What's more (displaying my ignorance here) I was confused over the title of the play, and some of the main protagonists of the play, the Furies. uk/landing-page/little-brown-book-group/little-brown-book-group-company-information/">Little, Brown Book Group Limited. Only, it's also one of those books that really works better as a reference than as a book you sit down and read from cover to cover. However, I really need to point this out again: this is supposed to be a comprehensive work of mythology as a whole! Finally, it should be noted that Hamilton's retelling of the Greek myths is based solely on her study of the classical literature - she had never been to Greece, and had no archaeological experience.

But before I let it go, I picked up Hamilton's book, and checked out the index entries for Eumenides (248) and Furies (see Erinyes) - so to Erinyes, where among other entries was (Orestes pursued by, 246-248) - which closed the circle. Anyways, mythology is always something I was interested in and loved, it's in so much of our everyday life still in the stories we tell and our history. The second is that Hamilton shows an absolute lack of respect for the Norse Myths, offering up a paltry 20 pages that were carelessly tacked onto the rear end of this work as though she’d squeezed out all of her best Greek Myths and the Norse tales were just the left-over dregs, like the dags on an oxes ass!

I know this is an unfair comparison, but earlier in the month I had been reading Oscar Wilde's stories for children, as well as some of Kipling's poetry, and I kept waiting for Hamilton to dazzle me, even just a little bit.

Don't get me wrong though, I really enjoyed the book as a whole - especially the stunning artwork, as I'm a sucker for pretty pictures - but not gonna lie, I got confused by all the names and incest and relationships a lot. This is one reason why the bowdlerized myths presented to us by Bulfinch, in which each story is rendered moribund by being stripped of all reference to sex, violence, or any hint of unpleasantness, are so unsatisfactory to a 21st century reader. Fry used this novel as a source (and many others) because this is such a cohesive package, sorting out the various sources and semi being chronological. Our team is made up of book lovers who are dedicated to sourcing and providing the best books for kids.I was also amazed to learn that Perseus was really the one who severed Medusa's snake-decorated head just like in Rick Rioldan's Percy Jackson and the Olympian's The Lightning Thief. Book-of-the-Month Club selection in 1957, honorary citizenship of Athens, a highly laudatory obit in the New York Times when she finally died at age 95 - what's not to love?

This is a summary, a boiling-down, a sugar-coating of a topic that frankly could have been presented in a much more academic, dry manner. Reading this you get to understand the culture of the Greeks, what they believed in and the values of these stories. Since its original publication by Little, Brown and Company in 1942, Edith Hamilton’s Mythology has sold millions of copies throughout the world and established itself as a perennial bestseller. p>Sign up to the Little, Brown newsletter for news of upcoming publications, competitions and updates from our authors.Doutora honoris causa de várias universidades e devota dos ideais clássicos, Hamilton tornou-se, aos noventa anos de idade, cidadã honorária da cidade de Atenas. The introduction includes commentary on the major classical poets used as sources, and on how changing cultures have led to changing characterizations of the deities and their myths.