Edith Hamilton's Mythology: A Comprehensive Guide to Arthurian Legends and Myths

Scotty and Rachel: It enchants the imagination in just the right way for young minds that could most likely use a break from being constantly plugged in. The author must have gotten something right because they made her an honorary citizen of Greece!

United States on Sep 27, 2023

HoneyBee: I picked this up as a travel read since It was lightweight, inexpensive
& knew most of stories. For these reasons I knew I wouldn't be heartbroken if I accidentally left it on a train or in a rental.
Often readers will skip an authors "forward " at the beginning of a book, in this case advise you actually read it. The author expand how she lasts or the chapters taking knowledge and from writings dating from different sources and centuries and based on the side may refer to characters with either Latin OR a Greek names. There are a few omissions in my opinion and several stories over simplified, but all in all is a lovely little primer that read like a collection of fairy tales, which I believe is how it is intended. Would recommend a light reading, but not as an authoritative guide.

United States on Aug 30, 2023

G D Lever: Ok as expected.

United Kingdom on Aug 14, 2023

Alexis Icoraksus: For me, this book is beyond huge. It's the book that, when I picked it up as a child, got me into reading in general. There are some "dated" things in this book but I defy you to find another book on mythology that is as approachable, readable, concise, and thorough as this one that doesn't (1) assume you're a complete idiot or (2) try to give a modern example or parallel to everything. Hamilton's book is still /the/ handbook for people interested in Western mythology and for good reason.

United States on Jul 15, 2023

bt: 教材として購入

Japan on Mar 07, 2023

Malissa J.: This book is not what I expected but it isn’t bad either. It’s not just a book of tales. There is a long historical introduction and that kind of ruined the excitement for me. If you like the history and reasoning more than the actual stories, this may be the book for you. It’s also not really an easy read- a lot of heavy verbiage- similar to reading Shakespeare, it’s just very artsy. I personally think there are better books out there.

Canada on Nov 15, 2022

J$B: Easy to find online references for individual myths, often more thorough, but Hamilton and Bullfinch were the books we had kicking around the house in childhood, pulling the stories together. Of those two, Hamilton is better at identifying the mainly Greek sources she relied on - it's worth reading her Introduction as to why she preferred gifted Greeks who believed in their gods, heroes and myths to the poetic Romans who rehashed them for "literary" purposes. The section on more thinly recorded Norse mythology is shorter.

Canada on Apr 17, 2022

Stephen H.: I wanted a primer on the Greek and Roman mythologies. This, by recommendation, seemed to be the best at a reasonable price.
What a disappointment though. I feel now just as ignorant of the stories of the Gods as I did at the start.
To put this in context I have recently read the Odyssey and feel I have a reasonable grasp of the story. Just flicking back through 'Mythology' I found that I had read the story here. Obviously none of the story had filtered into my brain. This is that same with any other story in this book.
I find Hamilton's style a little disturbing. Sometimes sentences are long and rambling and not well punctuated requiring them to be read several times before getting any sense of their meaning. It is not necessarily that the language is archaic because it isn't but it sometimes does not flow well.
My copy of Odyssey (translated by Samuel Butler) does use archaic language and I can live with that. The downside to Butler's translation is that it using Roman texts for the story.
This leads to another problem with 'Mythologies' in that Hamilton refers to both Greek and Latin origins, all clearly marked in the introductions to each story, and then retells...

United Kingdom on May 25, 2020

artemis 1291: The essence of myths is threefold: it is a branch of natural science, trying to explain what humans saw around them. It is also a genre of pure classical literature. Besides, mythology is religion, the deepening realization of what human beings needed in their gods and goddesses. In this light, Edith Hamilton’s Mythology breathes life into the Greek, Roman, and even Norse myths, which are the bedrock of the western civilization – the stories of gods, goddesses, and heroes that have imbued the humankind with multifarious creativity from time immemorial to present.

The aim of this book is to produce knowledge of the myths that had been recorded by ancient writers and poets. In fact, the myths as we know now are the creation of great poets, one of which is the Iliad by Homer. Unlike the Egyptian, the Greeks made their gods in their own image and breathed them with their emotions and feelings. It is uncertain how the genesis of the Greek mythology came into being; however the earliest Greek poets arrived at a new point of view which had never been dreamed of in the world before them. It was at this point that mankind regarded itself as the center of the universe, intent...

United States on Feb 27, 2018

J. Munyon: Edith Hamilton observes the difficulty of writing Shakespeare's "King Lear" on the level of "Cinderella," as well as reversing that same endeavor. Her goal was to leave distinctions intact among ancient authors such as Hesiod, Homer, Pindar, Ovid and others; so that the classic myths retain immortality without seeking to flavor the recounting by her own style or attempt to entertain the less initiated reader.
In this book are the gods of myth, the Titans, the Olympians, gods of water, underworld, and the earth; with heroes, gods of flora and fauna, lovers, gods of adventure, tales such as the Trojan War, families of the gods, gods of royalty and others less fortunate, as well as including Norse mythology. Interspersed are illustrations, with Greek and Roman emphasis, which add to the author's effort to familiarize any reader with the way men and women felt, believed, and lived according to what influence the ancient stories gave to conduct, architecture, ambitions, and how those stories fueled the competitive spirit.
Mythology of this time period affected how ancient civilizations interacted with nature and each other, based upon the trend away from how past beliefs held...

United States on Apr 17, 2011