Customer Reviews

Cassell's Dictionary of Classical Mythology

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I've read a number of classical dictionaries over the years, and one thing I especially like about this one is that it doesn't restrict its fairly exhaustive listings strictly to ancient sources. It does sometimes mention modern takes on classical myths, like Kazantzakis's The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel and T.S. Eliot's Leda and the Swan. A very good dictionary.

Although the "Meridian Handbook of Classical Mythology" is certainly more popular, Jenny March's "Dictionary" is for my money the best recent encyclopaedia of Greco-Roman myth. I judge this based on the following criteria:

(1) Accuracy. Misinformation should not be presented. This ought to be a given.

(2) Sources. No encyclopaedia is worth anything if it doesn't present its sources. On this criterion the "Meridian Handbook" and March's "Dictionary" are just about even. You just can't look at classical myths without also looking at the context they come from. This is one of March's great strengths: she always, always, always tells you exactly what the ancient sources are for such-and-such a myth. Without that information, it's impossible to track anything down; with it, you have a complete toolset at your disposal.

(3) Depth. This is the area where I think March has a significant edge over the "Meridian Handbook". Where different ancient sources give varying versions of stories, March presents all the information; she never succumbs to the temptation to simplify things down to a single "authoritative" version. (The "Meridian Handbook" isn't *weak* in this area; it just isn't as outstanding as March's "Dictionary".)

As an addendum, the best English-language encyclopaedia of classical myth ever written is actually a much older one: that of William Smith, the "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology", published ca. 1850. It has all the merits of March's encyclopaedia and more, but it is also a very, very large dictionary (three enormous volumes). As a compromise between size and thoroughness, March is supreme.