Greek legends and stories

by M.V. Seton-Williams

This book provides a brief description of almost fifty classical and medieval Greek myths and legends, including the beginings of the World and the coming of Man, and the stories of the Argonauts, Perseus, Oedipus, the Trojan War and the Odyssey amongst many others. Intended as an introduction to Greek mythology for younger readers, the stories are illustrated by scenes from Greek art.

Genres: Mythology, Nonfiction, Classics, History, Reference, Greek Mythology

176 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 1993

About the author

Dr. Marjory Veronica Seton-Williams (20 April 1910 – 29 May 1992) FSA, was a British-Australian archaeologist who excavated in Egypt and the Near East, as well as in Britain. She studied history and political science at the University of Melbourne and then Egyptology and prehistory at University College London.

Reviews

[Julianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this back in high school out of interest for Greek Mythology. I remember that found it to be a page turner. When I look back at my copy now as a former Classics Major in college I can see that it is written more in a more entertaining, narrative form, rather than a dense primary source work they would assign in class. However I greatly appreciate this book because it connected mythological figures within my mind at sixteen and built upon my interest in Ancient Greek History as a whole.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Greek Mythology is one of those things that I'm really interested in and I liked that the stories in this book were short and not too complicated to follow. But there seemed to be no order to the stories and I felt they skipped around too much.

[Kimmay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this a while ago, i liked it, It has a lot of stories in it, some versions are different than ones I have read in other books. This is a book I keep on my shelf and pick up once in a while and just might read one story or i might read five or ten, just depends. The stories are short, but the versions are somewhat different, so i like that.

My son likes to refer to this book as well, he likes greek mythology, so we share the book. It is an interesting book, the depth of the stories is not real deep , and a variety of age groups or reading levels could read this book.
If you are looking for in depth versions, this is not that type of book, but like i said it does have some stories that i had'nt heard before and some twists on stories i had heard before so that in itself makes the book a keeper.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book in a savers earlier this year when I was listening to a lot of mythology podcasts. It wasn’t really what I was expecting tbh. A lot of the stories I was already familiar with but I was glad to be introduced to stories I haven’t heard before; including some that aren’t directly related to Greek gods. But the delivery of the stories is what really got me. They were delivered almost like a child wrote this and no one corrected it before publication. The stories were just… stated. And I wasn’t a fan of the titles of each story. For example when it came to the story of Daedalus it was titled after his flight with icarus. But of the two pages of the story, exactly two lines were dedicated to the flight, the rest Daedalus’ background.

I have two other mythology books in my bookshelf that I need to read but I think this was a good one to start with (interpret that as you will). I’m hoping the other two have some more meat.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well written introduction to Greek myths, legends, and stories. Note however, that this work does not contain the actual stories but summaries with commentary and context added by the author, Veronica Seton-Williams. This is much easier to read then her earlier Egyptian Legends and Stories and is very enjoyable. It contains a wide variety of works, from mythical, to epic poems, to selections from Herodotus' The Histories, from Ancient sources through at least it appears the Medieval Period, and possibly into the Ottoman period. I would highly recommend this book as an introduction to anyone interested in learning Greek Mythology.

[Al Gritten · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been reading this story by story over the last several months and it is a really good compendium of Greek myths. Of course, the telling of these stories varies widely as they were carried orally for so long, but this book is a good overview of a variety of the Greek legends/stories in a very readable form.

[jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seton-Williams was an adept curator, editor, and guide. I found Greek Legends and Stories useful and equipped with a helpful introduction, map, glossary, bibliography, and index. Her editorial comments are judicious and seamless. My regret was that the final two stories, which I suspect were included to complete the tradition (the final story with a date stamp of 1570 CE), struck me as nonsensical and I would have benefited from any editorial illumination to be had.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the famous and infamous Greek stories in a short form, one to two pages per story. A perfect introduction for someone who has little knowledge in the area, allowing one to get the gist of the story before digging into the full detail, which can be daunting.

[Janine Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting tales, nothing riveting but they were short enough to get in a few pages before bed.

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good overview. Good for people just breaking into Greek mythology.

[Miranda Panda · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good introduction to Greek mythology with historical references and pictures of ancient artifacts. The storys are highly summarized but still entertaining

[Robert St cyr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun little book that introduce one to many fables and fairy tale origins.

[Sonneillon Virul · Rating 1 out of 5]

While there is some interesting historical information presented, the myths are related in dry, overly-simplistic language that is not only boring, but also sacrifices much of the nuance in the mythology. The book is full of grammatical errors, the most common being comma abuse, and the author seems to struggle with the way the legends are organized as he sometimes jumps between myths or references myths that appear later in the book. This should not be considered anything but a VERY basic primer. True students of the mythology of the Theoi will find it unsatisfying, bland, and in some cases just plain wrong in the interpretation of these legends.

[Athena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read like fairy tales and believed by ancient Greeks as religion or factual the compilation of these short stories are very entertaining. Information of almost every God or Goddess you can think of is given in one story or another. I found that as much as I enjoyed the tales I could only retain so much information as there are multiple characters involved. There is even a mention of The Odyssey.

Full of feasts, deaths, curses, natural disasters, and laborious tasks this book would be found interesting by most readers.

[Abby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Again, I wish I could give 1/2 stars. I love mythology and this book was cool in that it gave short, easy summaries of a lot of the famous Greeks myths. However, the ordering seemed a little confusing - sometimes it would reference things that I hadn't read yet. Also, there was a lot of questionable grammar and punctuation, which drove me crazy. All in all, it was fun, but I bet I could find a book on mythology I would like more.

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent book with about 50 concise stories of just three or four pages each. Does a very good job of showing the origins of most of the figures within Greek mythology.
Some stories were very captivating. While others, not so much.
Hence, the 3 stars.

[Lindsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good-ish overview. Too many grammar errors to really be taken seriously.

[Julie Castro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but I expected better. I felt like I was reading a compilation of news articles, there was no real storytelling involved. The complexity of Greek mythology was kind of lost in this one.

[Sabrina · Rating 3 out of 5]

the main point of me reading this book was to be able to talk with my cousin about these legends well apparently this book didn't tell them the way she heard it.

[Latasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

a fun book of myths.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were actually quite a few myths in this book I had not heard/read before. It was pretty neat!

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting book about Greek mythology. I found it fascinating to see the origins of many current expressions.

[Sherri Anderson · Rating 1 out of 5]

WORTHLESS!!! Don't even bother picking it up and Fall River Press should be ashamed of themselves for printing something so badly written and full of wrong facts.

[Emma Woodhouse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy stories. actually read it to keep up with my 11 year old's knowledge, but did skip around a bit.

[Chelsea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book very enlightening. I really enjoyed it.