Greek Myths

by Marcia Williams

The Greek myths are among the greatest, most exciting stories ever told and feature some of the world's best loved heroes and heroines. In this book, you'll find the stories of Theseus, conqueror of the dreaded Minotaur; the mighty Heracles and his twelve tasks; the tragic lovers Orpheus and Eurydice; Perseus, the Gorgon-slayer; the musician Arion and his rescue by the dolphins; Pandora and her little box of horrors; the feather-clad fliers Daedalus and Icarus; and the weaving contest between Arachne and the goddess Athene. Each of these tales has been retold with lively text and dramatic cartoon style, making them accessible and fun for young children.

Genres: Mythology, Childrens, History, Picture Books, Comics, Folklore, Greek Mythology

40 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Marcia Williams began to develop her distinctive comic-book style at an early age: "When I was about ten and wrote home to my family from boarding school," she says, "I never wrote normal letters. I tried to tell my family about what I was doing in a way that was more fun. Also, my parents didn't let me read comic books, so I decided to create my own."

This former nursery school teacher blends her storytelling skills and humorous illustrations with well-known figures and stories from literature. Her unique style has produced such vivid works and action-packed books as GOD AND HIS CREATIONS: TALES FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT. "Working on the Old Testament was a joy," Marcia Williams says. "The tales are so rich, it is always possible to find something new within them. Yet, at the same time, they have all the comfort of the familiar." The artist also found pleasure in creating CHARLES DICKENS AND FRIENDS, which presents five retellings of classic Dickens tales. Of her inspiration for this book, she tells of a teacher she once had "who was extremely fierce and angry . . . except when she read the stories of Charles Dickens aloud. Through her, all his characters lived, and I was transported to their Victorian world. I hope that readers will also enter the wonderful world of Charles Dickens through this book."


With BRAVO, MR. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE! and TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE Marcia Williams introduces young readers to the world of William Shakespeare's plays. Another classic she has made much more accessible to children--and more appreciated by them--is THE ILIAD AND THE ODYSSEY. "My mother read me classics, but until I got older I never found them interesting," she says. "If I could make these stories more accessible, I realized, kids wouldn't have to wait until they were grown-up to appreciate them."


Marcia Williams traveled extensively as a child and was educated in Sussex, England, and Switzerland. During her varied career she has worked as an interior designer and has assisted cartoon artist and designer Gerald Scarfe in making papier-mâché and cloth sculptures.

Reviews

[Eddie B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amusing introduction to the world of Greek mythology.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books from when I was a kid! I read it over and over. It’s still great. Also extremely violent. Would not recommend for kids. 🤣

[Laurie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Citation: Greek Myths for Young Children, by Marcia Williams. (Candlewick Press, 1991). 40p. Graphic Novel.

Summary: This graphic novel presents eight Greek myths in a comical manner. The myths accurately portray the adventures of Pandora, Arion, Orpheus, Heracles, Daedalus, Perseus, Theseus and Arachne.

Critique: (a.)The style of this book detracts from its success. The pithy comments made by the characters take away focus from the accuracy and visual appeal of these myths.

(b.) The myths in this book are presented in short, simple text statements. The illustrations are bright, simple, and supportive of the story. The speech of the characters, however, adds another level to the text. In my opinion, these comments are humorous, but not necessary.

(c.) The myth of “Perseus and the Gorgons Head” offers an example of this language. The tale begins on page 24 with King Acrisius packing his wife and child in a chest and setting them adrift on the sea. The king remarks to his wife “I told you to have a girl,” and then the dog says, “This is bad.” The seriousness of the situation is made fun of in these comments. On the same page, Perseus is shown looking on younger versions of himself and remarks “Did I really look like that?” These comments sprinkled throughout the text are unnecessary. The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is the only one in the book presented without character comments. There is more room for details in the background and the emphasis is placed on characters, feelings and events because of this.

Curriculum Connection: I would offer this book to the class after the basics of Greek mythology were addressed. It presents a different perspective on the lessons of Greek mythology. Students would enjoy the silly comments. Third graders study Ancient Greece, and this would be well received.

[Ebony Ashton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my most treasured book as a child. It was this book that planted the seed that would eventually sprout and blossom into my ongoing love for Ancient Grecian mythology—additionally probably my earliest memory of being made aware in print that sometimes really shit things happen to unassuming people for almost no reason whatsoever, and that there's almost nothing you can do to fight it, à la Olympus style.

Open a forbidden yet oddly tantalising box? gg, you've cursed humanity to an existence of eternal torment. Have a natural proclivity towards weaving? Fuck you, some goddess didn't like it so now you're a spider.

