Great for all ages | Mythology

Interesting... | Mythology | Edith Hamilton

books:


	• Mythology Edith Hamilton Back Bay Books, 1998 - 512 pages average customer review:based on 94 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Edith Hamilton

I have a class set of 30 of these books for my Latin and English students. However, I needed to purchase a few more when class sizes rose to 32. I would recommend this book for the size of the text font and the clarity of language. Students learn about basic gods and goddesses and progress to more detailed mythology. It is an excellent textbook for a high school mythology class, or Latin 1-4.

Great for all ages

What I found pleasantly surprising about this book is that it is easily understood, yet a very viable source of ancient Greek mythology. Great for all ages if you are interested at all in Greek mythology.

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Interesting...

I didn't particularly have a choice to read this -- I had to pick it up for my high school AP senior English class's summer reading, but I've never been one to blow off a book as 'boring' simply because it wasn't exactly written for my age group.

Prior to having opened this, I had next to no knowledge of Mythology as a whole, particularly Greek, except that it bears some significance in modern culture and storytelling. But what I didn't know was that it is the basis for many of the things we thought were modern fictional creations: I never knew that beings like the 'hydra' have existed in literature for thousands of years, let alone several others. While this may not have been exactly, well, a fun-filled adventure novel, it did enlighten me as to where much of modern western (and indeed even some eastern) culture stems from.

'Mythology' is one of those books that I could only honestly recommend to those interested in the subject in hand, but even if, like me, it is required reading, don't blow it off or sit in agony thinking that this is laborious reading. With the right mind, this is a very interesting book.

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The best of the genre

This is the best single book I've ever seen on classical mythology. An interesting feature is that instead of treating mythology as a monolithic collection of stories, she thinks that the personality and intent of each ancient writer was important: she contrasts the early writers to whom the myths were sacred to later ones like Ovid who considered them entertainment. When commenting on the Hercules cycle, she starts with a discussion of the intellectual hero vs the strong-man hero. Her section on Norse mythology has been criticized as too brief, but she did get the essential difference: the somber Odin foreseeing his tragic downfall is a complete contrast to the capricious Greek gods who never have to fear death or even pain, and represent a crucial difference between Greek and Viking culture. A myth was almost always told for a reason, whether to entertain or to embody the culture that created it.

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A new trade paperback edition of Edith Hamilton's world-renowned classic--a book that has enthralled and delighted generations of readers with its timeless tales of gods and heroes. 50 line drawings.