Customer Reviews

Mythology (Mentor)

5 star:		(64)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Edith Hamilton's "Mythology" tell the "Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" of classical mythology and this volume, first written in 1942, is now a timeless classic itself. This was the first book of mythology that I ever read and it is still the best. When Hamilton retells the love story of Cupid and Psyche or the tragedy of Agamemnon and his children, she does so with a full sense of what it meant when first told by Apuleius or Aeschylus. These are not children's tales, but the heroic legends and religious beliefs of the ancient Greeks. Furthermore, the illustrations by Steele Savage have the elegance of wood block prints, which, for all I know, is exactly what they are. I appreciate Hamilton's choice to avoid relying on Ovid, for while the "Metamorphoses" is the most comprehensive ancient text dealing with the classical myths, Ovid is an unbeliever. For Hamilton the writings of Homer, Hesiod and Pindar are more abbreviated in terms of providing details for the myths, but at least they take the tales seriously.

Another strength of the book is how she organizes the myths in her seven parts: (1) Covers the complete pantheon of deities, including the lesser gods of Olympus and Earth and the later Roman additions, as well as the earliest heroes. (2) Retells the various tales of love, between mortals and the gods or each other, along with the Quest for the Golden Fleece and other early heroic adventures. (3) Focuses specifically on the greatest heroes, Perseus, Theseus and Hercules, with Atalanta thrown in the mix in a curious but understandable editorial decision by Hamilton. (4) Puts together Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid into a giant epic stretching from the Judgment of Paris to the founding of Roman, with the Odyssey and the tragedies of Euripides. (5) Tells about the great mythological families, namely the House of Atreus (Agamemnon), the Royal House of Thebes (Oedipus and Antigone), and the Royal House of Athens. (6) Covers all of the lesser myths, most notably Midas. (7) Goes off in a new direction, providing a very brief introduction to Norse mythology that seems woefully inadequate given the comprehensive compilation of classical mythology that precedes it.

I looked over other possibilities as a basic textbook for an introductory mythology course, but I keep coming back to this one. If you want analysis of these myths, then you certainly want to look elsewhere. But if you want a solid retelling of virtually every tale of classical mythology, then Edith Hamilton's volume is still at the top of the list.

Looking at the title of the book, I thought this book would be a collection of myths. Upon looking at the list of other titles by Edith Hamilton (like "The Greek Way" and "The Roman Way"), I felt that this would be more of the history of mythology. This book is a blend of these two ideas.

The book is not organized to be a quick reference. It tells the main stories and characters as well as gives a brief section on the minor figures. For each section, the author explains where she is getting the material (for instance, from Homer or from Ovid) with a little editorial comment. Then, she relates the myth. She is giving you the story, but it does not read like a story. It reads like a college instructor giving you the highlights of the story with the occasional comment.

Although the bulk of the myths covered are either Greek or Roman, Hamilton does include some Norse mythology. Given the difference in worldview difference, I would like to have seen more contrasting of the differences.

I found this book to be a great review of the Greek and Roman myths. I found that the differences between the Greek and Roman interpretations of the same basic myth to be very interesting. It is not a substitute for reading the myths themselves, and for this, Hamilton does mention the authors and, sometimes, the play or poem. I would recommend this book.

Long ago in pre-history, 1973 to be exact, in the age of vinyl records, before the Internet and Play Station and Cable T.V. and the almost insulting stuff that gets peddled to kids these days as entertainment, an acne faced 13 year old bought this book because, in those days, the cover had this guy holding a sword and a severed head on the front, (Perseus holding the head of Medusa), and I thought COOL! And I fell in love with these wonderful stories. I still have that much worn, much loved, much dog-eared paperback on my book shelves that later in life inspired me to read other myths of other times and places, which lead me to James Joyce, Flannery O'Connor and T.C.Boyle and a life-long head over heels romance with literature. Edith Hamilton's book is a good beginning for anyone at any age to begin, or continue, the remarkable adventure that is human story telling.

If you're a beginning, Edith Hamilton's "Mythology" is a great book. It provides a summarized version of nearly every significant Greek or Roman myth. Everything from Odysseus' journey to mere descriptions of all minor characters in this vast subject. However, its only good for beginners.

Having a brief background in mythology prior to this book, I found it fun and disappointing. It was a good 400-page read, but the writing lacks. Hamilton's interest to keep things short makes the myth sometimes hard to understand and blazingly fast. While the latter isn't bad, if you're interested in reading the details for yourself, this isn't the right book.