With outrageously black illustrations and an easy to follow comic-strip format, this book is an excellent g̶a̶t̶e̶w̶a̶y̶ ̶d̶r̶u̶g̶ introduction to the Greek myths for your children if you want them to grow up jaded and wary of the horrors contained within mazes.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can see this being a great book for encouraging reluctant readers. Having said that, I didn't think the illustrations were well-matched to the subject matter. For me, the myths are too dark and strange to be rendered in such a naive, cartoonish style. For my money, it's hard to beat D'aulaire's. This doesn't come close.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though some of the stories are a little hard to follow, and shortened so much that the long names make up a large proportion of the overall letter count, my 7-year-old really likes this comic book version of some of the most famous Greek myths.

[Allie]

Title: Greek Myths for Young Children
Author: Marcia Williams
Genre: Myth
Theme(s): Greek Myths
Opening line/sentence:
In the beginning, the gods lived on Mount Olympus.
Brief Book Summary: This picture book tells eight Greek myths through images. Its comic-like format makes it easy to follow these otherwise complex tales of the gods. Professional Recommendation/Review #1: Candlewick
Williams employs her characteristic cartoon format and illustrations to retell eight Greek myths, including 'Pandora's Box' and 'The Twelve Tasks of Hercules.' The irreverent tellings and lively art will attract readers, but do not do justice to the richness of the material
Professional Recommendation/Review #2:
Dr. Beverly Kobrin (Children's Literature)
Readers, from reluctant to eager, will be attracted by the colorful illustrations, the artistry, and the wit with which Ms. Williams depicts the tales of Theseus and the Minotaur, Daedalus and Icarus, and six other classics from Ancient Greece. Her comic-book style presentation both entertains and enlightens.
Response to Two Professional Reviews: These reviews did not have much to say about this book. The first review did not really like the way that the author told the story. This makes it hard to go off of the reviews since the other review gushed about the comic-book style of these myths.
Evaluation of Literary Elements: Though it may not be the most thorough retelling of these myths, I do think that the comic-book style of these myths would interest a child. The bright pictures are certainly thought out and Williams did a great job playing with color. It could potentially be a very good intro to graphic novels for children.
Consideration of Instructional Application: This book, as I said, would be great for introducing graphic novels to children. It also gives just a taste of Greek Mythology so students can form an interest in that as well. Teachers can also use this book to teach children to write and draw their own graphic novels.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reason for Reading: All my readers should know by now that mythology is a favourite subject of mine, especially Greek. Plus I had also read Williams' first Shakespeare book ages ago when it first came out so knew what to expect.

An absolutely beautiful oversized book, graphically designed to be aesthetically pleasing. The author/illustrator often takes a week per single page to design the gorgeous artwork. Each page is rimmed in a thematic border pertinent to that part of the story. The book includes 8 common Greek myths (though one was new to me, or at least far back in my memory banks) and sets them up in comic strip fashion rather than more common comic book/graphic novel format. Each page flows in lines of the comic strip with a written narrative underneath each strip and within the frames bubbles are used to emphasize the story and generally add silly humour to the character's reactions to what is going on around them.

While the stories are brief, they tend to stick to the major details of the original myths, the basic plot lines are there and the important themes are kept in play. The violence is there though only shown with a drip of blood here and there and obviously dead bodies; this may be an issue with some parents. I found it all in good taste at this level as long as your goal is not to hide death and violence. The story that may have been new to me as I didn't really recall it was "Arion and the Dolphin". The others are very popular: Pandora, Orpheus/Eurydice, Heracles 12 Tasks, Daedalus/Icarus, Medusa, the Minotaur and finally the story of Arachne.

A great read, thoroughly hilarious, but keeps the original themes of the myths themselves. Wonderful art and a great way to introduce children to the myths, exciting reading for older reluctant readers and a fun way for adult classicists to see the tales told in a new light.

[Ama · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marcia Williams' book was a collection of Greek myths that were retold. It has many stories in it that are oddly illustrated. I did not find the pictures in the book appealing, as I am well aware that this is a children's book, i still found the illustrations quite annoying. But i did love the fact that she cut down the stories into little pieces to help younger kids comprehend them.

I gave this book three stars because even though i did enjoy this book I felt as if it was not one of the BEST children's books I have read. Seeing as how she has written many books in her days, I would expect her to have a little creativity. I felt that I had seen all the same things before, I wish she would have done something that was more eye catching.

