The Greek myths

Product Information

Questo voluminoso libro è uno studio sistematico dell'evoluzione della mitologia presso l'antica cultura greca. Each myth is presented in the voice of a narrator writing under the Antonines, such as Plutarch or Pausanias, with citations of the classical sources. The literary quality of these retelling's is generally praised. Each chapter is about 50% myth and 50% Robert Graves' analysis of the myth. Robert Graves believes in some really weird things, like that pre-Hellenic Greece was a matriarchal society that believed in a "Mother Goddess" or "Triple Goddess" that was common to all Eastern Mediterranean worship. Most of the rapes of early Greek myth can be explained by the invading Hellenes conquering goddess shrines, according to Graves. Graves also claims that in pre-Hellenic Greece, kings' rules were limited to solar cycles (such as one year, or 'great years' of 4 or 19 years, when the moon and sun are in greater alignment), and rule was divided between a sacred king and a 'tanist' (an earthly king), who were often in competition. And at the end of their reign, the sacred king had to be sacrificed (there was apparently a lot of human sacrifice in pre-Hellenic Greece); eventually, substitutes were found for the king (such as his children). Why are there often sets of 350? (Helios's herd of 350 cattle; Heracles losing 350 men of Cleonae in battle). Because 350 represents the number of days in the Egyptian calendar besides the 5 devoted to the gods (and a year was the length of a king's term in office).

Why are there so many sets of 50 siblings? (The Danaids, the Nereids, and the Menae are three examples). Because there were colleges of 50 priestesses, who represented something like the 50 months of a "great year" of a king's term in office... yep. One last comment, I found it interesting to think about whether or not these myths influenced morality - or at least tried to influence it. Certain stories seemed to be pushing a certain point of view (as many stories do) on the reader. Just some food for thought. The book of essays is selected from "Myths of the World", which has been compiled and written by famous mythologists. Credo che nessuna parola in nessuna lingua possa/debba esprimere un concetto ma anche, veltronianamente, il suo contrario. Casomai la versione colta, direi unica, dell' utilizzo di questa parola è (vedi sotto) come rafforzativa; è "volgare" (nel senso di non colto), se non sbagliato, l'utilizzo in forma negativa, perché implica l'accettazione nel tempo di un errore di interpretazione, da parte di chi colto non è, di una espressione, al contrario, colta, in combinazione con una negazione sottintesa. In poche parole credo sia accettabile, solo per prassi, nel parlato, e in una sola forma; ma credo si possa altresì concludere che sia sbagliato nello scritto. These women were not only the victims of this heinous crime but they also got to be punished for it by the ever jealous Hera.

One of the saddest pictures in the world - a favourite bookshop in the process of getting demolished. These beliefs actually would account for a lot of the repeating oddities of Greek mythology. For example, why are there so many examples of women laying with a god and with their husband at around the same time and then bearing twins, one divine and one mortal? For example, Heracles and Iphicles, Castor and Polydeuces, and Eteocles and Polyneices are just three of many examples. Graves explains this as being the sacred king and his tanist. Robert Graves “The Greek Myths” is a wonderful resource for learning about the myths of ancient Greece. Originally published in 1955, it was updated for the last time in 1960. There are two volumes, but they are often available in a single book, which makes it easier for the reader to handle. Graves does a wonderful job of making the myths easy to read and understand, and discusses the variations which often occurred in the myths. His interpretation of the myths is a bit subjective, so the reader needs to treat that aspect as such. The volumes can be used in different ways. One of the more useful ways is as a reference for learning about references to Greek Mythology. The table of contents provides 171 different myth titles to choose from, but if that doesn’t help you find a particular reference, the index at the end of the second volume will help you locate the relevant myths that touch upon a particular name or subject.

There are some additional loosely related volumes that I mention here for the sake of completeness, as they have complementary binding designs, and so some consider them to be part of the same set. Gibson, A.G.G. (2015). Robert Graves and the Classical Tradition. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p.165. ISBN 9780198738053. H. J. Rose (June 1955). "Review of The Greek Myths". The Classical Review, New Ser., Vol. 5, No. 2., pp.208–209. JSTOR 704652.

Reviews

A second way to use the book is to simply browse until you find a myth that interests you and spend some time reading about it and its variations. Each myth is explained in clear English and divided into paragraphs relating to each of the ancient Greek works which mention the myths. These ancient references are then listed which easily provides the reader the information they need to do further investigation. Lastly, additional notes are included which help to better understand the myths and put them into an historical perspective, though again this is not necessarily factual as much as it is supposition on the part of Graves. Mi è chiara la distinzione fra "volgarismo" e "cultismo", epperò mi permetto di definire colto un uso consapevole di questo termine nell'accezione negativa, accezione ormai attestata anche nei dizionari (cfr. Devoto-Oli, attualmente curato da Luca Serianni), laddove la maggior parte dei parlanti, legata alla grammatica di base insegnata a scuola, continua a percepirlo come errore.

