Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece: Adapted with Annotations from "What The Ancient Greeks And Romans Told About Their Gods And Heroes" by Nikolay A. Kun

by Nikolay Kun, Ksenia Gandin

Based on the bestselling book of N. A. Kun, this is an easy-to-read, comprehensive collection of Greek myths. The book consists of eight chapters, covering the majority of the Greek mythology (1) Stories of the Gods - the stories of creation, the war with the Titans and the myths related to the main Olympian gods. (2) Stories of the Heroes - Perseus and the Gorgon Medusa, Theseus and the Minotaur, Prometheus, Bellerophon, Orpheus, Daedalus and Icarus, Europa, Cadmus, Niobe and many more. (3) Heracles - the Twelve Labors and other myths related to the greatest of the heroes. (4) Oedipus and the Theban Cycle - including Antigone, Seven against Thebes and the Epigoni. (5) The Argonauts and the Quest for the Golden Fleece - a detailed retelling of the famous journey, including the story of Jason and Medea. (6) Stories of Troy - mainly based on “The Iliad” by Homer, but also other myths related to the Trojan War, such as the Golden Apple, the Judgement of Paris, the Trojan Horse, the Fall of Troy, and additional stories about Achilles, Patroclus, Ajax the Great, Helen, Cassandra and more. (7) The House of Agamemnon - the stories of Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Orestes and Iphigenia. (8) The Odyssey - the journey of Odysseus to his native Ithaca, retold from "The Odyssey" by Homer. The book is based on a translation of the bestseller “What The Ancient Greeks And Romans Told About Their Gods And Heroes” by Nikolay A. Kun, a famous historian and writer, written in 1914. Ever since, the book has been extremely popular in Eastern Europe, and since it came out, has received hundreds of publications in Russian, and was translated into multiple languages. This • Is an easy-to-read, adapted retelling of the original book, based on its translation into simple, modern English. • Is organized in a story-like manner, combining myths from different sources into a unified tale. • Is adjusted in a manner appropriate for younger readers, while staying as loyal as possible to the original ancient texts. • Includes detailed retelling of the "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" by Homer, Ovid's "Metamorphoses", "The Argonautica" by Apollonius of Rhodes, the greatest Greek tragedies by Sophocles, Euripides and Aeschylus and many more. • Closely follows the ancient sources, completing and supplementing Kun’s stories with new details and context. • Contains stories that have been adapted into the versions of the myths more commonly popular in the West. • Includes multiple stories not included in Kun’s original book. • The order of the chapters is different from the original book to simplify chronological understanding. • Includes multiple, in-depth annotations referencing art, history, linguistics, geography and more.

Genres: Nonfiction

571 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 4, 2020

Reviews

[Mia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written! Very informative.

[Konstantinos Saliakas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Μυθολογία, αλλά αρκετά παραλλαγμενη. Οι ελληνικοί μύθοι έχουν παραλλαχθει αρκετά με αποτέλεσμα να είναι απλά μια ακόμη παραλλαγή που θααουγε κάποιος σε κάποιο μακρινό μέρος αλλοιωμένο από την αφήγηση στόμα σε στόμα.. Λατρεύω τη μυθολογία αλλά ένιωσα σαν να βλέπω αμερικανική σειρά, η πλειοψηφία των μύθων έχει αλλάξει κατά πολύ, με προσθήκη διαλόγων παραμένων από λατινικές παραλλαγές. Ενδιαφέρον αλλά ως εκεί, διεύρυνση λίγο την οπτική γωνία του αναγνώστη αλλά ως εκει

[Loredana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have this book for about 20 years and read it several times, so I was suprised to see it has so few reviews. Very well written, it includes both tales of Gods and Heroes (from Perseus to Oedip) and has a lot of drawings from ancient vases.