The reason I chose this book was because of the cover. Yes, I did judge a book by its cover, don't we all sometimes. I found the cover of this book rather captivating. with its bright colours and beautiful pictures. Marcia made a good choice making the cover of this book as bright as she did.

I would recommend this book to my long time friend Renu. She is also very fond of these kinds of myths ,Greek myths to be exact.

[Megan Boomgarden]

This book is a collection of some of the most famous and classic greek myths including "Pandora's Box," "Arion and the Dolphins," "Orpheus and Eurydice," "The Twelve Tasks of Hercules," Daedalus and Icarus," "Perseus and the Gorgon's Head," "Theseus and the Minotaure," and "Arachne Versus Athena." The author does a nice job of preserving the original myth while still simplifying it enough for young readers to understand.

I loved this book and I would definately use it in the classroom as a teaching tool. Williams takes classic myths and presents them in a comic strip format with humor and language that students can understand. The pictures are colorful and the dialouge is included in word bubbles within the illustrations. The way this book is designed is perfect for introducing Greek Mythogy at a young age expanding their understanding of culture and classic "old school" literature.

[Shanaz Khan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in horizontal comic strip fashion, this book retells eight Greek Myths in a humorous and fun way. This book would be good to read to a class and also use children to act the story out as a role play and also to read along acting as the characters so they could read the speech bubbles. This would also be a good to introduce the topic of The Greeks so that the children would become a little more aware and interested. As this is a comic style book, the pictures vary in sizes and it does appear to seem quite busy that there is a lot going on within the pictures yet I find that this would attract the children because they can look deeper into the pictures and see what is happening. This would also benefit the children as they could also spend a lesson in making their own storyboard/comic strip of retelling a Greek Myth.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marcia Williams is known for her adaptation of classic stories into a graphic novel style books for younger readers. Ranging from Shakespeare to Noah’s Ark and other Bible Stories, to the adventures of Robin Hood, she creates a way it can be accessible for children. This is a great resource in the classroom for children to start to understand a topic they may be covering.

Greek Myths breaks 8 well known Greek myths down into comic/cartoon strips and simplifies it. Although I must say that some of them were new to me so I have also learnt something there as well. Her books are something I can see children getting excited about at story time as they have pictures to follow which are sometimes amusing, I think would be a great way of getting children to understand sometimes complicated stories, and have fun.

[Allison Zingale · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved that this was in comic book form. The illustrations and dialogue within the illustrations was funny and definitely made it more interesting to me. I think a class would really like this book, but I would let studetns read it individually. Even with a large storybook, the pictures are small and could be better enjoyed at a close proximity. I really liked that there were myths I was not too familiar with, and that they were all focused on different characters. Reading this made me wonder what age children should be introduced to certain myths. I suppose it is a case-by-case scenario, but I know I have a little cousin who would have nightmares if she read about a giant bird eating somebody's liver everyday... Overall, though, this book had a lot of great components to it!

[Andrew Schoenfelder]

The book is laid out like comic book with artistic illustrations in comic strip form with nine small boxes on a page. The stories were two pages long and talked about different gods and what they were the God of. Greek Mythology is something in the curriculum for middle schools in South Dakota. This could be a very good introductory book to an opening lesson plan. Students could read this story and recall the names when before the lesson started would be good for accessing student’s prior knowledge.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this book as a kid! It's so AWESOME, and your kid (or you) won't regret reading it! I will say there are a lot of graphic deaths (it was written by a British author, after all, and you know how the Brits love black humor), but if your kid is in first grade and up, I think they can handle it. It all depends on what the kid can stomach.

(Then again, I was a weird child, who was fascinated with disasters and chaos, like Chernobyl, the Titanic, World War II, and tornadoes.)

[Annette Hart · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love these books. The comic strip style particularly appeals to boys and I often have them in a classroom. The children also love the Minotaur's maze!

[Hall's Bookshop · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book got me addicted to classical myth as a child. If that is what you want for your child, this is a good gateway.

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our six-year-old son laughed out loud at the pictures and character's comments. There is a scene where Perseus meets the nymphs and they give him a helmet to make him invisible, but Perseus doesn't put in on right and they can see his foot. He thought that was hi-larious. Or Zeus takes revenge on Prometheus, and extinguishes every spark of fire on earth, causing the hungry populace to eat nothing but salad. Nothing but salad. Big yucks.

Which makes me appreciate what this writer/illustrator has accomplished. What do the Greeks say? Tragedy is easy, comedy is hard. Or was that the Romans?

