Alice B. reviewed Greek Myths: Illustrated Stories of the Greek Gods and Heroes on + 3563 more book reviews
Beautiful hard copy with book cover!
Accessible without losing authority or patronizing the reader, this is the best text covering the Greek myths I have found
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 18, 2017
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
It's been a while since I brushed up on my Greek mythology, and so I thought I'd find a decent book on the subject. Wow, that proved harder than I was hoping. It seems there are plenty that either take the 'for kids' approach, or the 'skim the surface but with nice pictures' approach, or even the pretentiously academic and exclusive' approach to the subject. What I wanted was a refresher on the myths themselves, written in a style that was both informative, authoritative and accessible for a fifty year old with plenty of brain cells left.
I found it, eventually, in 'The Greek Myths' which has the perfect sub-title of 'stories of the Greek gods and heroes vividly retold.' A reasonably average-sized paperback (300 pages) with just an eight page illustrative plate insert. The rest is all text, easily readable text that neither patronize nor excludes the reader.
The authors obviously know their stuff, both being scholars and writers specialising in Greek history and mythology. More importantly, they both know how to communicate their obvious knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject.
I'm lapping this up, and would recommend it to anyone wanting to either discover or rediscover the wonderful world of the Greeks gods...
Accessible without losing authority or patronizing the reader, this is the best text covering the Greek myths I have found
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 18, 2017
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
It's been a while since I brushed up on my Greek mythology, and so I thought I'd find a decent book on the subject. Wow, that proved harder than I was hoping. It seems there are plenty that either take the 'for kids' approach, or the 'skim the surface but with nice pictures' approach, or even the pretentiously academic and exclusive' approach to the subject. What I wanted was a refresher on the myths themselves, written in a style that was both informative, authoritative and accessible for a fifty year old with plenty of brain cells left.
I found it, eventually, in 'The Greek Myths' which has the perfect sub-title of 'stories of the Greek gods and heroes vividly retold.' A reasonably average-sized paperback (300 pages) with just an eight page illustrative plate insert. The rest is all text, easily readable text that neither patronize nor excludes the reader.
The authors obviously know their stuff, both being scholars and writers specialising in Greek history and mythology. More importantly, they both know how to communicate their obvious knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject.
I'm lapping this up, and would recommend it to anyone wanting to either discover or rediscover the wonderful world of the Greeks gods...