Non so se ci sia qualcuno che conosca la mitologia greca meglio di Graves; dubito però che ci sia un miglior divulgatore. Starting with the Pelgasian creation myth and ending with Odysseus’s homecoming, this compendium covers all the traditional ancient Greek myths and legends over the course of 171 chapters. Biographers document the story well. It is fictionalised in Pat Barker's novel Regeneration. The intensity of their early relationship is nowhere demonstrated more clearly than in Graves's collection Fairies & Fusiliers (1917), which contains a plethora of poems celebrating their friendship. Through Sassoon, he also became friends with Wilfred Owen, whose talent he recognised. Owen attended Graves's wedding to Nancy Nicholson in 1918, presenting him with, as Graves recalled, "a set of 12 Apostle spoons". Graves's retellings have been widely praised as imaginative and poetic, but the scholarship behind his hypotheses and conclusions is generally criticised as idiosyncratic and untenable. [5]

I set aside the criticism of Graves's commentary, as I am not qualified to assess it. Truth, fiction, or poetic imagination, be that as it may, I did enjoy the various pattern observations: triplets of goddesses, the persistent “king and tanist" motif, symbols of flora and fauna, and so on.

Next we have the two volumes of the Icelandic Sagas published in 1999 and 2002, that are edited, introduced by Magnus Magnusson. It’s a lovely collection. This was such an opportune find. I did not know who the hell Robert Graves was at the time - I was captivated by the covers of the Penguin India edition (it was in two volumes), and I was nuts over mythology, so I immediately bought it. It opened a whole new vista for me. The first book covers the basics, starting with well written introductions from the Editor and Author as well as a Forward, moving on into the beginnings of Greek mythology – essentially creation mythology, how and where Gods and deities were born, who their parents and children were. Moving on into the various stories of the Gods, who they were and what they did (Nature and Deeds), how they rule the various levels of the world such as the Sky, the Sea, and the Underworld. The second book gets deeper into the actual mythological stories such as Jason and the Argonauts, Heracles, the Trojan War, and Odysseus. Soft cover. Condition: Near Fine. All four 1992 issues of this literary magazine from The Folio Society. The Spring issue contains: William C. Spengemann on Columbus; Giles Gordon on the short story; Philip Hyman on medieval cookery; Graham Handley on Trollope; and Peter Levi on Sir Richard Fanshawe. The Summer issue contains: Julian Symons on Erskine Childers; Philip Hoare on Nancy Mitford and Stephen Tennant; Celia Lamont-Jones on Jerome K. Jerome; Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe on Humphrey Repton; and Peter Levi on sea poems. The Autumn issue includes: Andrew Birkin on Peter Pan; Peter Khoroche on Sanskrit writings and Sakuntala; Paul Roberts on Kenneth Hopkins; G.H. Bunting on James Woodforde's "Diary of a Country Parson"; and Peter Levi on Anthony Hecht. The Winter issue includes: Kenneth McLeish on Greek myths; Stephen Goddard on Guy de Maupassant; and Peter Levi on youth and poetry. Three of the issues contain David Holloway's column "Talking About Books". Four journals stapled into printed wrappers. All near fine. Simply put, The Greek Myths Volume One and Two , are filled with violence and perversion. Every single story contains murder and rape. No Greek hero is exempt from practicing treachery, adultery, and, in one instance, necrophilia. Leaving children out for exposure was common. Many of the heroes were spared from an early death by compassionate shepherds, or even female animals who nursed them.Graves analyses mythology in strict historical context. No psychological or philosophical musings here. But his depth and breadth of coverage are fantastic. Each short chapter first presents the story, then analyses it in detail through notes, with secondary references provided wherever required. It is a book to savour at leisure, and justifies multiple readings if you want to get the maximum out of it. Richard G. A. Buxton, Imaginary Greece: The Contexts of Mythology, Cambridge University Press, 1994, p. 5. ISBN 0-521-33865-4 Robin Hard, bibliographical notes to his edition of H.J. Rose, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology, p. 690, ISBN 0-415-18636-6, quoted. Graves seems to lean heavily on saga, which I appreciated since I recently read the Iliad and the Odyssey. He also fills in the gaps those two poems leave, letting us know how the Trojan War began and what happened to some of the key players such as Achilles, who is alive in the Iliad, but already dead in the Odyssey.