Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes

This book will make you love mythology again, or will serve as an excellent introduction for those who are unfamiliar. Visual presentation is superb, from typography to color composition. I also have one of the earlier editions that don't have the illustrations, but the simple presence of colors in this one just makes the book much easier to follow and remember certain portions.

I would have liked to know if the pages were very dark or yellowed with age. For us more mature folks, sometimes it is hard to read older books. But since I studied this in high school, and wanted to review Mythology the book is fine for short reading periods. Since I have a dog named Hercules, I wanted to read about the character! Now I know!

To quote a friend of mine who is a classics professor at a top 25 American university - Edith Hamilton is a hack! If you want to understand Greek philosophy and how it developed, do NOT buy this book. It gives a totally incorrect narrative and background. If you want to understand this era, I would recommend starting with Arthur Herman's "The Light and the Cave." While that book contains some error, it is extremely readable and, for the most part, accurate. For the historical bluff on American history, it is a must read. This book changed American history. While is it full of inaccuracies and gives a totally incorrect picture of the Greeks at this time, its characterization of religion is key to understanding American 1st amendment law development. This book was Justice Hugo Black's favorite book and he believed it more than the Bible. He had no idea it was absolutely a mischaracterization of the Greek civilization and thought. Black used its premises to persuade other Supreme Court justices to totally reinterpret the "establishment" clause of the 1st Amendment. Thus, a major rewrite of the US Constitution was undertaken based on a foundation of sand, and we are still reaping the wind as a result of the nonsense that Edith Hamilton wrote.

This is not what I remembered as the mythology: the rich and fascinating stories I had read when I was a child.
This book is a very dry, summary of the mythology. Boring. Fails to involve the reader or to stir any emotions. "Hercules did this and then he did that...Yawn...Yawn again..."
It looks like a (poor) effort on behalf of a (bored) student to summarize it for the coming high-school exam.
Thus: If you are preparing for such an exam - this may be the book for you. If on the other hand, you expect a pleasurable reading experience - find a better alternative.

I tried picking up the book on two separate occasions and I just couldn’t finish it. I love Greek history, culture, and mythology but this book is difficult to get into. It’s not an easy read; not because it’s bogged down by too many facts - but because I have to keep reading about Edith’s clear biases towards anything not-Greek. Here’s a summary of the book, “<insert non-Greek culture>’s way of doing things are wrong. The Greeks did this MUCH better” or when a culture DOES something better than her precious Greeks she’ll say “Well the Greeks were much more to the point and didn’t care so much about <insert non-Greek cultural trait> because that XYZ thing didn’t really matter to the Greeks!”. At the start of the book she praised the Greeks for their modest way of thinking and then for the rest of the book (up to what I read) she launches in to her “The Greeks were so much better at everything” tirade. I don’t recommend this book.

In Chapter 1, the author confuses Buddhism and Hinduism, blaming much of India's woes on the stranglehold of the priestly hierarchy and their emphasis on the spiritual realm over the material world. But she is describing Hindu tradition, not Buddhist. Buddhism, while it began in India, never took hold there. And the Buddha stressed the Middle Way, not a renouncing of the world. This remarkable error caused me to read the rest of the book with a grain of salt.

Browsing along my mother’s bookshelf, I found “The Greek Way” by Edith Hamilton – a name I recognized as the translator/curator of the book on Greek Mythology I had read for extra credit in junior high. This volume was attractively packaged as a “Time/Life Book Selection” and I took it home for bedside reading.

At first, Hamilton seems hopelessly dated. She speaks of the contrast between vibrant, materialist Western culture (sparked in her view by the Greeks) versus the introspective, un-worldly culture of the east. In our current world it is China and India who are galloping into materialism. The
West is urging less emphasis on things and more on simplicity in the pursuit of happiness and, incidentally, the salvation of the planet.

Hamilton devotes almost a chapter in contrasting the elaborate color and detail of Asian art with the austerity and simplicity of Greek marble sculpture. But a recent exhibit at the San Francisco Legion of Honor Museum, “Gods In Color”, explodes this comparison. We now know that those pure white marble friezes and statues gracing the Parthenon and other Greek antiquity sites were once flamboyantly painted and decorated. It is age, not austerity, which has given them that pristine simplicity.

She devotes another chapter to Pindar. He is, per Hamilton, a poet on the level of Shakespeare or Milton, but completely incapable of being translated because of the different aesthetics available in the original Greek. Western poetics admires metaphor, comparison, restatement in multiple ways of a central theme – traits visible in Shakespeare’s sonnets and the King James Bible, as examples. The Greeks deplored re-statement, instead valuing the exquisite clarity of a single statement of an idea. The beauty of the Greek poetry of Pindar comes from its movement, meter, sonority, none of which can be translated into English. Kipling, says Hamilton, comes the closest among English poets to using meter and movement to drive his poems, though she acknowledges that Kipling’s poetry is only a tenth of Pindars.

By this time I was a bit impatient at Hamilton’s claims. How can I challenge them, never having read a word of Greek? Then I recollect my struggles in China to understand the high regard the Chinese aesthetic pays to beautiful calligraphy, an art which simply has no counter part in European culture. Perhaps the real lesson here is how many ways there are to perceive beauty, and how tragic it will be when no-one can read classical Greek any longer, and Pindar’s genius will be as irrelevant to our lives as the Mayan carvings.

Then I got to her chapter on Thucydides, the historian. The insights Hamilton describes are so relevant to today's world it is downright scary. Thucydides speaks of the absolute corruptive effect of power, and an inevitable cycle in human societies, running from the dictator who in his greed for power over-reaches and is overthrown by a cohort, which in turn reaches for more power until the people under the oligarchy rise up against them, forming a democracy which eventually becomes so chaotic from each individual's search for power that the people turn to a strong man to restore order, and there we go again. "There is no right power. The powerful are compelled to seek more power."

I'll probably never learn to read Greek, but Hamilton makes me want to at least seek out some good translations.

This is not Hamilton's earlier book, The Greek Way, published 1930, but the Echo of Greece, a different book published in 1957. the store is confusing these two titles for some reason in their reviews, so it helps to know which book you're actually reading about, though the subject matter is practically the same (though not the content!).

This book about half as long as The Greek Way 27 years before it, and more focused overall, stressing key points, probably with the idea of streamlining the material more for use in public schools, most likely, since it was a classic already by then.

This is perhaps one of the most, if not the most, interesting and rewarding books I've read to date, which spans quite a bit of ground already in the classic literature of the West. Thus far in my reading of The Greek Way, this book is more lean and satisfying, pound-for-pound, though fiercely convinced of the superiority as Hamilton is here, it is difficult if not futile to protest with her bias as her proofs are overwhelmingly convincing and long accepted. Still, the details and force of argument the author is able to provide are nigh-staggering in their power. Not for nothing is Edith Hamilton a canonical author on the subject of Western Culture.

You won't be disappointed.

This is an overview of Greek development of philosophy, the arts, and religion as well as a contrast with other cultures on earth during the classical Greek period and modern cultures. Hamilton chronicles the history of some of the major Greek philosophers and playwrights circa 5 B.C. and explains what their work says about Greek attitude toward reason, freedom, the individual, and society.

This book is apparently a classic first written in the 1930s and assigned in many high school and college courses and has been updated and reprinted several times, my version was from 1993. I learned from looking at the negative reviews on the store, with plenty of high school students complaining about how "boring" the book was. I did not find it that boring, but wondered what level of expertise Hamilton has on Greek, Macedonian, ancient Chinese, and modern European and Russian cultures that she comments on so readily. As such, I took most of her comments with a grain of salt. There are lengthy excerpts of Greek works to prove her points and that became tedious but it is also classical literature that is worth being exposed to.

For comparison, I recommend Charles Freeman's Egypt, Greece, and Rome that looks at each culture separately and gives the entire historical backdrop. Hamilton chronicles how views of government and philosophy changed as a result of the Peloponnesian War but provides little context for understanding that war. Aeschylus, Herodutus, Plato, etc. and sets up a comparative with each. Aeschylus with the other dramatists; Herodutus with Thucydides and Xenophon, etc.

There are some interesting comparisons and contrasts with the Bible. Hamilton does not claim the Gospels as a work of Greek philosophy, rather she illustrates the differences between ancient Jewish, Greek, and the later Judeo-Christian cultures.

She makes some bold statements that seem...false: "Greeks were the first people in the world to play," for example.

In all, I enjoyed the Freeman-like overview of Athenian culture as a refresher. I read Xenophon and Plato in the past year and want to continue with more Plato and Aristotle this year. 3 stars out of 5.

writing this review in the year of the book's seventy-fifth anniversary, i can only describe it as a classic work of literature in it's own right. the elegance of this book can be found, as i see it, not only in hamilton's choice of style, but also in the precise choice of details that make up the book's contents: for a relatively short book, the mythical scheme of life, the world, and "major players" in them is presented in a very readable manner. thus, for beginners (such as i was when i was first given the book as a young boy) or for collectors of retellings of myths as a literary genre- this is a must-have.

as a side-note, the one and only aspect of the book that still puzzles me after all those years, is the all-too-brief introduction to norse mythology at the end of the book. this is a subject that cries out for hamilton's talent, and she should have devoted a full-length book to it. the norse segment is thus, as i see it, a glimpse of what might have been. all the same, a classic work of literature.

It can not be read. Extremely poor design: very small format 4"x 6.5", small font size (probably 10), very condensed, almost every row underlined in blue and green, the rows are going to 1/4" to the margin. Good for recycling not for sell. A $7.00 wasted. No more business.
As for the author, she is great. She is "recognized as the greatest woman Classicist."

Edith Hamilton was a very gifted writer, and someone who clearly had a deep passion for the world of the ancient Greeks. The Greek Way is a moving and insightful introduction to the alien world occupied by our Grecian forebearers. It is a book written in another age (1930), a fact which has both positive and negative implications for the modern reader. On the positive side, the book exhibits a kind of full-hearted enthusiasm for the subject matter that is rare in the more cautious world of modern classical scholarship. At her best, Hamilton writes of Greece in a way that can inspire a true sense of connection and love for these great innovators and thinkers of the distant past. It can be refreshing to hear these ideas stated with a bold sense of conviction that can be hard to find in our more politically correct age.

At her worst, Hamilton can exhibit some truly bizarre ideas about the ancient world that simply aren't backed up by scholarship. She broadly castigates the vaguely defined "East" as death obsessed and nhilistic, contrasting that with what she sees as the more humanistic perspective of the Greeks. She returns to this point often, so it's worth mentioning. Her "East" seems to envelop a broad collection of cultures with fairly different ideas about the world. This is clearly an area outside of her real expertise, and modern readers will likely resent this poorly backed up claim, for understandable reasons. She also insults the Romans for their gladiatorial predilections, which she sees as very barbaric and "Eastern." Again, this feels unfair to "Easterners" AND Romans, who are both subjected to some unwarranted abuse in this book. One can also make the case that Hamilton dramatically understates the importance of religion in Greek life, under-emphasizing the explicit obsession with death and animal sacrifice that is given great importance in Homer and other Greek texts. I'm in sympathy with her appreciation for the more rational and humanistic aspects of Greek culture, but I don't think her portrayal is entirely honest.

So yes, the book is certainly flawed, out of date, and perhaps inaccurately hagiographic. And yet it is also a slim volume of great power. Hamilton paints a vivid portrait of the ancient Greek world that will stick with the reader and awaken an abiding interest in exploring this world more deeply. She speaks of the great writers of Athens as a friend would, like she knows them. Through her, we come to have a much greater sense of who they were, what they said, and just what exactly they meant by it. She does a wonderfully brisk job of conveying context, character, and complex concepts. I think few readers will be able to complete this volume and resist heading deep into the works of Aeschylus, Homer, and Euripedes. If you've never understood just what the Greeks were about, this book may be very clarifying.

It is unsurprising that Robert F. Kennedy famously quoted Aeschylus in one of his most moving speeches, and also unsurprising that the passage he chose to quote was Hamilton's translation as found in the Greek Way. This is a book that would certainly speak to statesmen, dreamers, and world-shakers. It speaks of a Greek world that remains always just out of reach. It is a romantic point of view on the Greeks, and perhaps one aided by more than a little modern idealization... and yet there are important truths to be found in this book.

This is a touching and vibrantly drawn portrait of the Greek world.

The pleasure of reading "The Greek Way" is to be taken back to one's university days, as if discovering these masterworks for the first time. Hamilton not only takes us through the plurality of thought and deeds that make classics interesting, but builds a firm and satisfying optimism about the potential of human achievement in general. According to Hamilton, it was the group temperament and values of Greek (and usually Athenian) democratic life that provided the society fertile for the outpouring of human achievement during that golden century. One comes away from reading "The Greek Way" amazed not so much by the virtue of any one or small group of outstanding people, but rather a desire to find or build the type of society that could produce them in the first place. The primacy of reason, personal freedom, sport, courage, practicality, all forms of beauty, and the security of the state which would allow their pursuit are the fundamental principles she identifies across different thinkers and historical figures representing each particular excellence.

If I want to give a fractional star grade on the store, I always round up, but I think 3.5 is distinctly not the same as 4. Edith Hamilton was a pioneering woman in her own right. After being unfairly treated as a second class student in the hallowed halls of the German university system, she nevertheless went on to become the most renowned female classicist in history, and received honorary citizenship in Athens from the King of Greece himself. It is noteworthy therefore, and not to her credit, that she relies on a number of facile xenophobic commonplaces as old as Herodotus' time about India, Persia, Egypt, and other peoples of the "Eastern" continent. She consistently compares "Orientals" unfavorably to the "Greeks" with no analysis of the former. For a 20th century scholar of her talent who lived during/after the era of Geldner, Lepsius, Müller, Nietzsche, etc. (yes, I deliberately selected Germans to emphasize the irony of the issue,) it is inexcusable to write off Persian dynasties as simplistic brutal autocracies, or a multi-armed Indian religious icon as the bizarre manifestation of a fever-pitched vision - of no reasoned design or worldly connection. Hamilton is only human, but she should have known better, having faced prejudice herself in that very community of learning, which before her arrival actually did much to deconstruct those very chauvinistic views she held about Greece.

Some people think her digressions into comparisons with Shakespeare or Milton detract from the thesis of the book, but it is important to remember that Hamilton's classical learning and appreciation was so thoroughly rooted within the expressive power of the ancient Greek language itself that she had to enlist some pure English counterparts to effectively analogize, and I for one believe it succeeds. Taking the time to read Edith Hamilton's popular tour de force is not only good for a well-rounded look at classical scholarship, but can reinvigorate an appreciation for the field itself. Hamilton's passion for the legacy of ancient Greece was truly unique and sincere, and quite moving at many points.

Edith Hamilton's "Mythology" tell the "Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" of classical mythology and this volume, first written in 1942, is now a timeless classic itself. This was the first book of mythology that I ever read and it is still the best. When Hamilton retells the love story of Cupid and Psyche or the tragedy of Agamemnon and his children, she does so with a full sense of what it meant when first told by Apuleius or Aeschylus. These are not children's tales, but the heroic legends and religious beliefs of the ancient Greeks. Furthermore, the illustrations by Steele Savage have the elegance of wood block prints, which, for all I know, is exactly what they are. I appreciate Hamilton's choice to avoid relying on Ovid, for while the "Metamorphoses" is the most comprehensive ancient text dealing with the classical myths, Ovid is an unbeliever. For Hamilton the writings of Homer, Hesiod and Pindar are more abbreviated in terms of providing details for the myths, but at least they take the tales seriously.
Another strength of the book is how she organizes the myths in her seven parts: (1) Covers the complete pantheon of deities, including the lesser gods of Olympus and Earth and the later Roman additions, as well as the earliest heroes. (2) Retells the various tales of love, between mortals and the gods or each other, along with the Quest for the Golden Fleece and other early heroic adventures. (3) Focuses specifically on the greatest heroes, Perseus, Theseus and Hercules, with Atalanta thrown in the mix in a curious but understandable editorial decision by Hamilton. (4) Puts together Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid into a giant epic stretching from the Judgment of Paris to the founding of Roman, with the Odyssey and the tragedies of Euripides. (5) Tells about the great mythological families, namely the House of Atreus (Agamemnon), the Royal House of Thebes (Oedipus and Antigone), and the Royal House of Athens. (6) Covers all of the lesser myths, most notably Midas. (7) Goes off in a new direction, providing a very brief introduction to Norse mythology that seems woefully inadequate given the comprehensive compilation of classical mythology that precedes it.
I looked over other possibilities as a basic textbook for my Classical Greek & Roman Mythology course (I know, it sounds redundant and repetitive to me too), but I selected this one as my basic text. If you want analysis of these myths, then you certainly want to look elsewhere. But if you want a solid retelling of virtually every tale of classical mythology, then Edith Hamilton's volume is still at the top of the list as far as I concerned.

