Anyone have a good book to recommend about greek mythology? Visiting and sailing for a few weeks and would enjoy some good kindle reading on the trip. Would also love one about art history too!
Posted by
Green Bay
21137 posts
Edith Hamilton's "Mythology" has been around since 1942, a classic.
http://www.amazon.com/Mythology-Edith-Hamilton-ebook/dp/B00852YXU8
Posted by
Louisville, KY, USA
257 posts
I've read the Hamilton and the Graves and the Bullfinch but my favorite by far is The Complete Idiot's Guide to Classical Mythology, 2nd Edition. It is very well written and offers multiple stories for the same myth. I recommend it to my students in theatre and I highly recommend it if you're traveling to Greece.
Posted by
Philadelphia, PA, USA
3397 posts
I'm among those who'd find the Edith Hamilton book a snooze these days, it's 75 years old at least, and really really dated. There are wonderful title available on Kindle that will stir you for ideas And thrilling prose style:
• SAILING the WINE-DARK SEA: Why the Greeks Matter -- Thos. Cahill 2003 .. A prize-winner & my top choice for overview of Ancient Greece (and of course it includes tons about its religion and gods and rituals
• THE KING MUST DIE -- Mary Renault. Acknowledged master at making the Greek legends come to life in fiction; this one involves the Gods, the Minotaur, Theseus, Ares, Athena, the works -- but its in a thrilling tale of Crete and love and passion & fights, a page-turner that will grab u... and at the postnote (don't peek!) will astonish u with its fidelity to the classic mythology legends.
• The PRIEST FAINTED - Catherine Davidson - a Greek-american woman's odyssey thru modern/ancient greece; a "Novel" that's actually memoir -- each section begins with a famous tale of a woman in mythology, then a modern happening that's a twist.
+++++++++++++++++++++
ART BOOK on kindle? Difficult, because of graphics/photos. This is one I'd urge u to buy on amazon & find room in your backpack for -- only 8x5.5", 12 oz shipping weight --- an 249 plates/30 in color! GREEK ART by John Boardman is the recognized masterpiece in the field, used in Art History everywhere for decades, now out of print but no matter for you!! I would recommend getting the Revised edition of 1973 or 78... The best size AND has illustrations; the "Praeger" reprint, no pix. There are gobs available thru Amazon for $3- $8 used. Snap one up. You'll cherish it on your shelf, afterwards.
Posted by
Auburn, Alabama
1064 posts
So, a book that is 75 years old is considered dated. In that case, Greek mythology must really seem ancient. : > )
Posted by
Philadelphia, PA, USA
3397 posts
No Roy, I realize you are joking -- but I didn't mean that at all, it's just that Hamilton was a scholar formed very much in the 19th Century ... the stately pace of her prose is certainly lucid, but perhaps today's reader (Kindle era) might want to look at some others. A wise person samples a book first. Two of my favorite books of Greek history are The GREEKS by Kitto, an oxford Don of 1920s, and The PElican Book of Greek History ... both of them venerable works ... but not for everyone.