by folk narrators throughout Greek-speaking regions up to our times, are wondrous, whimsical stories about doughty youths and frightful monsters, resourceful maidens and animals gifted with human speech. The tales weave substantive motifs, characters, and forms into a rich tapestry capturing the temperament and ethos of the Greek folk psyche.

200 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2023

About the author

Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:

* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author

Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.

See also: Anonymous

Reviews

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad it’s over!!
Will miss reading these stories every now and then, and laughing about the turn of events each time.

[ariadna · Rating 3 out of 5]

i bought this book during my trip to santorini and, although i can't say i've loved this collection, it's been interesting to read folk tales from another culture :)

[Juan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An approach to Greek folk tales (who would guess given the title of the book?), a pleasant read, although most of the tales are a bit repetitive in its structure.

Most interestingly for me was learning that Snow White story was not created by Grimm’s brothers, but rather came from a Greek folk tale, with a few twists: in the old Greek version, Snow White, who is called Myrsina, is the victim of her two sisters’ envy (not the stepmother) who asked the Sun (not the magic mirror) who is the most beautiful one of all, being, of course, Myrsina. The resentful older sisters tricked poor lass Myrsina, and left her alone in the woods. After a while, she finds a house in the woods inhabited by the twelve months (not the 7 seven dwarfs) where she starts living happily with the brothers. Myrsina’s sisters find out where she lives and after a couple of failed attempts, they poisoned the poor lass giving her a coursed ring. The 12 months put Myrsina in a golden casket and for a random reason that I don’t understand, a prince ended buying it from the months, although they initially were reluctant to sell.
Finally, the prince discovers Myrsina’s body and intrigued by the ring, he take it off from her finger…bringing Myrsina back to life/consciousness (NO PATRIARCHAL/NAZI/RAPEY KISS in this version). The couple get married (so, from a modern perspective, she ended being raped anyways) and started living together in “gladness” (yeah, sure, you poor alienated soul). However, Myrsina’s sisters were really committed to finish the work of killing her little sister, so they went again to poison her. Obviously they failed, and the prince sent them to a mysterious ending: he ordered his guards to take the malicious sisters and “dispose of them as you know best”.

In addition to this Myrsina tale and a vast majority of tales revolving around the number three (where does this obsession with number three come from - 3 tools, 3 tries before succeeding, 3 enemies, 3 brothers or sisters…?), there are a few other good stories that give you a glimpse of the temperament and character of the culture that produced them.

[Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of Greek folk tales are more Grimm than Aesop--some stories actually echoing those Northern European tales quite closely. The inevitable chicken and egg questions are beside the point as this sort of diffusion in myth and folklore is common around the world. Any readers of comparative myth and lore will see similarities to Native American stories also and, I'm sure, many others.

This little compendium is a nice introduction to the persistence of folk belief in what has otherwise been Greek Orthodox and Islamic domain for 16-17 centuries. The Olympians are long gone here, but Christ and God the father are also nowhere to be seen. Most of the stories are enjoyable on their own terms--a couple end confusingly or abruptly--which doesn't seem to be a translation issue.

[Siti · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories are hard to follow but I guess Greek mythology is as complicated as these stories. My favourite is Music Maker, pretty sure I heard the same story in the town of Bremen with the donkey, dog, cat and hen musicians :)

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its interesting to hear such similar stories to central European folk tales.
However, some of this story collection seemed very repetitive in the themes of the stories but also as a common structural element of them. To be honest it is not my favourite stylistic choice.