The stories of Greco-Roman gods and heroes permeate our culture in some form or another, in Edith Hamilton's anthological collection 'Mythology' all the original tales are presented in a concise and readable fashion for those discovering them for the first time.

Taking her material from poems and plays from Greek and Roman writers, Hamilton structures the books chronologically through the various ages detailed in Greco-Roman mythology and keeping everything linked together through family relationships. At the beginning of every chapter Hamilton describes her process of choosing the source, or sources, of the tale giving the both the introductory reader and the knowledgeable one the basis for the next tale they are reading. The mythology of the Greco-Roman world and it's place in both Greek and Roman culture are described in general detail that gives the reader a sense of how each perceived the world around them.

The minor inclusion of the Norse mythology at the end of the book was the biggest failing of the book, Hamilton gave cultural reasons for including but it felt both incomplete and an afterthought. Only Balder's story was discussed and nothing of the adventures of Thor or others.

Edith Hamilton's lifetime of research and teaching of Greek and Roman poetry and plays results in a very readable book of Greco-Roman mythology. The book is definitely for casual readers along with those starting their journey into the overall world of Greco-Roman mythology and is not a substitute for reading The Iliad, The Odyssey, or The Aeneid. If you fall into either of these two categories I wholeheartedly recommend this book, but I would look somewhere else if you're interested in Norse mythology.

Edith Hamilton's premise for this book is that we learn more about a time period or people by reading their literature, poetry, speeches and plays. By doing this we know what they were interested in and how they thought.

This small volume entertains us with silly comedies of cuckolded husbands and their shrewish wives, poems that speak of love and honor and classic speeches by Cicero and Mark Antony.

I don't know if this helped me with any chronological history of the Roman Empire but I do feel I understand the Romans better than before I read this book.

Cicero was the great Orator of Rome and was not a fan of Julius Caesar because he wanted to downgrade the Senates role in government. I enjoyed learning about him and his death at the hands of Mark Anthony's men.

Horace and Virgil were also interesting subjects to learn about.

Ms. Hamilton said the greatest poets were romantics like Virgil not classicists who only spoke what really happened. I think that would be true about poetry but not about history where you need facts not flowery statements.

I enjoyed this book and will probably try her first book "The Greek Way". The narration was done by Nadia May, not Wanda McFaddon as stated on the book. Nadia May is my favorite Audrey Hepburn sound alike.

If it reviewed the book condition when I bought it, then I missed it. I don't see where it says the condition of what I was about to receive. I was very disappointed it was so worn and used, creased and the front cover corner is bent up. I buy used from the store very often, but this is the first time I was shocked by the condition of the item. If I missed the description, my bad. I just don't think it had one. I would not have paid the price for it that I did had I known it was in such used/worn condition.
Either way, I will give it to my daughter and let her read it. Just wanted others to be more aware of asking about the condition of a used book before buying.

first the good: Ms Hamilton is very knowledgeable on the subject and provides a great deal of connection between the Classical Greek and modern thought. The book contains a great deal of food for thought.

Now the bad. First, I don't really care for the writing style. This is however a fairly minor issue compared to a bigger issue: bad comparisons.

You can't compare a good translation of Classical Greek (such as Pindar) in Modern English and say how contemporary something sounds. Of course it sounds contemporary, if the translator was any good... In fact, Pindar and Homer composed works which would be, on the whole, very different from what people write today. The focus on similarities, especially in translation, is quite misleading.

On the whole, I think some people would get something out of this book, but I think there are far better works which address both similarities and differences.

In Chapter 1, the author confuses Buddhism and Hinduism, blaming much of India's woes on the stranglehold of the priestly hierarchy and their emphasis on the spiritual realm over the material world. But she is describing Hindu tradition, not Buddhist. Buddhism, while it began in India, never took hold there. And the Buddha stressed the Middle Way, not a renouncing of the world. This remarkable error caused me to read the rest of the book with a grain of salt.

Browsing along my mother’s bookshelf, I found “The Greek Way” by Edith Hamilton – a name I recognized as the translator/curator of the book on Greek Mythology I had read for extra credit in junior high. This volume was attractively packaged as a “Time/Life Book Selection” and I took it home for bedside reading.

At first, Hamilton seems hopelessly dated. She speaks of the contrast between vibrant, materialist Western culture (sparked in her view by the Greeks) versus the introspective, un-worldly culture of the east. In our current world it is China and India who are galloping into materialism. The
West is urging less emphasis on things and more on simplicity in the pursuit of happiness and, incidentally, the salvation of the planet.

Hamilton devotes almost a chapter in contrasting the elaborate color and detail of Asian art with the austerity and simplicity of Greek marble sculpture. But a recent exhibit at the San Francisco Legion of Honor Museum, “Gods In Color”, explodes this comparison. We now know that those pure white marble friezes and statues gracing the Parthenon and other Greek antiquity sites were once flamboyantly painted and decorated. It is age, not austerity, which has given them that pristine simplicity.

She devotes another chapter to Pindar. He is, per Hamilton, a poet on the level of Shakespeare or Milton, but completely incapable of being translated because of the different aesthetics available in the original Greek. Western poetics admires metaphor, comparison, restatement in multiple ways of a central theme – traits visible in Shakespeare’s sonnets and the King James Bible, as examples. The Greeks deplored re-statement, instead valuing the exquisite clarity of a single statement of an idea. The beauty of the Greek poetry of Pindar comes from its movement, meter, sonority, none of which can be translated into English. Kipling, says Hamilton, comes the closest among English poets to using meter and movement to drive his poems, though she acknowledges that Kipling’s poetry is only a tenth of Pindars.

By this time I was a bit impatient at Hamilton’s claims. How can I challenge them, never having read a word of Greek? Then I recollect my struggles in China to understand the high regard the Chinese aesthetic pays to beautiful calligraphy, an art which simply has no counter part in European culture. Perhaps the real lesson here is how many ways there are to perceive beauty, and how tragic it will be when no-one can read classical Greek any longer, and Pindar’s genius will be as irrelevant to our lives as the Mayan carvings.

Then I got to her chapter on Thucydides, the historian. The insights Hamilton describes are so relevant to today's world it is downright scary. Thucydides speaks of the absolute corruptive effect of power, and an inevitable cycle in human societies, running from the dictator who in his greed for power over-reaches and is overthrown by a cohort, which in turn reaches for more power until the people under the oligarchy rise up against them, forming a democracy which eventually becomes so chaotic from each individual's search for power that the people turn to a strong man to restore order, and there we go again. "There is no right power. The powerful are compelled to seek more power."

I'll probably never learn to read Greek, but Hamilton makes me want to at least seek out some good translations.

This is not Hamilton's earlier book, The Greek Way, published 1930, but the Echo of Greece, a different book published in 1957. the store is confusing these two titles for some reason in their reviews, so it helps to know which book you're actually reading about, though the subject matter is practically the same (though not the content!).

This book about half as long as The Greek Way 27 years before it, and more focused overall, stressing key points, probably with the idea of streamlining the material more for use in public schools, most likely, since it was a classic already by then.

This is perhaps one of the most, if not the most, interesting and rewarding books I've read to date, which spans quite a bit of ground already in the classic literature of the West. Thus far in my reading of The Greek Way, this book is more lean and satisfying, pound-for-pound, though fiercely convinced of the superiority as Hamilton is here, it is difficult if not futile to protest with her bias as her proofs are overwhelmingly convincing and long accepted. Still, the details and force of argument the author is able to provide are nigh-staggering in their power. Not for nothing is Edith Hamilton a canonical author on the subject of Western Culture.

You won't be disappointed.

This is an overview of Greek development of philosophy, the arts, and religion as well as a contrast with other cultures on earth during the classical Greek period and modern cultures. Hamilton chronicles the history of some of the major Greek philosophers and playwrights circa 5 B.C. and explains what their work says about Greek attitude toward reason, freedom, the individual, and society.

This book is apparently a classic first written in the 1930s and assigned in many high school and college courses and has been updated and reprinted several times, my version was from 1993. I learned from looking at the negative reviews on the store, with plenty of high school students complaining about how "boring" the book was. I did not find it that boring, but wondered what level of expertise Hamilton has on Greek, Macedonian, ancient Chinese, and modern European and Russian cultures that she comments on so readily. As such, I took most of her comments with a grain of salt. There are lengthy excerpts of Greek works to prove her points and that became tedious but it is also classical literature that is worth being exposed to.

For comparison, I recommend Charles Freeman's Egypt, Greece, and Rome that looks at each culture separately and gives the entire historical backdrop. Hamilton chronicles how views of government and philosophy changed as a result of the Peloponnesian War but provides little context for understanding that war. Aeschylus, Herodutus, Plato, etc. and sets up a comparative with each. Aeschylus with the other dramatists; Herodutus with Thucydides and Xenophon, etc.

There are some interesting comparisons and contrasts with the Bible. Hamilton does not claim the Gospels as a work of Greek philosophy, rather she illustrates the differences between ancient Jewish, Greek, and the later Judeo-Christian cultures.

She makes some bold statements that seem...false: "Greeks were the first people in the world to play," for example.

In all, I enjoyed the Freeman-like overview of Athenian culture as a refresher. I read Xenophon and Plato in the past year and want to continue with more Plato and Aristotle this year. 3 stars out of 5.

writing this review in the year of the book's seventy-fifth anniversary, i can only describe it as a classic work of literature in it's own right. the elegance of this book can be found, as i see it, not only in hamilton's choice of style, but also in the precise choice of details that make up the book's contents: for a relatively short book, the mythical scheme of life, the world, and "major players" in them is presented in a very readable manner. thus, for beginners (such as i was when i was first given the book as a young boy) or for collectors of retellings of myths as a literary genre- this is a must-have.

as a side-note, the one and only aspect of the book that still puzzles me after all those years, is the all-too-brief introduction to norse mythology at the end of the book. this is a subject that cries out for hamilton's talent, and she should have devoted a full-length book to it. the norse segment is thus, as i see it, a glimpse of what might have been. all the same, a classic work of literature.

It can not be read. Extremely poor design: very small format 4"x 6.5", small font size (probably 10), very condensed, almost every row underlined in blue and green, the rows are going to 1/4" to the margin. Good for recycling not for sell. A $7.00 wasted. No more business.
As for the author, she is great. She is "recognized as the greatest woman Classicist."

Edith Hamilton was a very gifted writer, and someone who clearly had a deep passion for the world of the ancient Greeks. The Greek Way is a moving and insightful introduction to the alien world occupied by our Grecian forebearers. It is a book written in another age (1930), a fact which has both positive and negative implications for the modern reader. On the positive side, the book exhibits a kind of full-hearted enthusiasm for the subject matter that is rare in the more cautious world of modern classical scholarship. At her best, Hamilton writes of Greece in a way that can inspire a true sense of connection and love for these great innovators and thinkers of the distant past. It can be refreshing to hear these ideas stated with a bold sense of conviction that can be hard to find in our more politically correct age.

At her worst, Hamilton can exhibit some truly bizarre ideas about the ancient world that simply aren't backed up by scholarship. She broadly castigates the vaguely defined "East" as death obsessed and nhilistic, contrasting that with what she sees as the more humanistic perspective of the Greeks. She returns to this point often, so it's worth mentioning. Her "East" seems to envelop a broad collection of cultures with fairly different ideas about the world. This is clearly an area outside of her real expertise, and modern readers will likely resent this poorly backed up claim, for understandable reasons. She also insults the Romans for their gladiatorial predilections, which she sees as very barbaric and "Eastern." Again, this feels unfair to "Easterners" AND Romans, who are both subjected to some unwarranted abuse in this book. One can also make the case that Hamilton dramatically understates the importance of religion in Greek life, under-emphasizing the explicit obsession with death and animal sacrifice that is given great importance in Homer and other Greek texts. I'm in sympathy with her appreciation for the more rational and humanistic aspects of Greek culture, but I don't think her portrayal is entirely honest.

So yes, the book is certainly flawed, out of date, and perhaps inaccurately hagiographic. And yet it is also a slim volume of great power. Hamilton paints a vivid portrait of the ancient Greek world that will stick with the reader and awaken an abiding interest in exploring this world more deeply. She speaks of the great writers of Athens as a friend would, like she knows them. Through her, we come to have a much greater sense of who they were, what they said, and just what exactly they meant by it. She does a wonderfully brisk job of conveying context, character, and complex concepts. I think few readers will be able to complete this volume and resist heading deep into the works of Aeschylus, Homer, and Euripedes. If you've never understood just what the Greeks were about, this book may be very clarifying.

It is unsurprising that Robert F. Kennedy famously quoted Aeschylus in one of his most moving speeches, and also unsurprising that the passage he chose to quote was Hamilton's translation as found in the Greek Way. This is a book that would certainly speak to statesmen, dreamers, and world-shakers. It speaks of a Greek world that remains always just out of reach. It is a romantic point of view on the Greeks, and perhaps one aided by more than a little modern idealization... and yet there are important truths to be found in this book.

This is a touching and vibrantly drawn portrait of the Greek world.

The pleasure of reading "The Greek Way" is to be taken back to one's university days, as if discovering these masterworks for the first time. Hamilton not only takes us through the plurality of thought and deeds that make classics interesting, but builds a firm and satisfying optimism about the potential of human achievement in general. According to Hamilton, it was the group temperament and values of Greek (and usually Athenian) democratic life that provided the society fertile for the outpouring of human achievement during that golden century. One comes away from reading "The Greek Way" amazed not so much by the virtue of any one or small group of outstanding people, but rather a desire to find or build the type of society that could produce them in the first place. The primacy of reason, personal freedom, sport, courage, practicality, all forms of beauty, and the security of the state which would allow their pursuit are the fundamental principles she identifies across different thinkers and historical figures representing each particular excellence.

If I want to give a fractional star grade on the store, I always round up, but I think 3.5 is distinctly not the same as 4. Edith Hamilton was a pioneering woman in her own right. After being unfairly treated as a second class student in the hallowed halls of the German university system, she nevertheless went on to become the most renowned female classicist in history, and received honorary citizenship in Athens from the King of Greece himself. It is noteworthy therefore, and not to her credit, that she relies on a number of facile xenophobic commonplaces as old as Herodotus' time about India, Persia, Egypt, and other peoples of the "Eastern" continent. She consistently compares "Orientals" unfavorably to the "Greeks" with no analysis of the former. For a 20th century scholar of her talent who lived during/after the era of Geldner, Lepsius, Müller, Nietzsche, etc. (yes, I deliberately selected Germans to emphasize the irony of the issue,) it is inexcusable to write off Persian dynasties as simplistic brutal autocracies, or a multi-armed Indian religious icon as the bizarre manifestation of a fever-pitched vision - of no reasoned design or worldly connection. Hamilton is only human, but she should have known better, having faced prejudice herself in that very community of learning, which before her arrival actually did much to deconstruct those very chauvinistic views she held about Greece.

Some people think her digressions into comparisons with Shakespeare or Milton detract from the thesis of the book, but it is important to remember that Hamilton's classical learning and appreciation was so thoroughly rooted within the expressive power of the ancient Greek language itself that she had to enlist some pure English counterparts to effectively analogize, and I for one believe it succeeds. Taking the time to read Edith Hamilton's popular tour de force is not only good for a well-rounded look at classical scholarship, but can reinvigorate an appreciation for the field itself. Hamilton's passion for the legacy of ancient Greece was truly unique and sincere, and quite moving at many points.

The stories of Greco-Roman gods and heroes permeate our culture in some form or another, in Edith Hamilton's anthological collection 'Mythology' all the original tales are presented in a concise and readable fashion for those discovering them for the first time.

Taking her material from poems and plays from Greek and Roman writers, Hamilton structures the books chronologically through the various ages detailed in Greco-Roman mythology and keeping everything linked together through family relationships. At the beginning of every chapter Hamilton describes her process of choosing the source, or sources, of the tale giving the both the introductory reader and the knowledgeable one the basis for the next tale they are reading. The mythology of the Greco-Roman world and it's place in both Greek and Roman culture are described in general detail that gives the reader a sense of how each perceived the world around them.

The minor inclusion of the Norse mythology at the end of the book was the biggest failing of the book, Hamilton gave cultural reasons for including but it felt both incomplete and an afterthought. Only Balder's story was discussed and nothing of the adventures of Thor or others.

Edith Hamilton's lifetime of research and teaching of Greek and Roman poetry and plays results in a very readable book of Greco-Roman mythology. The book is definitely for casual readers along with those starting their journey into the overall world of Greco-Roman mythology and is not a substitute for reading The Iliad, The Odyssey, or The Aeneid. If you fall into either of these two categories I wholeheartedly recommend this book, but I would look somewhere else if you're interested in Norse mythology.

Edith Hamilton's premise for this book is that we learn more about a time period or people by reading their literature, poetry, speeches and plays. By doing this we know what they were interested in and how they thought.

This small volume entertains us with silly comedies of cuckolded husbands and their shrewish wives, poems that speak of love and honor and classic speeches by Cicero and Mark Antony.

I don't know if this helped me with any chronological history of the Roman Empire but I do feel I understand the Romans better than before I read this book.

Cicero was the great Orator of Rome and was not a fan of Julius Caesar because he wanted to downgrade the Senates role in government. I enjoyed learning about him and his death at the hands of Mark Anthony's men.

Horace and Virgil were also interesting subjects to learn about.

Ms. Hamilton said the greatest poets were romantics like Virgil not classicists who only spoke what really happened. I think that would be true about poetry but not about history where you need facts not flowery statements.

I enjoyed this book and will probably try her first book "The Greek Way". The narration was done by Nadia May, not Wanda McFaddon as stated on the book. Nadia May is my favorite Audrey Hepburn sound alike.

A basic collection of a lot Greek myths (very little about the evolution of) but what is nice is that the author tells you before each tale some of the story differences over time by different classical authors and which one(s) she went with and why. Understand that this book was written in 1942 and its evident from some of the author's comments. Now if you're looking for a book about any other mythos forget it. For some reason I though this was a book about Greek and Norse mythology. With over 350 pages less than 20 are about Norse myths so I don't even know why those pages were included at all.

My battered old copy of this book has been around - it may have been required reading for my father back in high school. Anyway, I finally got around to reading it - and the odd thing is that I should have read it years ago. In fact this should have been required reading in my high school, and also in freshman English in college. Because the stories here are referred to so much in literature, the names of the gods and lovers and warriors herein ring down through the centuries with such frequency that any cultured person should do an overview of the subject.

I read "The Odyssey" one summer in college, with the idea of self-edification in mind, but I found it a bit tedious and bloody. It seems that humanity's ideas concerning what constitutes good storytelling has developed over time. This book seems to pretty much cover all the major myths in a clear and effective manner. Hamilton is a good writer, and her love of the subject is communicated as well as the occasional dry comment that effectively adds a little levity.

I was interested in the cosmology, in the story of Cronus eating his children and other aspects of it. The beginning of all life was violent and strange. The introductions to the various gods and their powers was enjoyable, as was Hamilton's commentary (which is very spare) pointing out the greater sophistication and ethics of these gods over the previous blind and brutal pagan deities. She covers the great adventures of Jason, Hercules, and others, and the major love stories. A long chapter is devoted to the interlocking tales of power and tragedy that are the mythical accounts of the Trojan War. She also covers the Houses of Thebes and Atreus which are the source of most of the plays of Euripides and Sophocles and the other classic dramatists. The book concludes with a brief chapter on old Norse ​mythology (Odin and and the Valkyries and all this kind of stuff), which was a hard perspective on life, and this I found fascinating because of its connections to Anglo/Northern European culture.

This is a very worthwhile item for any serious reader. I am sure others have come along and covered the same ground since 1940, but don't let that stop you from giving this a try.

When I was 8yrs old my mom used to work at the library and in the summer time, when school was out and she couldn't afford a babysitter, I would go to work with her...sorta. I would hang back and wait until the library opened and enter as a normal patron :) This book kept me entertained for many many days. As I sat back in the bean chair for hours in the kids section (back then you didn't have to worry about strangers taking kids) I would read about the adventures of Jason and the Argonauts or the mischievous Gods and at the end of the day when it was time to go home I couldn't wait to come back the next day and read some more. Mrs. Hamilton was a great writer, easy to follow and suspenseful. The book is laid out so that you could read it cover to cover or just the sections you are curious about. This was my first introduction to Mythology and by far my favorite Mythology book. After many years I found it or maybe it found me again at a book sale and this time I took it home with me and now it has a permanent spot in my small book collection. I would recommend this book for any children or adults interested in expanding their imagination.

Icarus' tragic fall. Midas' wealth. Helen's beauty that launched a thousand ships. Prometheus' gift to mankind. Hercules' strength. Achilles' heel.

These stories are eternal. They're the original source material for Hollywood's blockbusters and Shakespeare's plays.

Luke Skywalker (circa the finale of Empire Strikes Back) disregards his elder's advice like Icarus and pays the price.

Romeo and Juliet are re-engineered versions of Pyramus and Thisbe, the original star-crossed lovers.

The Greeks' myths are cautionary tales and epic journeys, filled with heroes and villains, jealous gods and ambitious humans. Four thousand years haven't dated them a day, because they tap into universal human ideas and conundrums. Because they exalt man. They didn't fear the gods so much as they loved life on earth.

Aesop explains the Greek spirit best in this fable:

"An Astronomer used to go out at night to observe the stars. One evening, as he wandered through the suburbs with his whole attention fixed on the sky, he fell accidentally into a deep well. While he lamented and bewailed his sores and bruises, and cried loudly for help, a neighbor ran to the well, and learning what had happened said: "Hark ye, old fellow, why, in striving to pry into what is in heaven, do you not manage to see what is on earth?"

{Read along with me at [...]

This collection of interpretive essays is easy-to-read, well-written and insightful. Hamilton gives an authoritative account of the lives of a distant culture and their broader cultural context to today’s world. I really got a feeling for what the Romans thought and felt. Referencing such representational figures as Plautus and Terence, and even Cicero, she provided much interesting analyses from using examples of source documents. It isn’t that long though, and I wish she provide more of a history of Rome and a more comprehensive survey of Roman literature instead of character sketches of the chief Roman literary figures. But this is well worth the read. In addition, her depiction of women in Roman times, the empire’s slaves, and the games is astonishingly vivid.

This is a companion to the Greek Way, and it uses the same method: study Roman civilization by studying its greatest writers. Each writer allows Hamilton to study Rome from a different point of view: everyday life (the comic dramatists), politics (Caesar and Cicero), romance and epic (Virgil, Lily), common-sense philosophy (Horace), religious philosophy (Seneca), the dark underbelly (Tacitus and Suetonius), even private affairs (Catullus).

The best parts come when she is able to make contrasts. Financial matters are ignored by Cicero but frequently mentioned by Horace; Hamilton uses this to demonstrate the vast rise in wealth as Rome became an Empire. She also contrasts a coarse after-dinner entertainment (reported by Horace, with Virgil and Maecenas also present) with Plato's SYMPOSIUM to demonstrate the Greeks' superior culture.

A pity she didn't include the scientist-poet Lucretius, who actually foresaw modern concepts such as evolution and the uncertainty principle. Likewise the fact that no major Roman writer discussed Law means that she undervalues that part of Roman culture. She also mostly ignores what Gibbon praised as the high point of Roman civilization, the Era of the "Five Good Emperors", simply because it produced no outstanding writer except for the emperor Marcus Aurelius himself.

It's because of these omissions that I'm knocking off a star. What she does write about is excellent.

The first thing one encounters when reading Edith Hamilton's 'The Greek Way' is her love and even exuberance for her subject. Her opening remarks describe the classical greek worldview; an ability to grasp the world as it is, and still find it to be beautiful. This grasp this people had on reality would allow them to create the pictorial art, the art of the stage, here not including the dialogue and the dinner/drinking party, all still enjoyed much in the same manner today as the greeks enjoyed them in 500 b.c.e.

Plato and Socrates, and the way they experienced gentlemanly society, are highlighted as the crowning achievements of greek philosophy. It is the Ideal, Hamilton seems to say implicitly, that the greeks envisioned and carried forward philosophically, that would later influence western civilization in the way it did.

Later, comparisons are drawn between Aeschylus and Shakespeare, where the influence of the former on the latter is striking by the examples Hamilton presents. Hamilton here defines trajedy, elucidates pathos, and the differences between the two. She goes on to draw similarities between Virgil and Sophocles in their poetry and subjects, a valid comparison, she makes it seem.

Between this first and last, Herodotus is presented as a wide-eyed surprisingly objective first reporter who documents the cogitations and remarks of subjects as diverse as the delphic priestess and Cyrus the Great of Persia.

Freedom is won in the face of the Persian threat, and is the singular hallmark of the classical greeks in Hamilton's view. It affects everything the personalities Hamilton brings to light accomplish. Every work of art, every stage play, every dialectical argument can be viewed either as being in the presence of, or having the lack of freedom and democracy.

There is no question, Hamilton rightly defines the greatness of these greeks as a free, democratic people. But at the close of her book, Greece has become imperialistic and desires empire. Sophocles, the old conservative guardsman, documents poetically the zeitgeist of the former and current states of things, and a new era is dawning.

But Hamilton wisely leaves off here, having presented a wonderful picture of a wonderful people during a wonderful time.

This book gives a great overview to all the major stories that are prevalent in Greek and Latin mythology. She does a good job of explaining where she took her source information from and why at the beginning of each chapter, which is good because there are many stories that were told by more than one major Greek poet, and then modified when the Romans took over. Included in the book are descriptions of the major and minor gods and goddesses, and information about them is compiled from the major stories in a condensed format, so that you can get the full picture of how each was depicted in the section. It also describes the great heroes (Perseus, Hercules) and their many adventures, and takes a whole chapter to condense the Iliad in a format that is much easier to read. It does the same for the Odyssey. It then describes the tragedies, most chiefly those of Oedipus, and at the end there is a little section on Norse myths, which have been made popular by Wagner's operas. At the end of the book are family trees, which really help to display how the gods and heroes and major characters are interrelated. All in all a very informative book that is easy to read. Highly recommended for every mythology buff.

Other books to consider:
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, American Indian Myths and Legends by Richard Erdoes, and Chinese Ghost and Love Stories by Pu Singling

A big reason why it's worthwhile to know the Greek myths is that they are a standard set of stories that can be used as generally known examples when explaining things. For example, to speak about forcing something into a "Procrustean bed" invokes the story of Procrustes, who forced people into an iron bed, and would stretch those victims who were too short and amputate those victims who were too tall. Theseus forced Procrustes into his own bed as punishment.

The writing is excellent and these stories could be read to children. Probably many children would like this, because these stories are ancient (and thus occur in a world that might seem special) and don't seem childish like a modern children's book.

I am in full belief that the greatest work of Edith Hamilton, largely contributed to the popularity of Greek mythology in Europe. She is painstakingly worked on the compilation of Greek myths. And her style of storytelling is largely a pleasure to read and remember. Amazing and incredible sensations arise when reading this book. Instantly there is a feeling that we are traveling on Olympus and we see the majestic Zeus. In the next moment, we're on our way together with Hercules to perform feats. And it is only a quarter of exciting stories about Greek Gods and Heroes. I believe that the book by Edith Hamilton must-have for every person who is interested in the history of Greek myths.

When I was 8yrs old my mom used to work at the library and in the summer time, when school was out and she couldn't afford a babysitter, I would go to work with her...sorta. I would hang back and wait until the library opened and enter as a normal patron :) This book kept me entertained for many many days. As I sat back in the bean chair for hours in the kids section (back then you didn't have to worry about strangers taking kids) I would read about the adventures of Jason and the Argonauts or the mischievous Gods and at the end of the day when it was time to go home I couldn't wait to come back the next day and read some more. Mrs. Hamilton was a great writer, easy to follow and suspenseful. The book is laid out so that you could read it cover to cover or just the sections you are curious about. This was my first introduction to Mythology and by far my favorite Mythology book. After many years I found it or maybe it found me again at a book sale and this time I took it home with me and now it has a permanent spot in my small book collection. I would recommend this book for any children or adults interested in expanding their imagination.

Edith Hamilton's "Mythology" tell the "Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" of classical mythology and this volume, first written in 1942, is now a timeless classic itself. This was the first book of mythology that I ever read and it is still the best. When Hamilton retells the love story of Cupid and Psyche or the tragedy of Agamemnon and his children, she does so with a full sense of what it meant when first told by Apuleius or Aeschylus. These are not children's tales, but the heroic legends and religious beliefs of the ancient Greeks. Furthermore, the illustrations by Steele Savage have the elegance of wood block prints, which, for all I know, is exactly what they are. I appreciate Hamilton's choice to avoid relying on Ovid, for while the "Metamorphoses" is the most comprehensive ancient text dealing with the classical myths, Ovid is an unbeliever. For Hamilton the writings of Homer, Hesiod and Pindar are more abbreviated in terms of providing details for the myths, but at least they take the tales seriously.
Another strength of the book is how she organizes the myths in her seven parts: (1) Covers the complete pantheon of deities, including the lesser gods of Olympus and Earth and the later Roman additions, as well as the earliest heroes. (2) Retells the various tales of love, between mortals and the gods or each other, along with the Quest for the Golden Fleece and other early heroic adventures. (3) Focuses specifically on the greatest heroes, Perseus, Theseus and Hercules, with Atalanta thrown in the mix in a curious but understandable editorial decision by Hamilton. (4) Puts together Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid into a giant epic stretching from the Judgment of Paris to the founding of Roman, with the Odyssey and the tragedies of Euripides. (5) Tells about the great mythological families, namely the House of Atreus (Agamemnon), the Royal House of Thebes (Oedipus and Antigone), and the Royal House of Athens. (6) Covers all of the lesser myths, most notably Midas. (7) Goes off in a new direction, providing a very brief introduction to Norse mythology that seems woefully inadequate given the comprehensive compilation of classical mythology that precedes it.
I looked over other possibilities as a basic textbook for my Classical Greek & Roman Mythology course (I know, it sounds redundant and repetitive to me too, but it is not like I came up with the name of the class), but I selected this one as my basic text (with "The Greek Myths" by Robert Graves to provide considerably more details and alternative tales). If you want analysis of these myths, then you certainly want to look elsewhere. But if you want a solid retelling of the key stories of classical mythology, then Edith Hamilton's volume is still at the top of the list for my money (and those my students have to pay for the book). I fully admit that I am biased because I read this during my formative years and her language and rhythms are engrained in my brain.

Edith Hamilton's Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes is a very basic, very popular and very good text for the introduction of Greek and Roman mythology. In our Western culture, the term 'mythology' is most often equated with these tales, and this book, first written before World War II, has helped to reinforce that equation with the current generations of readers.
Those looking for the mythological stories of other cultures will be disappointed -- with the exception of a brief section on Norse mythology at the end (about five percent of the entire volume), it covers nothing outside the Greek and Roman pantheons. Of course, part of the difficulty of approaching mythology of other cultures is that, in many instances, it is not mythology to them; or, in the case of mythology, one needs a firmer grounding in the culture and religious aspects of that culture before the mythology becomes accessible.
Hamilton (raised, as I was astonished to discover, in Indiana, where I currently reside) studied at Bryn Mawr, and had a distinguished teacher career in addition to writing this useful text. Hamilton's writing is not complicated and very easy to follow -- this has made this text one used in high school and undergraduate courses in Greek and Roman mythology more frequently perhaps than any other text produced in this century.
Hamilton begins the text with an essay giving an overview of what mythology is, and what the purpose of it was.
'Through it,' she wrote, 'we can retrace the path from civilised man who lives so far from nature, to man who lived in close companionship with nature; and the real interest of the myths is that they lead us back to a time when the world was young and people had a connection with the earth, with trees and seas and flowers and hills, unlike anything we ourselves can feel.'
She proceeds with a brief history of the development of Greek mythology, the origins of the stories lost in the mists of time. She tells of the influences of Greek thought on subsequent developments in thought and religion: 'Saint Paul said the invisible must be understood by the visible. That was not a Hebrew idea, it was Greek.' Unlike most religious constructs, the Greek mythological world tried to make sense of the greater life of the universe in terms that were very human indeed, with a minimum of mystery. 'The terrifying irrational has no place in classical mythology.'
This is not to say, of course, that there were not terrible stories and fantastic creatures -- indeed, the mythological stories are full of them -- Gorgons and hydras and chimaeras dire. But these are mostly metaphorical (and were understood as such), and primarily used for a hero to be made (this same idea has pervaded to the most recent Mission Impossible movie).
Hamilton proceeds after this essay to describe the members of the pantheon, the major and minor gods and goddesses, the ideas of creation, the heroes (human, semi-divine and divine), stories of love and devotion, justice and injustice, and, of course, of warfare, victory, defeat, and courage. Those heroes before the Trojan War, perhaps the Greek-mythological-equivalent of a world war, had battles and dire circumstances to fight and overcome. The Trojan War figured largely in the mythological frameworks of Greece and Rome -- all the gods and goddess were involved in this conflict, it seemed, as were many of the heroes of Greek mythology.
Hamilton, writing in a fairly conservative period of time, and in a fairly conservative culture, sanitised the mythological stories to a large extent. The Greeks were a very human and often rather bawdy bunch; the Romans were even moreso. Much of the sexuality in the mythological stories is omitted, save to demonstrate the less-desirable aspects. Quite often, undergraduates who study mythology are astonished to discover, if they had used Hamilton's text in an earlier high school setting, that there is a lot more sex and violence in the 'real' stories than they had been previously exposed to.
Of course, one of the primary aspects of the mythological tales was not to explain the cosmos or to build complex theological constructs (reason did these, often with help from the myths, but not using the myths as the basis), but rather the illustration of moral truths -- those of honesty, virtue, and courage as primarily valued in Greek and Roman society. Evil befalls those who do not lead a moral life; rewards come to those who do. Of course, there is a bit of whimsy in the cosmos -- bad things happen to good people, etc., even in ancient Greece. The fluctuating personalities of the gods (and the number of them) ultimately gives a satisfying explanation (if not a satisfying reason) why such things might occur.
Hamilton's book is a good one to use in teaching, but it must not be considered the final authority on any of the topics it addresses. Nonetheless, it has earned its place in the pantheon of influential books, and will most likely continue to be so for some time to come.

Edith Hamilton's "Mythology" tell the "Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" of classical mythology and this volume, first written in 1942, is now a timeless classic itself. This was the first book of mythology that I ever read and it is still the best. When Hamilton retells the love story of Cupid and Psyche or the tragedy of Agamemnon and his children, she does so with a full sense of what it meant when first told by Apuleius or Aeschylus. These are not children's tales, but the heroic legends and religious beliefs of the ancient Greeks. Furthermore, the illustrations by Steele Savage have the elegance of wood block prints, which, for all I know, is exactly what they are. I appreciate Hamilton's choice to avoid relying on Ovid, for while the "Metamorphoses" is the most comprehensive ancient text dealing with the classical myths, Ovid is an unbeliever. For Hamilton the writings of Homer, Hesiod and Pindar are more abbreviated in terms of providing details for the myths, but at least they take the tales seriously.
Another strength of the book is how she organizes the myths in her seven parts: (1) Covers the complete pantheon of deities, including the lesser gods of Olympus and Earth and the later Roman additions, as well as the earliest heroes. (2) Retells the various tales of love, between mortals and the gods or each other, along with the Quest for the Golden Fleece and other early heroic adventures. (3) Focuses specifically on the greatest heroes, Perseus, Theseus and Hercules, with Atalanta thrown in the mix in a curious but understandable editorial decision by Hamilton. (4) Puts together Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid into a giant epic stretching from the Judgment of Paris to the founding of Roman, with the Odyssey and the tragedies of Euripides. (5) Tells about the great mythological families, namely the House of Atreus (Agamemnon), the Royal House of Thebes (Oedipus and Antigone), and the Royal House of Athens. (6) Covers all of the lesser myths, most notably Midas. (7) Goes off in a new direction, providing a very brief introduction to Norse mythology that seems woefully inadequate given the comprehensive compilation of classical mythology that precedes it.
I looked over other possibilities as a basic textbook for my Classical Greek & Roman Mythology course (I know, it sounds redundant and repetitive to me too, but it is not like I came up with the name of the class), but I selected this one as my basic text (with "The Greek Myths" by Robert Graves to provide considerably more details and alternative tales). If you want analysis of these myths, then you certainly want to look elsewhere. But if you want a solid retelling of the key stories of classical mythology, then Edith Hamilton's volume is still at the top of the list for my money (and those my students have to pay for the book). I fully admit that I am biased because I read this during my formative years and her language and rhythms are engrained in my brain.

Edith Hamilton's very popular 'Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes' is a very basic, very popular and very good text for the introduction of Greek and Roman mythology. This book by Hamilton, simply entitled 'Mythology' is an expansion of the material in the shorter book. Largely, however, it is a repetition of the same material.

In our Western culture, the term 'mythology' is most often equated with these tales, and Hamilton, first writing before World War II, has helped to reinforce that equation with the current generations of readers.

Those looking for the mythological stories of other cultures will be disappointed -- with the exception of a brief section on Norse mythology at the end (about five percent of the entire volume), it covers nothing outside the Greek and Roman pantheons. Of course, part of the difficulty of approaching mythology of other cultures is that, in many instances, it is not mythology to them; or, in the case of mythology, one needs a firmer grounding in the culture and religious aspects of that culture before the mythology becomes accessible.

Hamilton (raised, as I was astonished to discover, in Indiana, where I currently reside) studied at Bryn Mawr, and had a distinguished teacher career in addition to writing this useful text. Hamilton's writing is not complicated and very easy to follow -- this has made her texts selected often for high school and undergraduate courses in Greek and Roman mythology, more frequently perhaps than any other text produced in this century.

Hamilton begins the text with an essay giving an overview of what mythology is, and what the purpose of it was.

'Through it,' she wrote, 'we can retrace the path from civilised man who lives so far from nature, to man who lived in close companionship with nature; and the real interest of the myths is that they lead us back to a time when the world was young and people had a connection with the earth, with trees and seas and flowers and hills, unlike anything we ourselves can feel.'

She proceeds with a brief history of the development of Greek mythology, the origins of the stories lost in the mists of time. She tells of the influences of Greek thought on subsequent developments in thought and religion: 'Saint Paul said the invisible must be understood by the visible. That was not a Hebrew idea, it was Greek.' Unlike most religious constructs, the Greek mythological world tried to make sense of the greater life of the universe in terms that were very human indeed, with a minimum of mystery. 'The terrifying irrational has no place in classical mythology.'

This is not to say, of course, that there were not terrible stories and fantastic creatures -- indeed, the mythological stories are full of them -- Gorgons and hydras and chimaeras dire. But these are mostly metaphorical (and were understood as such), and primarily used for a hero to be made (this same idea has pervaded to the most recent Mission Impossible movie).

Hamilton proceeds after this essay to describe the members of the pantheon, the major and minor gods and goddesses, the ideas of creation, the heroes (human, semi-divine and divine), stories of love and devotion, justice and injustice, and, of course, of warfare, victory, defeat, and courage. Those heroes before the Trojan War, perhaps the Greek-mythological-equivalent of a world war, had battles and dire circumstances to fight and overcome. The Trojan War figured largely in the mythological frameworks of Greece and Rome -- all the gods and goddess were involved in this conflict, it seemed, as were many of the heroes of Greek mythology.

Hamilton, writing in a fairly conservative period of time, and in a fairly conservative culture, sanitised the mythological stories to a large extent. The Greeks were a very human and often rather bawdy bunch; the Romans were even moreso. Much of the sexuality in the mythological stories is omitted, save to demonstrate the less-desirable aspects. Quite often, undergraduates who study mythology are astonished to discover, if they had used Hamilton's text in an earlier high school setting, that there is a lot more sex and violence in the 'real' stories than they had been previously exposed to.

Of course, one of the primary aspects of the mythological tales was not to explain the cosmos or to build complex theological constructs (reason did these, often with help from the myths, but not using the myths as the basis), but rather the illustration of moral truths -- those of honesty, virtue, and courage as primarily valued in Greek and Roman society. Evil befalls those who do not lead a moral life; rewards come to those who do. Of course, there is a bit of whimsy in the cosmos -- bad things happen to good people, etc., even in ancient Greece. The fluctuating personalities of the gods (and the number of them) ultimately gives a satisfying explanation (if not a satisfying reason) why such things might occur.

Edith Hamilton's "Mythology" tell the "Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" of classical mythology and this volume, first written in 1942, is now a timeless classic itself. This was the first book of mythology that I ever read and it is still the best. When Hamilton retells the love story of Cupid and Psyche or the tragedy of Agamemnon and his children, she does so with a full sense of what it meant when first told by Apuleius or Aeschylus. These are not children's tales, but the heroic legends and religious beliefs of the ancient Greeks. Furthermore, the illustrations by Steele Savage have the elegance of wood block prints, which, for all I know, is exactly what they are. I appreciate Hamilton's choice to avoid relying on Ovid, for while the "Metamorphoses" is the most comprehensive ancient text dealing with the classical myths, Ovid is an unbeliever. For Hamilton the writings of Homer, Hesiod and Pindar are more abbreviated in terms of providing details for the myths, but at least they take the tales seriously.
Another strength of the book is how she organizes the myths in her seven parts: (1) Covers the complete pantheon of deities, including the lesser gods of Olympus and Earth and the later Roman additions, as well as the earliest heroes. (2) Retells the various tales of love, between mortals and the gods or each other, along with the Quest for the Golden Fleece and other early heroic adventures. (3) Focuses specifically on the greatest heroes, Perseus, Theseus and Hercules, with Atalanta thrown in the mix in a curious but understandable editorial decision by Hamilton. (4) Puts together Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid into a giant epic stretching from the Judgment of Paris to the founding of Roman, with the Odyssey and the tragedies of Euripides. (5) Tells about the great mythological families, namely the House of Atreus (Agamemnon), the Royal House of Thebes (Oedipus and Antigone), and the Royal House of Athens. (6) Covers all of the lesser myths, most notably Midas. (7) Goes off in a new direction, providing a very brief introduction to Norse mythology that seems woefully inadequate given the comprehensive compilation of classical mythology that precedes it.
I looked over other possibilities as a basic textbook for my Classical Greek & Roman Mythology course (I know, it sounds redundant and repetitive to me too, but it is not like I came up with the name of the class), but I selected this one as my basic text (with "The Greek Myths" by Robert Graves to provide considerably more details and alternative tales). If you want analysis of these myths, then you certainly want to look elsewhere. But if you want a solid retelling of the key stories of classical mythology, then Edith Hamilton's volume is still at the top of the list for my money (and those my students have to pay for the book). I fully admit that I am biased because I read this during my formative years and her language and rhythms are engrained in my brain.

Edith Hamilton's "Mythology" tell the "Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" of classical mythology and this volume, first written in 1942, is now a timeless classic itself. This was the first book of mythology that I ever read and it is still the best. When Hamilton retells the love story of Cupid and Psyche or the tragedy of Agamemnon and his children, she does so with a full sense of what it meant when first told by Apuleius or Aeschylus. These are not children's tales, but the heroic legends and religious beliefs of the ancient Greeks. Furthermore, the illustrations by Steele Savage have the elegance of wood block prints, which, for all I know, is exactly what they are. I appreciate Hamilton's choice to avoid relying on Ovid, for while the "Metamorphoses" is the most comprehensive ancient text dealing with the classical myths, Ovid is an unbeliever. For Hamilton the writings of Homer, Hesiod and Pindar are more abbreviated in terms of providing details for the myths, but at least they take the tales seriously.
Another strength of the book is how she organizes the myths in her seven parts: (1) Covers the complete pantheon of deities, including the lesser gods of Olympus and Earth and the later Roman additions, as well as the earliest heroes. (2) Retells the various tales of love, between mortals and the gods or each other, along with the Quest for the Golden Fleece and other early heroic adventures. (3) Focuses specifically on the greatest heroes, Perseus, Theseus and Hercules, with Atalanta thrown in the mix in a curious but understandable editorial decision by Hamilton. (4) Puts together Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid into a giant epic stretching from the Judgment of Paris to the founding of Roman, with the Odyssey and the tragedies of Euripides. (5) Tells about the great mythological families, namely the House of Atreus (Agamemnon), the Royal House of Thebes (Oedipus and Antigone), and the Royal House of Athens. (6) Covers all of the lesser myths, most notably Midas. (7) Goes off in a new direction, providing a very brief introduction to Norse mythology that seems woefully inadequate given the comprehensive compilation of classical mythology that precedes it.
I looked over other possibilities as a basic textbook for my Classical Greek & Roman Mythology course (I know, it sounds redundant and repetitive to me too, but it is not like I came up with the name of the class), but I selected this one as my basic text (with "The Greek Myths" by Robert Graves to provide considerably more details and alternative tales). If you want analysis of these myths, then you certainly want to look elsewhere. But if you want a solid retelling of the key stories of classical mythology, then Edith Hamilton's volume is still at the top of the list for my money (and those my students have to pay for the book). I fully admit that I am biased because I read this during my formative years and her language and rhythms are engrained in my brain.

Ms. Hamilton's book, rightly considered a classic in its own right, is a quick, minimal no-nonsense retelling of Greek and Roman myths. I was surprised to see a small section at the end on Norse mythology; I thought it was entirely too brief to do the subject justice.
Ms. Hamilton's greatest contribution in this work is her grouping of the myths in more-or-less logical sections -- for example, "The Gods, the Creation and the Earliest Heroes," "Stories of Love and Adventure," "The Great Heroes of the Trojan War," and so on. She attempts to provide a framework for the myths to enable the reader to understand them in the context they were understood during their own time, and she does this very well.
Another benefit Ms. Hamilton attempts to provide her readers is a clipping service of sorts, pulling her stories from a multitude of sources. While I found the constant switching between Greek and Roman names annoying, Ms. Hamilton remained true to her methodology of identifying the gods, goddesses and heroes based on the majority author from which she drew for a particular tale. I could have done without her editorializing on the readability of the authors from whom she drew, but that is a minor quibble.
This book is most useful for someone for whom many years has passed since he or she has read their Greek and Roman mythology. It might also serve as an adequate primer for someone about to undertake a first reading of the subject as well. By itself, however, it loses much of the romance and excitement the fully developed stories themselves impart in the hands of a skilled storyteller. I was fortunate in that, even though I read most of my mythology before the age of ten, I had a wonderful resource at my disposal -- a 1930 edition of the Grolier Society's The Book of Knowledge, a twenty volume encyclopedia that undertook to impart a broad range of knowledge to its readers in an accessible and enjoyable manner. Having not read mythology since that time, Hamilton's brief retelling of the tales brought back many of them and the context she provided even enhanced my appreciation for some and cleared up misconceptions about others.
One complaint, admittedly minute in importance: I found three typographical errors in the edition I read (Warner Books, 1999). While these in no way detracted from the work, it is nonetheless surprising to find such errors in a work that's been in print for sixty years.

Mythology is classicist Edith Hamilton's book on Greek, Roman and Norse mythology, illustrated by Steele Savage (no kidding). The bulk of the work is devoted to the Greek, and the Norse is mentioned only in passing. Myths are arranged thematically, not chronologically (except for the initial creation), which is disruptive to the flow of the work.

Hamilton does several things well. First, she gives history on the authors from whom these stories have descended, and differentiates between their styles. Second, she gives good insight into the character of the people of the time as well as into the character of the mythological figures. She obviously knows the material and cares about it.

Mythology reads like a history book. Many stories get wrapped up too quickly, and quite a few are told too simplistically. Many details are left out. The writing is juvenile at times, and paragraph flow is occasionally an issue. This is almost a Cliff's Notes on mythology. Ultimately, Hamilton makes most of these myths boring. Others, with too many details cut out, the reader will find hard to get into.

Mythology has some good things to offer, but on the whole, this is an inferior way to enjoy the myths. This book may be useful to some as a quick-reference guide, but that's about it.

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT

Mythology is not the easiest subject to learn; it has nothing to do with the story being complicated or the language being too hard; there are a vast amount of work written for the same myth with slight variations, which is a barrier for someone whose knowledge of the subject is little to none.

Edith Hamilton used her great knowledge of Mythology to write this collection of plot summaries for different myths, using elements from different works coming from various poets if necessary, erasing confusions for "Mythology newbies" as they are trying to learn about these stories which have deep root in our culture. Obviously, if you are a classics student looking for a reference book, this won't do. But this makes a great introductory book for mythology rather you are a High School student looking for fun summer reading or adult who wants something fun to read. I won't recommend this to younger kids, base on the nature of Mythology.

The reason why I enjoyed this book beside the stories is that there are so many references to Mythology in our culture, Percy Jackson series is only a small piece to that puzzle. And the story itself is very good, no wonder why they are still relevant after hundreds and hundreds of years. This book made me want to read the Iliad as it is y favorite stories out all of them.

As an introduction/overview to Ancient Athens and Ancient Greek Culture , Edith Hamilton's book has no equal. She delineates precisely why the Greeks were so different from anything that existed before and why the works they left still resonate with meaning today. She was a great scholar and her works on Ancient Greek culture are invaluable. She quoted extensively from the source material and yet the quotes she chose seamlessly reinforce her points. The overall quality of the scholarship and insights are superb. Her content covers the Philosophers , the Historians , the Comedians and most impressively the Tragedians. It is difficult to describe how this slim volume puts the culture of Ancient Greece in context and illuminates both what made them so unique and what makes their contributions so universally influential down to the present day. The Greek Way is a classic on the topic and is well worth investigating for anyone wanting to understand how such an advanced culture could suddenly appear in what was a rather dark world.
I am revising a previous review here from severral years ago because I just re-read the book and found it even on a third reading time well spent.

Edith Hamilton's book, The Greek Way, tells the amazing story of how the Greeks in the small city of Athens developed a new way of life in the western world around 500BC. Some of the highlights of her fascinating story are as follows:

In a world where tyrants and the irrational played the chief role, the Greeks in the city of Athens believed in the supremacy of the mind in the affairs of men. The Athenians lived in a "reasonable" world because they used their reason on the world.

For a brief period, extraordinary creative activity blossomed in Athens because the Athenians combined the clarity of reason with spiritual power.

 The ancient Egyptians left tombs (Pyramids) as their monuments to death.

 The ancient Athenians left theaters, statues, and plays as their monuments to life.

The Athenians were different from most other ancient peoples because:

 The mountains of Greece helped to create a physically vigorous people who resisted submitting to despots.

 The Athenians looked at the world closely and had an intense desire to understand what they saw. They were the first "scientists" and delighted in making the obscure clear and finding system, order, and connection in the world.

 The Athenians loved reason, knowledge, and play.

 The Athenians were not oppressed by governments, religions or superstitions and were free to use their minds to examine whatever they wished.

 The Athenians, unlike many ancient or modern cultures, found the world a beautiful and delightful place in which to live and they found happiness in using their vital powers in the pursuit of excellence.

 In Greece, the mind and the spirit met on equal terms.

Greek writing is plain writing, direct and matter-of-fact. It depends no more on ornament than does Greek architecture. For example, the following shows the same idea expressed both in the New Testament and by the Greek writer Aeschylus:

 In the New Testament

Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you: For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

 By the Greek writer Aeschylus

Men search out God and searching find him.

The Greek's universe is rational and well ordered without the worship of the powers of darkness. Socrates believed that goodness and truth were the fundamental realities, and that they were attainable. He believed that in the seeming futility of life there is a purpose which is good and that men can find it and help work it out.

In a century or two, Greek scientists remade the ancient view of the universe. They leaped to the truth by an intuition, they saw a whole made up of related parts, and with the sweep of their vision the old world of hodge-podge and magic fell away and a world of order took its place.

I first read this book in sixth grade, and instantly fell in love with it. I loved the concept of mythology and loved how the book was written. I didn't find the boring aspects everyone else seemed to find. I devoured the book whole, and now, years later, I bought it. I was curious to see if the magic would hit me twice.

It did, in a sense. I vaguely remembered the stories, so the aspect of surprise and shock in some of the stories was ruined for me. Granted, when I first read it I was very young, but there were still some things that were more enjoyable to read the first time. Since then, I've moved onto other classic mythology books, and have found them to be very enjoyable too.

It is true, yes, that Edith Hamilton writes well, but overall the book is dry. It is true that this is a mere introduction and does not present us with every tale in the history of various mythologies (the Norse mythology section is pitifully short - I'd turn elsewhere for that). Overall, though, it's an enjoyable introduction, an easy read (if you can deal with the dryness), and an overall good book. It's convenient on the shelf and can serve you for many years to come.

A pretty good buy, but more serious readers should head towards more serious books, even if they'll be more difficult to read.

After reading the first two chapters of 'The Roman Way' I almost gave up. Hamilton's use of Roman theatre and comedy to introduce the reader to "The Roman Way", well quite frankly, bored me to tears. I just couldn't get into it. It seems that other reviewers enjoyed this approach so I suppose this is just my personal taste. That being said, I found the rest of the book to be mostly enjoyable. Hamilton's elegant writing style is certainly unique and I would agree with the reviewer who said that her writing seems to be from another era. Incidentally, this book was first published in 1932 so I suppose you could say it IS from another era. Hamilton brings to life many of the biggest names in Roman history including; Caesar, Cicero, Catullus, Horace, Virgil, Livy, and Juvenal. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on Caesar and Cicero where Hamilton describes their peculiar relationship. I also enjoyed the title chapter where Hamilton succinctly contrasts the Romans (disciplined, pragmatic, heroic) to the Greeks (beauty, pleasure, intellectualism). All in all, a different but enjoyable introduction to ancient Roman culture and the personalities that constituted it.

"Mythology" covers all the major and most minor Greek, Norse and Roman gods, goddesses, stories and locales. Edith Hamilton makes no pretenses that this is all there is to say on mythology, but she gives a reader a fine start.

Hamilton puts them into sensible structures so beginners can learn in a context which are easy to understand. She provides major section titles helping readers get straight to the required story, like "Stories of Love and Adventure" You'll find "Cupid and Psyche" as a chapter.

Chapters are named mostly by story like, "The Trojan War."

She quotes from the sources, so the reader knows how it is she got her information.

Character-driven in format, readers can look up a name, find the subtitle with that name, and read why that character matters. She writes narratively, sounding a little like "Cliff's Notes." This is a good thing, because the poetry from which these myths are drawn can be overwhelming.

Nicely organized is the geneological table section. It looks like a family tree, in a English royalty kind of way.

As a writer, I use it for a quick reference guide. I usually only need a few nuggets of information, and she gives me plenty. I first acquired it high school, using it to get out of those tough jams when I did not understand books like "The Odyssey," by Homer.

More than mere reference, "Mythology" is good reading for no other purpose than serendipitous curiosity.

I fully recommend it.

Anthony Trendl
[...]

Great book on the Greek mind and culture, not overly detailed and self explanatory, dealing with their art, writing, historians, playwrights, comic and tragic poets and religion. I think this is a great book to read along with H.D.F. Kitto's book, The Greeks.

Hamilton goes into the Eastern way of quietistic retreat and denial of the external world of the Egyptians in the culture that worshiped the dead and interior spirit world, how they reduced to nothingness all that belongs to man and this world. Man is annihilated into the ways of nature. The Hindus also traveled within the interior selves, and in art, expressing themselves in decorative and elaborate art and writing. conglomeration of adornments ornaments and decorations. While the Greeks honored this world, this life, seeing the divinity and sacredness in this world, involving themselves in excellence, in the Olympic games, having gods and goddesses that resembled the beauty of humans and human existence. This was alien to mysticism and the vanishing of the self. Unlike other civilizations where the intellect belonged strictly to the priests, the Greeks as a whole pursued rationalism, truth, simplicity and meaning in existence. Life was lived to its fullest, but not in excess, as the two inscriptions over the Oracle of Apollo in Delphi reads as: "Know thyself" and "Nothing in excess."

On page 20 "That which distinguishes the modern world from the ancient, and that which divides the West form the East, is the supremacy of mind in the affairs of men, and this came to birth in Greece and lived in Greece alone of all the ancient world. The Greeks were the first intellectualists. In a world where the irrational had played the chief role,they came forward as the protagonists of the mind."

In art, in writing, in the gods, there was simplicity, lucid clarity that shied away from symbolism. This can be seen in the architecture and the poetry. The Gothic cathedral was raided in in awe of an Almighty God, humanity far below in reverence, while the Parthenon was raided in triumph, to express the beauty and the power and the splendor of man.

Hamilton goes intuit the style and and aristocracy of the poet Pindar, into the freedom and amount of leisure in the culture for persons to seek out truth and rational development, the Symposium dinner party of the upper class and dinner party of Xenophon and working men and women. The writings of the extensive traveling and experiences of Herodotus and his attitude towards other cultures, both of this world and in religious allegorism. How the freedom allowed the comic poet Aristophanes to speak freely and question the intentions and actions of the most important figures without any back lash. In this she compares this to sixteen century England and Gilbert.

A summary of the account of the historian Thucydides, the exiled general and his observance of a great democracy that defeated the Persians in a new era and later their power, strength and greed corrupting her, finally falling to the oligarchy and tyranny of Sparta. The Peloponesian War caused great strain on the culture and paranoia developed. The rule of the one, of the few, of the many, each is destroyed in turn because there is in them all an unvarying evil - the greed for power - and no moral quality is necessarily bound up with any of them. There is a real parallel today the current imperialistic powers, the U.S., that once based their ideals on democratic freedoms, but even from the start not without severe contradictions..

A good discussion is made on the idea of tragedy, a Greek creation from a free society, the spirit of inquiry in poetry, the dignity in the suffering and significance of human life. The three tragic poets, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. The mystery of suffering and sense of the wonder of human life, its beauty and terror and pain and the power in meant to do and to hear in the words of Aeschylus. The structure and form of Sophocles in the idea of helpless fate and the power of man to ally himself with the good in suffering and dying nobly. And the criticism as in our modern day of Euripides, who both attacked all of the foundations, an indictment of evil and at the same time looked at the tender compassion of the unfortunate and the sense of the worth of human life.

Other thoughts are conveyed on the birth of the newer god, Dionysus, needed for the substance for Apollo to balance, to allow the ecstasy and nothing in excess. Nobel self restraint must have something to restrain. And subsequently the importance of Demeter and addition of Dionysus in the Eleusinian mysteries. Each new idea would always threaten the old, but in the end there is a deeper insight and a better life with ancient follies and prejudices gone. This was the case with Socrates in the attempt to attain truth, goodness and fundamental realities. The book ends in a small comparison of the unbalance of the modern world from the Greeks.

_The Roman Way_ (1932) by Edith Hamilton is an easily readable, highly informative account of the mindset of the Romans as illustrated in the lives and exploits of the great military and political leaders; the oeuvre of Roman poets, playwrights, and historians; and the insights of her philosophers. The Roman Way spans a period of roughly four hundred years, from 200 BC to 400 AD, the high water marks of both the republic and the empire. The breadth of the work is incredible.

In treating such a wide range of subjects, Hamilton offers a rich, dynamic story of Rome. She introduces the major figures in enough depth to make their voices come alive, in their own complexity as well as in the context of what was taking place in Roman society. As a result, _The Roman Way_ is very useful either as an introduction to Roman society for a general reader or a synthesis of knowledge for those who have already studied these authors and history in detail.

Within Hamilton's history are two ideas, woven throughout the text. First, while demonstrating Rome's debt to ancient Greece, she contrasts Rome's pragmatism in the arts and sciences with the Greek interest in abstract philosophy and metaphysics. Second, she traces--often in asides--rudimentary similarities between the Roman and the American worldview (of the 1930s), particularly with respect to the arts. She points out that American pragmatism and culture often draw more from Roman values and virtues, as opposed to the Greek penchant for philosophical speculation. This latter point is suggestive but is, rightly in my opinion, not a major focus of the work.

Hamilton is skilled at quoting from writings and accounts of historical figures and then explaining the context for these words. For instance, in her chapters on Roman comedy she summarizes a number of plays by Plautus and Terrence while translating key passages. The reader is exposed to a range of plays, actually experiences the language of specific scenes, and then has a chance to consider Hamilton's broader insights about the playwrights. In a few short chapters, Hamilton covers the nature of Roman comedy, the role of women in the plays and society, how comedy competed with gladiators and other spectacles, and the influence of Greek drama on Plautus and Terrence. She covers considerable ground while offering a direct feeling of the content of the plays and, most importantly, their humor.

For example, she notes that Roman comedies are often situational and studies of the ordinary rather than philosophical or poetic, which is more typical of Greek comedy. To show exceptions to this generalization, though, she excerpts two of the more far-reaching statements from Terrence and Plautus. Terrence remarks, "I am a man and nothing in mankind do I hold alien to me." Plautus expresses about the poet: "The poet seeks what is nowhere in all of the world, / And yet--somewhere--he finds it." In acknowledging these exceptions, she strengthens her point, showing the difference between the everyday and the more philosophical. Both epigrams meanwhile satisfy a reader on their own terms: they are worth contemplation.

Hamilton's chapters on Cicero, Julius Caesar, Catullus, Horace, Augustus, Virgil, and Juvenal are similarly structured with engaging quotations and close analyses explained in their larger context. Hamilton draws comparisons to Roman contemporaries and "the Roman Way." Hamilton's chapters offer snapshots of Rome at specific historical moments through memorable anecdotes and quotations that give a sense of each figure's character.

As a writer and historian, Hamilton is exceptionally clear. Her knowledge and erudition are deep, and yet her prose is direct and unadorned. The validity for her characterizations is supported by the ease with which she can discuss an entire field, from specific to general, from her own interpretations to those of others. The work has a clarity that one often finds in scholarship from the 1920s to the 1950s, which tends toward synthesis in discussions and specificity, uncluttered by qualifiers or tangents.

The final two paragraphs of _The Roman Way_ are a plea on behalf of the importance of history. Hamilton writes, "History repeats itself. The fact is a testimony to human stupidity. The saying has become a truism; nevertheless, the study of the past is relegated to the scholar and the school-boy. And yet it is really a chart for our guidance--no less than that." Hamilton's work, while suitable to scholars and students, appeals to a general reader who is interested in the lessons of the past. Hamilton's book invites the reader to venture into large fields of understanding and is filled with insights about human nature and personality.

Edith Hamilton, graecophile supreme, published this summary of life and culture in fifth- and sixth-century (B.C.) Greece (most importantly, Athens) in 1930. It remains a superb introduction to classical Greek life and culture.

Hamilton's forte was not detailed scholarship; it was insight at a more general level. In this book, she delineates the differing ways in which Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides excelled at tragedy, drawing illuminating parallels with Shakespeare to make her points. She shows how Aristophanes's comedy was echoed more than two millennia later by W.S. Gilbert, and, in the process, teaches us much about Aristophanes. Perhaps most important, she demonstrates the uniqueness of the Greek commitment to freedom and equality. At the same time, she devotes plenty of attention to the failings of Athens as it caused its own downfall by its pursuit of empire.

This is an excellent summary, and one that has inspired me to do a great deal of further reading. I can think of no higher praise for a book of this sort.

Edith Hamilton's "Mythology" tell the "Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" of classical mythology and this volume, first written in 1942, is now a timeless classic itself. This was the first book of mythology that I ever read and it is still the best. When Hamilton retells the love story of Cupid and Psyche or the tragedy of Agamemnon and his children, she does so with a full sense of what it meant when first told by Apuleius or Aeschylus. These are not children's tales, but the heroic legends and religious beliefs of the ancient Greeks. Furthermore, the illustrations by Steele Savage have the elegance of wood block prints, which, for all I know, is exactly what they are. I appreciate Hamilton's choice to avoid relying on Ovid, for while the "Metamorphoses" is the most comprehensive ancient text dealing with the classical myths, Ovid is an unbeliever. For Hamilton the writings of Homer, Hesiod and Pindar are more abbreviated in terms of providing details for the myths, but at least they take the tales seriously.
Another strength of the book is how she organizes the myths in her seven parts: (1) Covers the complete pantheon of deities, including the lesser gods of Olympus and Earth and the later Roman additions, as well as the earliest heroes. (2) Retells the various tales of love, between mortals and the gods or each other, along with the Quest for the Golden Fleece and other early heroic adventures. (3) Focuses specifically on the greatest heroes, Perseus, Theseus and Hercules, with Atalanta thrown in the mix in a curious but understandable editorial decision by Hamilton. (4) Puts together Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid into a giant epic stretching from the Judgment of Paris to the founding of Roman, with the Odyssey and the tragedies of Euripides. (5) Tells about the great mythological families, namely the House of Atreus (Agamemnon), the Royal House of Thebes (Oedipus and Antigone), and the Royal House of Athens. (6) Covers all of the lesser myths, most notably Midas. (7) Goes off in a new direction, providing a very brief introduction to Norse mythology that seems woefully inadequate given the comprehensive compilation of classical mythology that precedes it.
I looked over other possibilities as a basic textbook for an introductory mythology course, but I keep coming back to this one. If you want analysis of these myths, then you certainly want to look elsewhere. But if you want a solid retelling of virtually every tale of classical mythology, then Edith Hamilton's volume is still at the top of the list.

I believe, deep in my heart, that everyone who has attended high school in the past twenty to thirty years or so (in the United States, at least) owned a ratty, most likely used copy of this work at one time or another. This book has been on the required reading list of so many schools that nearly everyone has seen it, owned it, and opened it at least twice.

This is one only two such books I still have, 15 years out of high school: this and Strunk and White. This is a good book to have lying around the house, not because you need it every day, but because it is a great reference for things like settling family bets and cheating on the brown questions in Trivial Pursuit. Dig it out of the boxes in your basement sometime, under the term paper from freshman comp, and have a look over it. It really is a great reference guide to ancient mythos, it's easily accessible, and well written. Generations of high school teachers can't be all THAT wrong.

Well, except maybe for making us all read Moby Dick.

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.

Most inveterate readers, even those that consider themselves reasonably erudite, are all too often woefully lacking in Mythology 101. They may know that there may have been a labyrinth in which lurks a monster, but which monster, and where, and who killed it, is not on the tip of their tongue. In MYTHOLOGY, Edith Hamilton weaves together a tapestry of classical legend and mythos that attempts to makes sense out of man's earliest gropings in coming to terms with a universe that was at once totally unlike man himself and yet could be understood only imperfectly by analogies to himself.

This book covers only Greek and Roman classical mythology. True, there is a brief concluding chapter on Norse gods, but essentially Hamilton presents only those timeless tales that form the basis of Western civilization. Hamilton posits a world that must have seemed fierce and forbidden to those Greeks and Romans who undoubtedly saw themselves as the highest paragons of sophisticates that the world had ever known. We in the twentieth century have the knowledge of the microverse and the macroverse to tell us the difference between what we do know and what we can know. Two milennia ago, the Greeks and the Romans had the equivalent in their classical mythologies. It must have seemed finely ground truth that the forces in the world on high could not have differed markedly from the world on low. When they looked skyward at a high mountain peak and heard a deep rumbling and saw bright flashes of fire, it could have meant only the presence of Zeus to the Greeks or Jupiter to the Romans. It is no further surprise that they carefully constructed a pantheon of gods who resembled themselves in human foibles and virtues even if their powers were beyond comprehension. Hamilton's book is a catalog of these traits with which the ancients would have found themselves comfortably familiar.

Hamilton writes of these myths in seven parts, ranging from the greatest of gods to the lowest of gods to ordinary mortals who by their actions, were anything but ordinary. She begins each part with an informal but usefully chatty introduction that places that part into its proper historical/mythical/social context. She indicates the source of that myth, and where possible the work itself. Then Hamilton goes into a detailed summary of that myth in a way that reminds the reader of the later fairy tale, with which it is surely related. Her intention is not to present brand new material to the uninitiated, but to allow the reader to retread ground that might have slipped from memory. To such a reader, the list of names of gods, goddesses, and extraordinary mortals would not seem like a disconnected catalog of heavenly names from the Pantheonic Yellow pages, but more like a delightful stroll down memory lane that serves to remind the reader that we today may not be as wordly and knowledgable as the ancients surely considered themselves to be, but each of us, perhaps all of us, continually strive to explain the inexplicable in terms of the already familiar. Hamilton's MYTHOLOGY does this as well as any other book of its type.

I read this book on mythology WAY back when I was in 4th grade. Growing up in a somewhat difficult childhood, this book helped me make it through. I read and re-read this so many times! Edith Hamilton wrote the definitive book (s) on Mythology. I lost my book many years ago and was happy to find a Kindle edition just waiting for me to reacquaint myself with those gods and goddesses that I loved so much .

Another case of the oldest is the best. This is a 1942 version, which colors the interpretations of the myths in ways I find fascinating. Brilliant scholarship, universal appeal. I remember reading this as a very little girl. The timeliness and relevance to today's world is an astonishing reminder that the human conception of "god" was different during the age of the myths. The line between human and god blurs unpredictabley, as it should.

Edith Hamilton's "Mythology" is the most concise and readable compendium of its subject that I have ever happened upon (it's part of my required summer reading for AP English). While it's not a thriller, and the first few sections take some real endurance to get through, the reader is rewarded in the end. I recognize that the book is not meant to be exciting reading - it's a scholarly work - but some of the sections whose myths are only a page long are irritating to read. It was hard to stay focused when the characters changed so frequently. However, I sincerely enjoyed the myths of the great heroes, the Trojan War, the Aeneid, and the Orestia (which have a great deal more substance than the rest). "Mythology" has also piqued my interest in other classical works, which I hope to pursue on my own or in college - to date I have only read "Oedipus Rex" and "Antigone" by Sophocles. "Mythology" is probably the reader's best investment of time and effort with the greatest return in knowledge.

The author takes a nicely readable and informative look at the classical mythology of Ancient Greece. Readers come away with a strong understanding of the subject, everything from Hercules to Ovid, Cupid to the Gods, plus their loves, quarrels, etc. Readers also gain a strong knowledge of the heroic legends and fervent religious beliefs of the world's first semi-democracy (only male citizens voted). My favorite sections included the loves of the Gods, and the writings of Homer, though some say she was a bit brief with the latter. We studied this book as high school freshman, and while not converted into a fan (I prefer Greek philosophers, particularly Socrates), I did come away much better informed. Fervent aficionados of Greek mythology should enjoy this volume as well as books offering deeper analysis; other readers should be satisfied to start and stop here.

Edith Hamilton's timeless classic lives on well into the new milennium. This timeless work is the introduction to mythology for many, and it is a fine account. While not as in depth as some would like, I thin this is more accessible to the modern reader as opposed to the earlier Bulfinch's (which I also love).

All who are uninitiated to the world of the Greek and Roman gods will find this book indispensible when the topic turns to Greek mythology. Hamilton also does a fine job of pointing out the sources for her retellings, so the enthralled reader can then go to the originals in translation from various authors.

This book is a great primer on mythology. I think it is probably one of the oldest text-books in-print continuously since 1942 for good reason.

" Little is left of all this wealth of great art: the sculptures, defaced and broken into bits, have crumbled away; the buildings are fallen; the paintings gone forever; of the writings, all lost but a very few. We have only the ruin of what was; the world has had no more than that for well on for two thousand years; yet these few remains of the mighty structure have been a challenge and an incitement to men ever since and they are among our possessions today which we value as most precious." A passage taken at random (page 18 of my Norton edition) which illustrates the strength of this remarkable book. Edith Hamilton writes beautiful prose which has been a joy to many since her book was first published in 1930.

She writes for an audience unfamiliar with ancient Greek culture. Her attempt to indicate the effect that Pindar achieved is perhaps bound to fail, but it is a noble attempt. She fares a little better with the dramatists, though hindered in that we are little equipped to appreciate verse drama in translation. The best sections are those dealing with prose writers: Plato, Herodotus, Thucydides. An important proviso though is that Hamilton is not primarily an analyst. She strives to pass on her own love and appreciation, not a critique. As such her work has always been welcomed by lay readers new to the subject.

This beautifully written book, both lofty and inspiring, yet inculcates a number of falsities about ancient Greece, once commonly held. It downplays Greek religion and magical and mystical beliefs, apparantly under the impression that the philosophical outlook (which survives in written form more so than religious texts) was the norm. On the contrary, one of the universal influences on all ancient Greeks (and it is suspected, on emerging Christianity, was the Eleusian mysteries. Greek oracular shrines, too, were enormously popular throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. The book also overlooks the fact that the 'rationalist' school of philosophy initiated by Thales was an outcrop of Persian philosophical thinking.

Hamilton's book contrasts Persian (tyrannical and slave based) with Greek (freedom loving) society, oblivious that Greece was a slave based society (as most ancient cultures were) and that many Persians were fanatically loyal to their 'King of Kings'. Little is said of the oligarchic governments of poleis such as Thebes, Sparta or Corinth, nor of the excesses of Athenian democracy; the list of great names who succumbed to democratic reigns of terror is a sad one: Themistokles, Aristedes, Alkibiades, Socrates...

The subjective feeling is that the Greeks were fighting something similar to Nazism in their Persian Wars. Scholarship is yet another expression of the time in which it was written.

Yet of course all this is little in comparison to the book's great virtues. Don't read it as an example of penetrating scholarship: there is plenty of more up-to-date material freely available. Read it if you need to know why the ancient Greeks are important, have been in the past, and hopefully will always be.

Mythology is classicist Edith Hamilton's book on Greek, Roman and Norse mythology, illustrated by Steele Savage (no kidding). The bulk of the work is devoted to the Greek, and the Norse is mentioned only in passing. Myths are arranged thematically, not chronologically (except for the initial creation), which is disruptive to the flow of the work.

Hamilton does several things well. First, she gives history on the authors from whom these stories have descended, and differentiates between their styles. Second, she gives good insight into the character of the people of the time as well as into the character of the mythological figures. She obviously knows the material and cares about it.

Mythology reads like a history book. Many stories get wrapped up too quickly, and quite a few are told too simplistically. Many details are left out. The writing is juvenile at times, and paragraph flow is occasionally an issue. This is almost a Cliff's Notes on mythology. Ultimately, Hamilton makes most of these myths boring. Others, with too many details cut out, the reader will find hard to get into.

Mythology has some good things to offer, but on the whole, this is an inferior way to enjoy the myths. This book may be useful to some as a quick-reference guide, but that's about it.

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT

This extremely handy reference book is ideal for browsing, or for using as a tool to assist in your academic readings. Hamilton goes through all of the great Greek mythological figures and tales, and explains them, using an unusual, but very entertaining, mixture of prose and excerpts. The book is masterful because a complete layman can start reading it, and yet get a flavor for the actual original texts. At the same time, someone who's reading a more involved text can turn to the appropriate section in the book to get a clear grasp of any particular story quickly, and to figure out who an individual is. My 1953 edition has some very nice illustrations by Steele Savage that capture the flavor of ancient greek carvings, but with a simplicity and flair that can be found in the best comic books. There's no wonder that this book has survived for so long in a field that has as many authors as students; for it's purpose, it is simply too good to be improved upon.

Mythology is classicist Edith Hamilton's book on Greek, Roman and Norse mythology, illustrated by Steele Savage (no kidding). The bulk of the work is devoted to the Greek, and the Norse is mentioned only in passing. Myths are arranged thematically, not chronologically (except for the initial creation), which is disruptive to the flow of the work.

Hamilton does several things well. First, she gives history on the authors from whom these stories have descended, and differentiates between their styles. Second, she gives good insight into the character of the people of the time as well as into the character of the mythological figures. She obviously knows the material and cares about it.

Mythology reads like a history book. Many stories get wrapped up too quickly, and quite a few are told too simplistically. Many details are left out. The writing is juvenile at times, and paragraph flow is occasionally an issue. This is almost a Cliff's Notes on mythology. Ultimately, Hamilton makes most of these myths boring. Others, with too many details cut out, the reader will find hard to get into.

Mythology has some good things to offer, but on the whole, this is an inferior way to enjoy the myths. This book may be useful to some as a quick-reference guide, but that's about it.

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT

This extremely handy reference book is ideal for both browsing, or for using as a tool to assist a student in their readings. Hamilton goes through all of the great Greek mythological figures and tales, and explains them, using an unusual, but very entertaining, mixture of prose and excerpts. The book is masterful because a complete layman can start reading it, and yet get a flavor for the actual original texts. At the same time, someone who's reading a more involved text can turn to the appropriate section in the book to get a clear grasp of any particular story quickly, and to figure out who an individual is. My 1953 edition has some very nice illustrations by Steele Savage that capture the flavor of ancient greek carvings, but with a simplicity and flair that can be found in the best comic books. There's no wonder that this book has survived for so long in a field that has as many authors as students; for it's purpose, it is simply too good to be improved upon.

Hamilton's Mythology is frequently one of the first books on mythology that any young person encounters; in my case, I encountered it as a sophomore in high school in 1966. More than forty years later, I still find it fresh, informative, and entertaining.

Edith Hamilton assembles her accounts from many different sources, sometimes choosing one, sometimes combining several, and always giving her reasons for her choices. The introductions listing the sources therefore serve as suggested reading for the student who wants more detail. Her prose is lively and, at times, wryly humorous.

This isn't a book of intense, detailed scholarship, but it is an excellent introduction to the myths of the ancient Greeks and Romans and also a book to which the serious scholar of mythology can return time and time again for pleasure and perhaps even a fact or two that had escaped notice previously.

When I was in seventh and eighth grades, I took Latin. The teacher formed a Latin Club which was part of the Ohio Junior Classical League, and all Latin students were invited to attend the annual Ohio JCL Convention in Columbus, OH, each year. Several contests were always provided, and one year I was on our quiz bowl team. The subject that year was Roman mythology. The Romans, of course, basically borrowed their myths from the Greeks, giving them Latin instead of Greek names. My teacher either gave me a copy of Edith Hamilton's Mythology or suggested that I purchase one for myself in preparation for the quiz bowl contest.
The Greek-Roman myths draw from several widely different sources, including legends passed on by word of mouth from one generation to the next and literary dramas written by ancient playwrights. Edith Hamilton, a world-renowned classicist who was born in Germany, grew up in Ft. Wayne, IN, and graduated from Bryn Mawr, sought to provide some continuity to the stories. This book tells about the origins of the gods, the Graeco-Roman creation account, the earliest heroes, and many of the familiar stories like Cupid and Psyche, the Golden Fleece, Hercules, the Trojan War, the adventures of Odysseus and Aeneas, Midas, and other brief myths. There is also a short section at the end on Norse mythology. In addition, Hamilton authored two seminal works on ancient cultures, The Greek Way in 1930, and The Roman Way in 1932.
As I have said before, homeschoolers are divided over studying the ancient Greek and Roman myths. Some feel that doing so somehow gives honor to pagan deities. Others believe that one can study the myths solely from a historical standpoint without giving any credence to their gods and, in fact, by so doing can find a clear distinction between idols and the one true God. My own view tends toward the latter. Even before I took Latin, I had always been interested in ancient mythology and read quite a few books or encyclopedia articles on the subject. Yet, I did not become a pagan. However, be forewarned. The Greek and Roman myths do contain a lot of immorality, as the ancients were well-equipped in making their gods in their own fallible image. With that understanding, those who wish to learn more about the Greek and Roman gods and heroes will find an excellent source of reading and study in Edith Hamilton's Mythology.

This is a long standing work on mythology. The emphasis is on Greek and Roman tales, with a too brief discussion of Norse mythology. That some of the other reviewers mention it in the same breath as Bulfinch is testimony to the volume's value.

The work features a nice introductory essay to "set up" the discussion of Greek and Roman myths. There is also a rather unsatisfying brief introduction to the underdeveloped section on Norse mythology.

The first part features "The Gods, the Creation, and the Earliest Heroes." Here, Hamilton examines the array of gods, the stories of creation, and early heroes (such as Prometheus, Europa, and Polyphemus [hero??]). Part Two explores "Stories of Love and Adventure." In this segment, Hamilton considers Cupid and Psyche, and a series of tales of love (e.g., Pyramus and Thisbe, Orpheus and Eurydice, and so on). Also, the story of the Golden Fleece is retold.

Part Three summarizes "The Great Heroes before the Trojan War," including renderings of Perseus, Theseus, and the great Hercules. Part Four, as one might have anticipated, looks at "The Heroes of the Trojan War." Hamilton spends time on a number of figures and stories, such as Paris, the fall of Troy, Odysseus' post-Troy adventures, and the travails of Aeneas.

Part Five considers "Great Families of Mythology," such as the Houses of Atreus (think Agamemnon and Iphigenia), Thebes (Cadmus, Oedipus, Antigone), and Athens. Hamilton then moves to Part Six, where she summarizes the stories of "The Less Important Myths," including Midas, Glaucus and Scylla, inter alia.

Part Seven, as already noted, is a too brief coverage of "The Mythology of the Norsemen."

And, finally, a wonderfully helpful genealogy at the end (e.g., Ancestors of Perseus and Hercules, the House of Troy, and so on).

This is well written and shows considerable erudition. There are some problems in coverage as noted, but, in the end, this is still a welcome volume.

I came to love this book as a child, and I continue to enjoy it and benefit from it as a twentysomething adult. Understanding the root Greek and Roman stories can lead to a much fuller and richer understanding of Western culture, including literature, movies, art - even comic books and cartoons.
This a great collection of stories (with wonderful illustrations) for students and others interested in getting a sense of various myths and stories - large one like the search for the Golden Fleece, the Trojan War, the wanderings of Ulysses, the labors of Hercules, and smaller ones like King Midas, Orpheus, etc. This book recounts the stories, but it doesn't seek to interpret them. You'll have to dig deeper for that, and Hamilton helps you on your way by providing her sources.
If you enjoy this book, you may want to read the originals, such as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, the Argonautika; the works of the Greek playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides; and other works like Ovid's Metamorphoses and some the Norse and northern European epics and sagas - Beowulf, the Prose Edda, etc.
This isn't a definitive reference or mythological encyclopedia; it's a starting place for a really wonderful trip. I encourage you to give it a try - and to give it as a gift to young people in your life.

Hamilton's mythology deserves its place with Bulfinch's mythology as one of the primary anthologies of classical mythology. Although the book covers Greek/Roman myths thoroughly, the Norse myths are touched upon only briefly, which is why I have given the book four stars rather than five. Nonetheless, the quality of the book is excellent, and it is useful as a volume to be read for entertainment, and as a classroom primer (I myself have taught a Mythology class using it as the primary textbook). Hamilton's retellings are engaging, and her scholasticism is evident throughout--a small example is her use of the less popular Roman names for the primary gods (Jupiter, Juno, Mars, etc.) when they are found in myths of Roman origin. Hamilton also includes information at the beginning of most chapters about the source of the myth and its author, which is very helpful. She synthesizes the longer myths, such as the Trojan War (found in the Iliad) and the quest for the golden fleece in such a way as to highlight their major events and give the reader a flavor of their content. Overall, I have not encountered a better survey of classical mythology in one volume. Incidentally, if the reader desires more information on the Norse Myths, I recommend Kevin Crossley-Holland's Norse Myths, which is also an excellent volume.

I first read this book as a child and it was the first book I ever wore out. It relates all the key Graeco-Roman myths, with Norse myths treated perfunctorily at the end. Hamilton learned Greek and Latin as a little girl and wrote her books late in life; they read like the works of someone who spent a lifetime reading the classics for personal pleasure. Readers using this book as an introductory guide should be aware of Hamilton's prejudices: she prefers the Greeks to the Romans, and writers who believed in the stories to those who did not. As a result, you might be wrongly discouraged from classical authors such as Ovid (whom Hamilton seems to actively despise), even though Ovid's worldview is strikingly similar to our modern one and his writing vivid and enjoyable. But if you approach this book as an opinionated presentation by a genuine enthusiast, as opposed to an effort at scholarly objectivity, you will not likely regret being caught up in the passion the author brought to this material.

I first read this book when I was in high school. I loved it. No one told myths as well as the Greeks and Romans did and no one told Greek and Roman myths as well as Edith Hamilton did. If you don't buy into these stories, they still serve well as good literature. The book has all the main myths. In here you will find the story of the creation of the world and mankind, you will find details on each god and goddess and a list of the twelve Olympians. The stories included are famous such as the the Trojan War, the Odyssey, the Quest of the Golden Fleece (for fans of Ray Harryhausen's "Jason and the Argonauts)and other tales to delight the mind. The book is just long enough to give all of the main stories but not so long that it will bore the reader.

This book relates the myths of the Greeks, the Romans and the Norsemen. It is a fantastic opener to mythology in general. Since it relates the stories of mythology, there is some violence and sexual content, but it isn't graphic or explicit. The gods and goddesses of the Greeks and Romans were sometimes cruel and capricious, changing their favor as one changes their socks. Some of the stories are rather uplifting, and most of them I have heard before. In any case, if you like mythology, this is an excellent addition to your library.

Marvelous! This is, quite simply, the best book on ancient mythology available today. It has everything you could ask for; It's readable, erudite scholars tome this is not; it's comprehensive, covering every major myth you'll find allusions too in modern literature; it's not analytical, it presents the stories as they should be, beautiful in their simplicity, not awash in modern symbolism; and, most important of all, the book sparks an passion for mythology. After reading this book, instead of feeling like you know all there is to know about the ancients religion, you'll want to actually read Hamilton's original sources. It actually makes you want to read Hesiod, Homer, Herodotus, Euridpides, Sophocles, Virgil, and all the others in the great classical cannon. Truly, I can't recommend this book enough.

This book offers an excellent introduction to Greek mythology, which I found accessible and engaging. Hamilton surveys a wide breadth of the most important and classic stories from both Greek and Roman Mythology. I find myself referring back to the book from time to time, to understand a passing reference to mythology.
In her introduction, Hamilton demonstrates her grasp of the essential characteristics of Greek Mythology. She notes that the Greeks told stories that romanticized human life, rather than showing a grim or haunted Universe, as other early civilizations chose.
She also astutely captures how humanized their stories were: "In Greece alone in the ancient world people were preoccupied with the visible; they were finding the satisfaction of their desires in what was actually in the world around them. The sculptor watched the athletes contending in the games and he felt that nothing he could imagine would be as beautiful as those strong young bodies. So he made his statue of Apollo. [...] They had no wish to create some fantasy shaped in their own minds. All the art and all the thought of Greece centered in human beings."
Indeed! And the fruits of their labor are timeless stories that enrapture us.

This book is a great insight for those who are unsure of their Greek mythology background and whatnot. As an author of a Grecian mythology background book Split From Earth, this book was well versed in the usual myths and even some that are not so well known to those.
I would recommend this book to those who are more fond of dense reading as opposed to those who prefer illustrations and things of this nature.
Overall a well written book with basic research that was well thought out.

Everytime someone asks me for a book on greek mythology (which used to be a lot, since I worked in a bookstore), I pointed them directly to this book. This is a must-have for anyone remotely interested in Ancient Greece, although this book is enjoyable even if you aren't.

Hamilton hits on all the basics of Greek mythology, including theogony, heroic epics, and (my favorite) the love stories. Most books concerning Greek mythology only deal with certain things, or have less-than desirable synopses. Not to mention it's compiled in a small, cheap paperback (history books aren't cheap anymore, they're almost all published in hardcover and trade paperback).

One of my favorite things about this book- if I'm bored, i can just flip to one of my favorite stories. ALthough the book is in a type of chronological order, most of the stories can be read without reading the previous ones (although I highly recommend it, since they're all really good stories).

So if you've ever been interested in the historical version of The Trojan War (you aren't going to get it from the movies), if Pygmalion really fell in love with a statue, or all about Zeus' philandering and his wife's clever trickery to catch him in the act, buy this book :)

In this book, Edith Hamilton focuses on the poets, playwrights, and other writers of Rome from approximately 250 BC to 150 AD. She chooses to do this because of the rarity of historical data for the earlier part of that period.

I do not rate this book as highly as her The Greek Way, because she seems not to have the sympathy for Roman culture that she does for Greek culture. Also, she gives very little in the way of explanation as to how Greek culture became Roman culture, e.g., the transformation of the Greek gods into the Roman ones.

Still, this is probably the best summary of the Roman culture of this period for the casual reader; Hamilton's prose is always lucid and energetic.

The major fault of Edith Hamilton's classic Mythology also serves as its greatest strength. Hamilton edited this collection in a very conservative social mileu, and chose to edit out and play down much of the sex and violence one typically finds in the greek myths. However, that choice makes it an excellent selection to give teens and pre-teens their first introduction to the world of Zues, Perseus, Hercules, and the rest.
Several other intructory books on myths are available, but this remains the classic. Other less sanitized collections, however, are probably better for older readers.
The myths are well presented and organized. A short section on Norse myth, though prefunctory and not Hamilton's speciality, provides in theresting contrast and good fun for young readers. The essays included are good, though not the books greatest strength. They are nontheless worthwhile as they sketch out the complex interrelationships between the greek gods and heroes offering the reader substantial intellectual stimulation.

Nice overview for someone new to Greek mythology. It covers the major figures and stories, but for anyone who has studied mythology, it is overly simplistic. The stories have been "sanitized," possibly for a younger audience. For example, Aphrodite is said to have sprung from the foam, but Hamilton chooses to omit the Uranus story explaining why she came out of the foam in the first place. Those with a serious interest in Greek mythology should look elsewhere.

Although the book is a great source for numerous popular mythological stories it has some serious drawbacks. The book lacks personality as Hamilton gives a polite discourse upon the historical origins of the story being told. Also the writting is fairly simple and, at times, very impersonal as the writter often breaks up the flow of the story to add personal comentary on the thoughts of charachers or even to debate the historical origins and evaluate which popular version of the tale is better.

I first got a copy of "The Greek Way" when I was a boy. It settled my view of ancient Greece and affected my view of the contemporary world. My personal library has gone through turmoil, and when I sought to recreate a core of old friends, I bought once more "The Greek Way."
It sits now next to Alfred Zimmern's "The Greek Commonwealth," a quite different book but a great companion.
Fifth century Athens and all that it brought forth was a miracle. It is said that the tragedy of modern Greece is that it cannot forget its past and can never surpass it. Perhaps that is true of Western Civilization as a whole, but this remarkable woman, Edith Hamilton, reminds us of the wonder of it all.

I came to Hamilton's book with no background whatsoever in Greek (or any) Mythology. Being somewhat ashamed of this fact, I consulted the reviews here (at the store) and my local library to find Hamilton's Mythology.

I really did love reading this book. As breathtaking as it is, with so many names and alternate names to keep track of, I still thoroughly enjoyed the read. I wasn't submerged in the subject beyond my comfort level as a novice, but still found the content at hand extremely enlightening for the sake of analyzing western culture. Of course, there are myriad references to mythological stories and events even in modern literature and scholarship, so the overview I received from Hamilton helped me to understand some of those references that I recalled from my earlier readings in other subjects. I was appreciative of the fact that her book was as accessible as it was. Though others may have viewed her language as "dumbed-down", I thought her lack of condescension was very welcome, especially for my level of comprehension of the subject.

Hamilton's book has opened the doors, so to speak. I have since purchased copies of the Iliad and the Odyssey and am reading them now. I plan to look into other primary sources in the future.

This book is designed more for the beginner in Mythology. I would assume it was for junior high to high school level. It is written on a level a child can understand. If you are looking for a college help, it may not be as in depth as you wish, but if it is for enjoyment, introduction, or less than college level, it is good reading.

My English teacher insists that the youth of America is losing culture. So, it is her tradition to assign this fairly large book for reading, so that we are all somewhat versed in the basics of Greek mythology and can recognize the various allusions to it in literature.

What I thought would be a torturous experience turned out to be a rather enjoyable one. I found most of the stories to be well-told and extremely interesting. Edith Hamilton makes sure to leave no detail untold in her accounts of the various lives and actions of the ancient Greek gods and goddesses.

It is over a year later, and I still use this book as a reference for any sort of literary allusion or reference to Greek mythology. So for those considering this book for pure reference purposes, the book contains a massive index to help you find just about any and every character in Greek mythology.

While I agree with some reviewers that the end section on Norse mythology is out of place, it wasn't necessarily poorly written as some claim.

Overall, an excellent purchase for anyone who reads literature, or is just interested in the ancient Greek myths.

"The Roman Way" was a useful introduction into the famous figures of Roman literature, and the mindset of the people who built a great empire. Although sweeping generalizations about the Romans might prove irritating to anyone already very familiar with classical history, I think Hamilton still has plenty of insight about Roman culture--how it was at once noble and brutal, disciplined and imaginative.

This book was a requirement for my AP class, and it definitely served its purpose. I do know that you should find the latest edition because it has all of the helpful stuff like author bios and the like. This collection of myhtologies is like cliff notes for nearly every mythological story imaginable.This means that if you truly want detailed informatioon, this may not be the correct purchase for you. For all school/educational purposes, this collection is well equipped to aid you in your endeavors.
Some may say that it does not give accurate accounts of certain events, but need i remind you that in mythology, there is no corrrect or set standard of a story. In mythology there are constantly changing elements, none of which transform the meaning of the story. This set of stories by Edith Hamilton actually tells the original/most famous version of the tale, then gives alternate endings/summaries of other versions.

Good Luck!

Edith Hamilton's Mythology provides a large survey of almost every myth imaginable, but this is also where the text is lacking. Many of the tales are so abbreviated that they tend to read more like reference pieces than actual stories. As a high school English teacher, I found that my students found Hamilton's book challenging. They often did not understand the myth due to the lack of detail (the abbreviation) or due to the diction she chose in order to express the myth. Hamilton's Mythology is an excellent source and I will continue to use it, but if you're looking for a relatively easy read of Greek myths in story form, I would recommend Bernard Evslin's Heroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths. My students had no problem with this novel and I found it an extremely enjoyable read.

ISBN 0316341142 - Mythology is a bit like Pokemon to me - I can't remember all those names and I certainly can't remember who's got what powers. I had hope that this book would help me start to remember at least some of it, but it seems to have made things a little worse.

Author Edith Hamilton retells various Greek and Romans myths, in her own words. Most gods are referred to by both names which, at least for me, only adds to the confusion. On top of that, Hamilton's writing style doesn't appeal to me. I had to read and re-read sentences, not because they were complex and confusing but because my mind would actually wander in the middle of sentences - not a good indicator.

Clearly, mythology is a matter of taste, but if you're anything like me - a bit ignorant on the topic and trying to correct that - this book is a good reference, something to open and rely on for info, but not a good read.

- AnnaLovesBooks

If you have an interest in mythology, and want to know more on the subject, here is a good place to start. Edith Hamilton provides a comprehensive and detailed account of Greek, Roman and Norse mythology.

This older hardback edition is the one I grew up with, and I was delighted to recently add it to our own permanent collection. The stories are well-written and engaging for younger readers, and the illustrations are just as cool as I remembered. With the recent resurgence in mythological fiction, it's great to offer a classic reading to my family.

I would say that this contains all the mythology that is important to know for the lay person. These are the gods that pop up all over the place in a lot of literature. The section on Norse mythology is somewhat lacking. By now most literate people would consider this one a classic.

If you're a beginning, Edith Hamilton's "Mythology" is a great book. It provides a summarized version of nearly every significant Greek or Roman myth. Everything from Odysseus' journey to mere descriptions of all minor characters in this vast subject. However, its only good for beginners.
Having a brief background in mythology prior to this book, I found it fun and disappointing. It was a good 400-page read, but the writing lacks. Hamilton's interest to keep things short makes the myth sometimes hard to understand and blazingly fast. While the latter isn't bad, if you're interested in reading the details for yourself, this isn't the right book.
With the mediocre writing of Hamilton's (she uses "stuff" to describe elements in mythology, but that's just one problem), Mythology provides a decent overview of everything people need to know for the Greek and Roman theology.
Another bothersome feature this book had was its chapter on Norse Mythology. It seemed that Edith Hamilton got bored of writing this book and jabbed the Norse Mythology section in to appropriately title the book. It lacks in any depth. Additionally, her narratives show that her enthusiasm for writing this book was nil.
Once again, if you're a beginner and interested in mythology, buy the book. If not, you're better of with Bulfinch's Mythology or individual tales (Homer's Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid).

The parallels between the Bible and many of the stories in classic mythology are truly fascinating. The chicken and the egg question is not my goal here, but I must say that the lines can certainly be fuzzy if one does not have a solid foundation on which to stand. This book is a classic in the realm of mythology and is truly a good reference to have around.

Edith Hamilton explains, in beautiful, flowing prose, the context of the ancient world in which the Greeks appeared , in order to compare and highlight the vast difference between their culture and thinking from those of ANY previous peoples. This background and setting of that ancient world is important to understand in order to fully comprehend and appreciate the Greek accomplishments. The thought and "way" of the Greeks is so incredible, that each time their works are brought to light, a renaissance from darkness appears once again. ha

Being a mystery writer, I find that reading a wide variety of materials assists me in my work. Edith Hamilton's MYTHOLOGY is one of those books I keep close by my desk as I am writing. In MYTHOLOGY, Ms. Hamilton presents an excellent introduction to the topic you expect. I've also found that it comes in handy as a reference work. Excellent book.

Edith Hamilton's "Mythology" tell the "Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" of classical mythology and this volume, first written in 1942, is now a timeless classic itself. This was the first book of mythology that I ever read and it is still the best. When Hamilton retells the love story of Cupid and Psyche or the tragedy of Agamemnon and his children, she does so with a full sense of what it meant when first told by Apuleius or Aeschylus. These are not children's tales, but the heroic legends and religious beliefs of the ancient Greeks. Furthermore, the illustrations by Steele Savage have the elegance of wood block prints, which, for all I know, is exactly what they are. I appreciate Hamilton's choice to avoid relying on Ovid, for while the "Metamorphoses" is the most comprehensive ancient text dealing with the classical myths, Ovid is an unbeliever. For Hamilton the writings of Homer, Hesiod and Pindar are more abbreviated in terms of providing details for the myths, but at least they take the tales seriously.
Another strength of the book is how she organizes the myths in her seven parts: (1) Covers the complete pantheon of deities, including the lesser gods of Olympus and Earth and the later Roman additions, as well as the earliest heroes. (2) Retells the various tales of love, between mortals and the gods or each other, along with the Quest for the Golden Fleece and other early heroic adventures. (3) Focuses specifically on the greatest heroes, Perseus, Theseus and Hercules, with Atalanta thrown in the mix in a curious but understandable editorial decision by Hamilton. (4) Puts together Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid into a giant epic stretching from the Judgment of Paris to the founding of Roman, with the Odyssey and the tragedies of Euripides. (5) Tells about the great mythological families, namely the House of Atreus (Agamemnon), the Royal House of Thebes (Oedipus and Antigone), and the Royal House of Athens. (6) Covers all of the lesser myths, most notably Midas. (7) Goes off in a new direction, providing a very brief introduction to Norse mythology that seems woefully inadequate given the comprehensive compilation of classical mythology that precedes it.
I looked over other possibilities as a basic textbook for my Classical Greek & Roman Mythology course (I know, it sounds redundant and repetitive to me too), but I selected this one as my basic text. If you want analysis of these myths, then you certainly want to look elsewhere. But if you want a solid retelling of virtually every tale of classical mythology, then Edith Hamilton's volume is still at the top of the list as far as I concerned.

