Customer Reviews

The Greek Myths (Volume 1)

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Robert Graves, like Joseph Campbell, is one of half a dozen mythographers who are in the top rank of this century. His exhaustive research and comparisons of sources are stunning in scope but instead of being bewildering he has captured the themes and synergies between stories and come to some remarkably cogent conclusions. Graves sees history in the myths rather than psychology, primarily, and believes that they tell veiled stories of real happenings that became emotionally and spiritually significant and therefore ripened into the orthodox Greek religion of the millenium B.C.. Just as the stories, therefore, of Jesus and Moses are also cloaked in a real history, he analyzes the probabilities that the coming of Zeus' patriarchy played a huge role in the formation of the Greek myths, and he tells us credibly how this influence clashed with the beliefs of earlier times. Graves has few peers in the depth and scope and detail of his understanding and because his research is so comprehensive, his conclusions must be given great weight.

This is a student's edition, and anyone who is seeking to learn the facts behind the popular stories of Greek Mythology could do a lot worse than to start here. Graves walks through each individual myth, noting alternative tellings, and follows each with a discussion on sources and interpretations. The stories themselves are pleasurable, but the emphasis is on an academic viewing of them. Each paragraph is marked with a letter of the alphabet for easy reference. In my copy, published by Penguin, I thought that the type was a little too small and dense, but the format and authenticity of Graves' work make this book definitive for anyone not studying the original texts themselves.

First half of Greek mythology reference and stories.


A swashbuckling adventure story writer Graves most certainly wasn't, but that didn't stop me reading this many times. Of course, in a more reference oriented version as this there are many, many notes etc. to let you delve into this as deeply as you like.


4 out of 5