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The First Love Stories: From Isis and Osiris to Tristan and Iseult
Passion, joy, and longing abound in seven original classic love stories, newly retold by a master storyteller.
Seven stories, each from a different ancient culture, each focusing on a different aspect of love.
Isis and Osiris (Egypt)
Inanna and Dumuzi (Sumer)
Shiva and Sati (Hindu)
The Song of Songs (Hebrew)
Psyche and Eros (Greco-Roman)
Layla and Majnun (Arabia)
Tristan and Iseult (French)
"One of the great storytellers of the twentieth century."
--Jean Houston, Ph.D., author of The Search for the Beloved
Seven stories, each from a different ancient culture, each focusing on a different aspect of love.
Isis and Osiris (Egypt)
Inanna and Dumuzi (Sumer)
Shiva and Sati (Hindu)
The Song of Songs (Hebrew)
Psyche and Eros (Greco-Roman)
Layla and Majnun (Arabia)
Tristan and Iseult (French)
"One of the great storytellers of the twentieth century."
--Jean Houston, Ph.D., author of The Search for the Beloved
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
7 people are currently reading
133 people want to read
About the author
Diane Wolkstein
43 books36 followersDiane Wolkstein was a folklorist and author of children's books. She also served as New York City's official storyteller from 1968–1971.
As New York's official storyteller, Wolkstein visited two of the city's parks each weekday, staging hundreds of one-woman storytelling events. After successfully talking her way into the position, she realized "there was no margin for error," she said in a 1992 interview. "I mean, it was a park. [The children would] just go somewhere else if they didn't like it."
She also had a radio show on WNYC, Stories From Many Lands, from 1968 until 1980, and she helped create the Storytelling Center of New York City.
Wolkstein authored two dozen books, primarily collections of folk tales and legends she gathered during research trips. She made many visits to China, Haiti and Africa.
Wolkstein was born in Newark, New Jersey and grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey. Her father Henry was an accountant and her mother Ruth was a librarian. She received a bachelor's degree from Smith College and a master's degree in education from Bank Street College of Education. While living in Paris, she studied mime under Étienne Decroux.
Wolkstein was in Taiwan to research a book of Chinese folk stories when she underwent emergency surgery for a heart condition. She died in the city of Kaohsiung at the age of 70.
As New York's official storyteller, Wolkstein visited two of the city's parks each weekday, staging hundreds of one-woman storytelling events. After successfully talking her way into the position, she realized "there was no margin for error," she said in a 1992 interview. "I mean, it was a park. [The children would] just go somewhere else if they didn't like it."
She also had a radio show on WNYC, Stories From Many Lands, from 1968 until 1980, and she helped create the Storytelling Center of New York City.
Wolkstein authored two dozen books, primarily collections of folk tales and legends she gathered during research trips. She made many visits to China, Haiti and Africa.
Wolkstein was born in Newark, New Jersey and grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey. Her father Henry was an accountant and her mother Ruth was a librarian. She received a bachelor's degree from Smith College and a master's degree in education from Bank Street College of Education. While living in Paris, she studied mime under Étienne Decroux.
Wolkstein was in Taiwan to research a book of Chinese folk stories when she underwent emergency surgery for a heart condition. She died in the city of Kaohsiung at the age of 70.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 18, 2016
Seven stories, each from a different ancient culture, each focusing on a different aspect of love. The Egyptian, Isis and Osiris (one of the stories I got the book to read) on Love is greater than Nature. Inanna and Dumuzi, the Sumerian tale of the cyclical nature of love, although since Inanna gets mad at Dumuzi and banishes him to the underworld, and it is his sister who loves him enough to trade off six months a year, so he can still be in our world, it may be more about sibling loyalty, since Inanna's love is all about her vuvla and in my mind lust. Then the Hindu Shiva and Sati, the Passion of the mind. The Song of Songs, a Hebrew love song in the Catholic Bible we read as kids??, is a sensuaous yearning love. The Greco-Roman Psyche and Eros is supposed to be about forging yourself - but I see it more as curiosity killed the cat, literally in terms of Psyche's sisters and almost Psyche herself. Layla and Majnun, loving for love itself, from a distance, the madness of unfulfilled love (and in my opinion the most depressing story in the book - spoiler - everyone dies) Finally the Celtic Tristan and Iseult (the other story that prompted me to read this book) Is about choosing duty and honor over love, king, country, promised marriage, yet loving until death do you join, also pretty depressing.
The book is well worth the read, because of references to these timeless stories, and it's good to know that lust and premarital relations was going on for thousands of years, not just today.