Marcia William's introduction to Greek mythology is wonderfully illustrated and bursting with color, its stories of gods and heroes are fun, like The 12 Tasks of Hercules, and some are genuinely sad, like the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. I gave this book four stars instead of five because I wanted the pictures to be bigger, a lot of the drawings are tiny. But hey, you can't have everything. We'll be reading this one a lot in the future.

[Rue Baldry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great introduction to Greek mythological stories for children. The illustrations are fun and funny. The tales are told with a sprinkling of jokes, like Horrible Histories books are. Of course the tales have been bowdlerised to make them suitable for children - less sex, violence, sexualised violence, incest etc. But they still mostly make sense (as much as myths ever do).

It is an interesting, sometimes idiosyncratic, choice of tales. Some I was unfamiliar with and some obvious heroes have been overlooked (eg Jason), while Heracles gets an awful lot of pages, and Persephone is just there as queen of the underworld, without explanation, when hers is one of my favourite stories.

That said, you can’t include everything, and Williams is entitled to make her own choices. I certainly enjoyed them and learned some things, too.

[erforscherin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remembered this book fondly and was thrilled to find a used copy — and I’m charmed to see that Kidlet loves it too. The illustrations are beautiful all on their own, and being able to jump between the narrative and the comic book-style panels makes the stories more accessible for younger kids (and the humor doesn’t hurt either!) Overall it’s a solid introduction to some classics of Greek mythology, though be aware that it does preserve the darkness of a lot of these stories: some parents may feel squeamish about the death etc., though I find the kids can handle it more maturely than us sometimes. :)

[Naomi Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sure I read this (and/or the Shakespeare ones she did) when I was younger. I loved that it included the story of Arion the Dolphin Man in edition to some of the more normal Greek Myths. Reading this was definitely a reminder of just how casually violent Greek Myths can be. But! The illustrations were fun and I love the detail work around the edges of the pages.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a perfect book and very tongue in cheek (which seems to upset some people, despite this being...a book for children), but ideal for introducing younger readers to Greek and ancient mythology. I should know; it’s the book that I plucked from my shelf when I was barely a toddler, and there began my love of all things ancient. It was a lot of fun to reread it today. Five stars.

[Rodriquez Canan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some gruesome and sad stories in here - but it's the Greek Myths, what did we expect? Well perhaps we expected them not to tell kids gruesome stories? Perhaps the idea is to teach kids from young that gruesome is part of life... perhaps.

[Kekepania Kakiki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fun read.

[Liv · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favourite childhood books - really want to find and read again.

[Laura Fowler-Holden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bright and colourful done as comic strips. A good way to show the myths to young children

[James Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A childhood favourite of mine that I just bought for the daughter of a friend after she appreciated Williams' Iliad and the Odyssey. So pleased it will continue to delight the next generation!

[Salma]

I did too!

[Amanda Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Greek Myths" is a folklore book for children ages 4-9 years old. The book retells eight Greek myths using simple language and comic strips. I really enjoyed Marcia Williams retelling of these Greek myths. The simple language is perfect for children to be able to understand complex stories. I liked that there was no more than one sentence under each comic. This will really help children work on their reading skills and better understand what they are reading. The picture above each comic strip describes what is happening perfectly. I enjoyed the colorful and detailed illustrations, I wish they were bigger. A lot of the captions were very funny and added humor to some of the sadder stories. The only thing adults should keep in mind when introducing this book to children is there is violence in some of the myths. The illustrations make the story even more effective and entertaining for children and even adults. There were some new myths like "Arion and the Dolphins" and "Orpheus and Eurydice" that I never heard of before reading this book. It was enjoyable for me to get a refresher on some of the myths I've heard about before as well as learn new myths. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I think children would enjoy it as well. This book would appeal to young readers because the myths are retold using simple words for children to understand and the illustrations are very engaging and entertaining. When working with children I would read this book to them for entertaining or use it for a subject on mythology.

[The Library Mouse Tales · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really wonderful large book containing eight favourite Greek myths which have been colourfully illustrated in a cartoon-strip style! The stories have been summarised and written in language which is simple and more accessible for children.


In this book, there are cartoon style versions of many well known Greek Myths such as:
Theseus and the Minotaur
Heracles and the twelve impossible tasks
the tragic lovers Orpheus and Eurydice;
Perseus and the Gorgon
Arion the musician and his dolphin rescuers
Pandora and the box of all the World’s evils
Daedalus and Icarus and their flight too close to the sun
Arachne and the goddess Athene.

I had heard some of the myths before but it was enjoyable to read about new characters and creatures. I really love the cartoon style drawings. They make the myths easy to understand and fun to read.