Customer Reviews

Men and Gods: MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS (New York Review Books Classics)

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My Dad read this to me as a bedtime book, and once I could read myself I read it many times. This is a fantastic introduction to the Greek myths for any young adult and perhaps some older ones as well.

This is quality material, skillfully narrated albeit accompanied by illustrations that did more to confuse me and cause me consternation me than actually to elucidate the tales. The selection is balanced, covering gods and heroes with equal emphasis, though it fails to provide the de rigueur "origin of the Olympians" explanation or--as some would say is critically important--address more mythohistoric material such as the "Seven Against Thebes" (which I, personally, find boring). This isn't as encyclopedic as Schwab's work, and it doesn't provide the umpteen variants and footnotes-atop-footnotes of Graves's work, but it does a better job than, say, the Bulfinch or Hamilton toward which the feet of the uninitiated are typically directed. I still think--regardless of the obvious juvenility (which I prefer to regard as juvenescence!) of the target audience--you can't do better than D'Aulaire. Their coverage is superior, their illustrations are unique and intriguing, the stories are expertly narrated, and you just can't ask for something that looks or feels more comprehensive and thoughtfully knitted together. All of these are available at AMAZON.com! (Gentlemen, you can send my commission checks to my address of record :-)