The book is well worth the read, because of references to these timeless stories, and it's good to know that lust and premarital relations was going on for thousands of years, not just today.
May 5, 2016
One of my favorite books from when I was younger. I find myself re-reading my favorite ones (Psyche and Eros, Isis and Osiris) quiet often as the years pass. The stories are very beautiful, loving, moving and sometimes tragic. They stay with you long after you have read them. I highly recommend this book!
October 14, 2010
A good collection of some of the oldest myths/stories such as Egypt's Isis and Osiris, Greece's Psyche and Eros (I now have a greater appreciation for C.S. Lewis's 'Til We Have Faces'), and good exposure to other cultures (Babylon's Inanna and Dumuzi, India's Shiva and Sati, Arab's Layla and Majnun, and France's Tristan and Iseult).
I especially appreciate her treatment of the Song of Solomon since the KJV Bible's version failed to preserved who was talking to who and runs everyone's conversations together. Since Diane Wolkstein has taken this version directly from the Hebrew, she was also able to provide a different translator's insight into the dialogue as a storyteller and not as a religious clergy/political influence.
I especially appreciate her treatment of the Song of Solomon since the KJV Bible's version failed to preserved who was talking to who and runs everyone's conversations together. Since Diane Wolkstein has taken this version directly from the Hebrew, she was also able to provide a different translator's insight into the dialogue as a storyteller and not as a religious clergy/political influence.
January 22, 2023
I read The First Love Stories because I’d loved Diane Wolkstein’s take on the Inanna poems. I very much enjoyed these retellings of classic stories (included a condensed version of Inanna) but I also found the book highly unsettling.
Isis and Osiris includes the motif of the sister-wife, an unsettling enough idea, but then includes the son of this union battles with his uncle where they tried to insert their semen in each other and claim the other for their bitch. The Inanna story involves her setting the rampaging beasts of the underworld on her husband before feeling sorry about it. Shiva and Sati are deeply in love but the story is more about grief than anything else. The Song of Songs is sweet, but still has the lover comparing his darling’s hair to goats and her teeth to sheep (and breasts to jumping deer). Psyche and Eros has the man punishing the woman for wanting to see him and Majnun and Layla is a story of doomed, insane infatuation. Tristan and Iseult is another hopeless story where the two will never be together except in death.
The fact is, most of these stories were about insanity, infatuation, grief, envy, bitterness and despair - there simply wasn’t much love. The greatest love in any of the stories seemed to be the love Majnun’s father had for him. If love is what it’s portrayed in these stories, it’s a terrible thing and, often, a selfish thing. Perhaps I have never loved because the love in these stories is not the love that I experience. There was nothing comforting about love in the book, or nourishing, or … good.
These were great stories, very well told but if this is love, I want none of it.
Isis and Osiris includes the motif of the sister-wife, an unsettling enough idea, but then includes the son of this union battles with his uncle where they tried to insert their semen in each other and claim the other for their bitch. The Inanna story involves her setting the rampaging beasts of the underworld on her husband before feeling sorry about it. Shiva and Sati are deeply in love but the story is more about grief than anything else. The Song of Songs is sweet, but still has the lover comparing his darling’s hair to goats and her teeth to sheep (and breasts to jumping deer). Psyche and Eros has the man punishing the woman for wanting to see him and Majnun and Layla is a story of doomed, insane infatuation. Tristan and Iseult is another hopeless story where the two will never be together except in death.
The fact is, most of these stories were about insanity, infatuation, grief, envy, bitterness and despair - there simply wasn’t much love. The greatest love in any of the stories seemed to be the love Majnun’s father had for him. If love is what it’s portrayed in these stories, it’s a terrible thing and, often, a selfish thing. Perhaps I have never loved because the love in these stories is not the love that I experience. There was nothing comforting about love in the book, or nourishing, or … good.
These were great stories, very well told but if this is love, I want none of it.
May 24, 2011
"With good reason, love's messengers, Eros and Kama, are armed with bows and long-distance arrows. No being, god or mortal, can choose love. Love comes despite ourselves; and then, if we have not already done so, we have the task of becoming our selves so we may welcome love." Beautiful little book with the best of love stories from Mythology. One to pick up and put down as the mood strikes.
June 6, 2017
I thought this was an amazing collection of love stories. It was nice how the author collected stories from all over the world. The stories really did tell something about their legends and stories that have been passed down through the ages.
March 11, 2008
Good book to pick up between reads. Short Love stories dating back to 2500 B.C.
August 25, 2014
Some great stories of love and passion.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews