Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes, 75th Anniversary Illustrated Edition

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I wish I had found this book sooner, I liked the books by Robert Graves, The Greek Myths vol 1 and The Greek Myths vol 2, and remember at the time being amazed and dazzled, especially with the footnotes where there were so many. 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. When I took a folklore course at Uni, it was still considered a standard book for teaching, and I greeted it like the old friend it was. I like to bring other sources (the main one being Gods and Heroes by Korwin Briggs) to class to do a bit of a show ‘n’ tell and I also love inundating my students with suggested viewing and reading related to our current studies.

And I am one of those people who will flip back to the family tree or index pages to refresh my memory - which is probably one of the many reasons why it took me so long to read this. Quoted works are cited (informally) and follow fair use laws (including public domain and less than 10%/500 words). This 75th anniversary illustrated edition does have colour plates but I don't find them as detailed or compelling as those in our older edition.Her father began teaching her Latin when she was seven years old and soon added Greek, French and German to her curriculum.

At times, she comes across as a woman on a mission - her conviction about the importance of these myths in Western culture is so passionate that she is determined to spread the message to a broader audience. Finally, it should be noted that Hamilton's retelling of the Greek myths is based solely on her study of the classical literature - she had never been to Greece, and had no archaeological experience. She never completed her doctoral degree but she did become an "inspiring and respected head of the school for twenty six years" (bringing new ideas to an old system).Hector’s young Son, Astyanax and Hecuba’s daughter, Polyxena are murdered after the defeat of Troy, Tantalus kills his own son and feeds him to the Gods, Atreus feeds his brother his own children… you get the point! But that's what happens when you trust the accuracy of Hollywood, Marvel, and Percy Jackson as applied to REAL mythology. I don't really mind if she disses Hercules, but her gratuitous dissing of my boy Ovid really didn't win her any points.