This Is One I First Read In High School And Have Returned To Often.Dame Edith's Reference Book Is The Definative Encyclopedia Of Mythology.
This Is A Book That Can Be Read By Lovers Of Adventure At Any Age.Arranged In Interesting And Fun Chapters Starting With The Beginning Of The World Where Mother Earth And Father Heaven Give Birth To The Titans,To The Birth Of THEIR Children And How They Took Over The World When The Twelve Major Gods And Goddesses Overpowered Them,To The Forming Of Man And The Gift Of Woman To Him.From There It Branches To The Everyday Heros And The Children Of The Gods-Jason And The Argonauts,Hercules,Perseus And His Battle With Medusa,And Many More.
All Of These Wonderous Stories Are Here To Enjoy Over And Over And Over Again.And You Can Find And Love Them In This Volume.It Even Includes Their Roman Counterparts And An Introduction To Egyptian Mythology As Well.You Won't Be Bored,And You Will Never Be Tired Of Them.
What The Magic Of Reading Is Made Of.

Long ago in pre-history, 1973 to be exact, in the age of vinyl records, before the Internet and Play Station and Cable T.V. and the almost insulting stuff that gets peddled to kids these days as entertainment, an acne faced 13 year old bought this book because, in those days, the cover had this guy holding a sword and a severed head on the front, (Perseus holding the head of Medusa), and I thought COOL! And I fell in love with these wonderful stories. I still have that much worn, much loved, much dog-eared paperback on my book shelves that later in life inspired me to read other myths of other times and places, which lead me to James Joyce, Flannery O'Connor and T.C.Boyle and a life-long head over heels romance with literature. Edith Hamilton's book is a good beginning for anyone at any age to begin, or continue, the remarkable adventure that is human story telling.

Nice overview for someone new to Greek mythology. It covers the major figures and stories, but for anyone who has studied mythology, it is overly simplistic. The stories have been "sanitized," possibly for a younger audience. For example, Aphrodite is said to have sprung from the foam, but Hamilton chooses to omit the Uranus story explaining why she came out of the foam in the first place. Those with a serious interest in Greek mythology should look elsewhere.

Although the book is a great source for numerous popular mythological stories it has some serious drawbacks. The book lacks personality as Hamilton gives a polite discourse upon the historical origins of the story being told. Also the writting is fairly simple and, at times, very impersonal as the writter often breaks up the flow of the story to add personal comentary on the thoughts of charachers or even to debate the historical origins and evaluate which popular version of the tale is better.

I first got a copy of "The Greek Way" when I was a boy. It settled my view of ancient Greece and affected my view of the contemporary world. My personal library has gone through turmoil, and when I sought to recreate a core of old friends, I bought once more "The Greek Way."
It sits now next to Alfred Zimmern's "The Greek Commonwealth," a quite different book but a great companion.
Fifth century Athens and all that it brought forth was a miracle. It is said that the tragedy of modern Greece is that it cannot forget its past and can never surpass it. Perhaps that is true of Western Civilization as a whole, but this remarkable woman, Edith Hamilton, reminds us of the wonder of it all.

I came to Hamilton's book with no background whatsoever in Greek (or any) Mythology. Being somewhat ashamed of this fact, I consulted the reviews here (at the store) and my local library to find Hamilton's Mythology.

I really did love reading this book. As breathtaking as it is, with so many names and alternate names to keep track of, I still thoroughly enjoyed the read. I wasn't submerged in the subject beyond my comfort level as a novice, but still found the content at hand extremely enlightening for the sake of analyzing western culture. Of course, there are myriad references to mythological stories and events even in modern literature and scholarship, so the overview I received from Hamilton helped me to understand some of those references that I recalled from my earlier readings in other subjects. I was appreciative of the fact that her book was as accessible as it was. Though others may have viewed her language as "dumbed-down", I thought her lack of condescension was very welcome, especially for my level of comprehension of the subject.

Hamilton's book has opened the doors, so to speak. I have since purchased copies of the Iliad and the Odyssey and am reading them now. I plan to look into other primary sources in the future.

Ms. Hamilton is a world-renowned classicist who was born in Dresden, Germany. She put this book together hoping the reader would be able to distinguish between the different writers of Greek Mythology while gaining knowledge of these classic myths.

Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes is organized into seven parts beginning with an introduction to Greek Mythology and to the Greek and Roman writers. This follows with The Gods, the Creation and the Earliest Heroes--Stories of Love and Adventure--The Great Heroes Before the Trojan War--The Heroes of the Trojan War--The Great Families of Mythology--The Less Important Myths and the Mythology of the Norsemen. Before each story, Ms. Hamilton adds an explanation of why she chose that particular version by that writer.

What I like most about this book is that it is organized so that it is easy to read and understand. This is a great introduction to the Greek Myths and written in a style that makes it entertaining and not a chore to read. The only downside might be that this may not be the right book for those who want a more in-depth study of Greek Mythology, but for me it was an excellent introduction. I am giving it a high score because I feel it accomplishes what it was meant to do--introduce the Greek Myths to people who may not be familiar with them. Highly recommended!

This book is designed more for the beginner in Mythology. I would assume it was for junior high to high school level. It is written on a level a child can understand. If you are looking for a college help, it may not be as in depth as you wish, but if it is for enjoyment, introduction, or less than college level, it is good reading.

My English teacher insists that the youth of America is losing culture. So, it is her tradition to assign this fairly large book for reading, so that we are all somewhat versed in the basics of Greek mythology and can recognize the various allusions to it in literature.

What I thought would be a torturous experience turned out to be a rather enjoyable one. I found most of the stories to be well-told and extremely interesting. Edith Hamilton makes sure to leave no detail untold in her accounts of the various lives and actions of the ancient Greek gods and goddesses.

It is over a year later, and I still use this book as a reference for any sort of literary allusion or reference to Greek mythology. So for those considering this book for pure reference purposes, the book contains a massive index to help you find just about any and every character in Greek mythology.

While I agree with some reviewers that the end section on Norse mythology is out of place, it wasn't necessarily poorly written as some claim.

Overall, an excellent purchase for anyone who reads literature, or is just interested in the ancient Greek myths.

"The Roman Way" was a useful introduction into the famous figures of Roman literature, and the mindset of the people who built a great empire. Although sweeping generalizations about the Romans might prove irritating to anyone already very familiar with classical history, I think Hamilton still has plenty of insight about Roman culture--how it was at once noble and brutal, disciplined and imaginative.

This book was a requirement for my AP class, and it definitely served its purpose. I do know that you should find the latest edition because it has all of the helpful stuff like author bios and the like. This collection of myhtologies is like cliff notes for nearly every mythological story imaginable.This means that if you truly want detailed informatioon, this may not be the correct purchase for you. For all school/educational purposes, this collection is well equipped to aid you in your endeavors.
Some may say that it does not give accurate accounts of certain events, but need i remind you that in mythology, there is no corrrect or set standard of a story. In mythology there are constantly changing elements, none of which transform the meaning of the story. This set of stories by Edith Hamilton actually tells the original/most famous version of the tale, then gives alternate endings/summaries of other versions.

Good Luck!

Edith Hamilton's Mythology provides a large survey of almost every myth imaginable, but this is also where the text is lacking. Many of the tales are so abbreviated that they tend to read more like reference pieces than actual stories. As a high school English teacher, I found that my students found Hamilton's book challenging. They often did not understand the myth due to the lack of detail (the abbreviation) or due to the diction she chose in order to express the myth. Hamilton's Mythology is an excellent source and I will continue to use it, but if you're looking for a relatively easy read of Greek myths in story form, I would recommend Bernard Evslin's Heroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths. My students had no problem with this novel and I found it an extremely enjoyable read.

ISBN 0316341142 - Mythology is a bit like Pokemon to me - I can't remember all those names and I certainly can't remember who's got what powers. I had hope that this book would help me start to remember at least some of it, but it seems to have made things a little worse.

Author Edith Hamilton retells various Greek and Romans myths, in her own words. Most gods are referred to by both names which, at least for me, only adds to the confusion. On top of that, Hamilton's writing style doesn't appeal to me. I had to read and re-read sentences, not because they were complex and confusing but because my mind would actually wander in the middle of sentences - not a good indicator.

Clearly, mythology is a matter of taste, but if you're anything like me - a bit ignorant on the topic and trying to correct that - this book is a good reference, something to open and rely on for info, but not a good read.

- AnnaLovesBooks

If you have an interest in mythology, and want to know more on the subject, here is a good place to start. Edith Hamilton provides a comprehensive and detailed account of Greek, Roman and Norse mythology.

This older hardback edition is the one I grew up with, and I was delighted to recently add it to our own permanent collection. The stories are well-written and engaging for younger readers, and the illustrations are just as cool as I remembered. With the recent resurgence in mythological fiction, it's great to offer a classic reading to my family.

I would say that this contains all the mythology that is important to know for the lay person. These are the gods that pop up all over the place in a lot of literature. The section on Norse mythology is somewhat lacking. By now most literate people would consider this one a classic.

If you're a beginning, Edith Hamilton's "Mythology" is a great book. It provides a summarized version of nearly every significant Greek or Roman myth. Everything from Odysseus' journey to mere descriptions of all minor characters in this vast subject. However, its only good for beginners.
Having a brief background in mythology prior to this book, I found it fun and disappointing. It was a good 400-page read, but the writing lacks. Hamilton's interest to keep things short makes the myth sometimes hard to understand and blazingly fast. While the latter isn't bad, if you're interested in reading the details for yourself, this isn't the right book.
With the mediocre writing of Hamilton's (she uses "stuff" to describe elements in mythology, but that's just one problem), Mythology provides a decent overview of everything people need to know for the Greek and Roman theology.
Another bothersome feature this book had was its chapter on Norse Mythology. It seemed that Edith Hamilton got bored of writing this book and jabbed the Norse Mythology section in to appropriately title the book. It lacks in any depth. Additionally, her narratives show that her enthusiasm for writing this book was nil.
Once again, if you're a beginner and interested in mythology, buy the book. If not, you're better of with Bulfinch's Mythology or individual tales (Homer's Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid).

The parallels between the Bible and many of the stories in classic mythology are truly fascinating. The chicken and the egg question is not my goal here, but I must say that the lines can certainly be fuzzy if one does not have a solid foundation on which to stand. This book is a classic in the realm of mythology and is truly a good reference to have around.

Edith Hamilton explains, in beautiful, flowing prose, the context of the ancient world in which the Greeks appeared , in order to compare and highlight the vast difference between their culture and thinking from those of ANY previous peoples. This background and setting of that ancient world is important to understand in order to fully comprehend and appreciate the Greek accomplishments. The thought and "way" of the Greeks is so incredible, that each time their works are brought to light, a renaissance from darkness appears once again. ha

Being a mystery writer, I find that reading a wide variety of materials assists me in my work. Edith Hamilton's MYTHOLOGY is one of those books I keep close by my desk as I am writing. In MYTHOLOGY, Ms. Hamilton presents an excellent introduction to the topic you expect. I've also found that it comes in handy as a reference work. Excellent book.

This book is likely the best introduction to Greek and Roman mythology. Hamilton does a wonderful job of providing thumbnail sketches of the highlights of these early explanations for the phenomena observed by the inhabitants of the Classical Mediterranean. It is well organized and clearly written. I highly recommend this book, especially for the parents of young children who wish to introduce their progeny to the enduring stories of the West.

This is a wondrous collection of the best stories ever. Her
translations are simple and in everyday language. You can dive
in at any point, immerse yourself in timeless tales of love,
honor, jealousy, and passion, and return refreshed and wiser.
These are tales of ancient themes and timeless values.
Unlike most of today's stories these will never be outdated,
boring, or pretentious.
Enjoy!

The author has explained Greek mythology as well as Norse mythology. We also realize how Romans lacked mythology they were more of a warriors. It is an insightful book that i enjoyed reading and learned a lot from it. It explains roots of western culture as Greek mythology. One must read it but i think the actual stories are the once people must read also. I read Homer's stories and Hamilton's analysis of them are right on.

Overall, "Mythology" is a decent introduction to Greco-Roman mythology, and when I read it in the third grade or so I loved it and it gave me a good base of knowledge. However, this year I had to study it in English class and just about memorize it, and my opinions about it have changed. This book is meant to be read as a textbook, looking things up when one feels it neccesary. That is how I originally read it. By no means should this dry, utilitarian tome be read cover-to-cover. Hamilton's writing style is concise and she gets her point across, but one cannot read more than one story at a time without nearly falling asleep. Reading Hamilton is a far cry from reading Homer or Sophocles. The most positive aspect of the book is its sheer comprehensiveness- Hamilton covers the gods and demigods thoroughly, as well as a large number of mythical tales. If you manage to force yourself through the whole of this book, you will gather from it quite a lot of information.

The title might lead you to believe that this book is a comprehensive look at mythology in general, but don't be fooled. In Hamilton's eyes, no culture or mythology is worth a second thought except that of the Greeks and Romans. She accuses all pre-greek religions of glorifying pain and sacrafice, which is not true at all. She says of the religions of the ancient world, "Mankind's chief hope of escaping the wrath of whatever divinities were then abroad lay in some magical rite, senseless but powerful, or in some offering made at the cost of pain and grief." She belittles the lore of Egypt and Mesopotamia, calling the Egyptian goddess with the head of a cat "a rigid figure...suggesting inflexible, inhuman cruelty." It was the goddess of music! She describes the Greeks themselves, in pre-hellenistic times, as living "a savage life, ugly and brutal." She says of Greek mythology, "what the myths show is how high they [the greeks] had risen above the ancient filth...". Disgusting. How dare she call the mythology of the Egyptians and the Assyrians "filth"? She does mention Norse mythology in her book, but gives so tiny a glimpse of it that she ought not to have included it at all. She doesn't bother to go into any detail at all about the Norse gods, and ignores almost the entire Volsung saga, telling only the stories of Signy and Sigurd. She tells us nothing of Freja's disturbing obtainment of Brisingamen, the dwarf-wrought necklace, or of the ring of Andvari that brought such misfortune upon its wearers. She does cover the Creation and Ragnarok, though not in much detail.

This book should have been entitled "Greco-Roman Mythology" or "The Mythology of the Greeks and Romans".

This is simply a good old-fashioned history of Greek culture, and Mr. Hamilton is not at all apologetic for the constant praise she gives to the Greeks. Many other reviewers have pointed out the strengths of this book, and they are all accurate. However, this book is more than an ode to the Greeks. It is also a celebration of history. "It is ever to be borne in mind that though the outside of human life changes much, the inside changes little, and the lesson book we cannot graduate from is human experience." This book goes a long way toward capturing a crucial part of our human experience, and I highly recommend it to anyone who agrees with Ms. Hamilton on the primacy of history. The book is crucial for anyone who needs help understand human nature, and that should be all of us.

This text got me through high school and college courses in mythology. The stories are detailed enough that you get what you need without information overload. I highly recommend this to everyone interested in Greek mythology, you won't be able to put it down!

This book is an expansive introduction to the most important Greek myths. For the reader needing a re-fresher or hoping to familiarize himself/herself with somehow still culturally relevant ancient Greek mythology, this book is prefect. Presented in an entertaining manner, going into just enough detail to maintain interest, and covering just enough material so it is remembered, this book makes for great light reading.

The author accumulated the legends from authors such as Ovid and Hesiod, and then organized them into her own words. I really enjoyed it since the text was readable and I wasn't subjected to huge amounts of quotations from the original authors. I think I got more out of this book than if I had read the original works. Summarized very nicely.

Marlon Gunn
2/2002
the store.com---review of Edith Hamilton's book Mythology
Basically, I'm a new reader of this book and I love it already. Greek mythology is one of my favorite types of books to read, except for horror books, however. Anyway, what Edith Hamilton does with this book is simply amazing. She has such an uncanny style that separates her from other various writers. She explains the Gods and their purposes in life like she knew them, as if they were real people. I sense that she had a true "knack" for Greek mythology.
Mythology, especially ancient Greek, is at the utmost, my favorite types of adventure-like books. To me, I consider Greek myths adventurous. When I learn something new, about something that I've already read about, I can somehow picture the different deities fighting in battles and sorts. Edith Hamilton makes this come to mind when you read her books. Therefore, buy the book Mythology, or any other books that she's the author of---you won't be disappointed. 2/2002 (20)