With the mediocre writing of Hamilton's (she uses "stuff" to describe elements in mythology, but that's just one problem), Mythology provides a decent overview of everything people need to know for the Greek and Roman theology.

Another bothersome feature this book had was its chapter on Norse Mythology. It seemed that Edith Hamilton got bored of writing this book and jabbed the Norse Mythology section in to appropriately title the book. It lacks in any depth. Additionally, her narratives show that her enthusiasm for writing this book was nil.

Once again, if you're a beginner and interested in mythology, buy the book. If not, you're better of with Bulfinch's Mythology or individual tales (Homer's Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid).

Perhaps spirit is the wrong word. It is obvious by the late Miss Hamilton's writing that she harbors quite an affinity for the Gręco-Roman/Norse myths and cultures. However knowledgeable and talented she is at non-fiction and discussion, the actual tellings of the myths emerge as dull and tedious. If the prospective reader is looking for a thorough and well-crafted reference guide with brief recounts of the myths with little poetry or other flairs for the dramatic, this book is a fine choice. On the other hand, if one wants a reference guide that is entertaining as well, they will be more satisfied with "Bulfinch's Mythology" as long as it has an index and glossary. If the reader desires not reference but pure entertainment value, and does not wish to read translated Homer, Virgil, Ovid, etc., I suggest "Gods, Heroes, and Men of Ancient Greece," by W.H.D. Rouse. The book is written as a storyteller would deliver the myths.

Edith Hamilton's very popular 'Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes' is a very basic, very popular and very good text for the introduction of Greek and Roman mythology. This book by Hamilton, simply entitled 'Mythology' is an expansion of the material in the shorter book. Largely, however, it is a repetition of the same material.

In our Western culture, the term 'mythology' is most often equated with these tales, and Hamilton, first writing before World War II, has helped to reinforce that equation with the current generations of readers.

Those looking for the mythological stories of other cultures will be disappointed -- with the exception of a brief section on Norse mythology at the end (about five percent of the entire volume), it covers nothing outside the Greek and Roman pantheons. Of course, part of the difficulty of approaching mythology of other cultures is that, in many instances, it is not mythology to them; or, in the case of mythology, one needs a firmer grounding in the culture and religious aspects of that culture before the mythology becomes accessible.

Hamilton (raised, as I was astonished to discover, in Indiana, where I currently reside) studied at Bryn Mawr, and had a distinguished teacher career in addition to writing this useful text. Hamilton's writing is not complicated and very easy to follow -- this has made her texts selected often for high school and undergraduate courses in Greek and Roman mythology, more frequently perhaps than any other text produced in this century.

Hamilton begins the text with an essay giving an overview of what mythology is, and what the purpose of it was.

'Through it,' she wrote, 'we can retrace the path from civilised man who lives so far from nature, to man who lived in close companionship with nature; and the real interest of the myths is that they lead us back to a time when the world was young and people had a connection with the earth, with trees and seas and flowers and hills, unlike anything we ourselves can feel.'

She proceeds with a brief history of the development of Greek mythology, the origins of the stories lost in the mists of time. She tells of the influences of Greek thought on subsequent developments in thought and religion: 'Saint Paul said the invisible must be understood by the visible. That was not a Hebrew idea, it was Greek.' Unlike most religious constructs, the Greek mythological world tried to make sense of the greater life of the universe in terms that were very human indeed, with a minimum of mystery. 'The terrifying irrational has no place in classical mythology.'

This is not to say, of course, that there were not terrible stories and fantastic creatures -- indeed, the mythological stories are full of them -- Gorgons and hydras and chimaeras dire. But these are mostly metaphorical (and were understood as such), and primarily used for a hero to be made (this same idea has pervaded to the most recent Mission Impossible movie).

Hamilton proceeds after this essay to describe the members of the pantheon, the major and minor gods and goddesses, the ideas of creation, the heroes (human, semi-divine and divine), stories of love and devotion, justice and injustice, and, of course, of warfare, victory, defeat, and courage. Those heroes before the Trojan War, perhaps the Greek-mythological-equivalent of a world war, had battles and dire circumstances to fight and overcome. The Trojan War figured largely in the mythological frameworks of Greece and Rome -- all the gods and goddess were involved in this conflict, it seemed, as were many of the heroes of Greek mythology.

Hamilton, writing in a fairly conservative period of time, and in a fairly conservative culture, sanitised the mythological stories to a large extent. The Greeks were a very human and often rather bawdy bunch; the Romans were even moreso. Much of the sexuality in the mythological stories is omitted, save to demonstrate the less-desirable aspects. Quite often, undergraduates who study mythology are astonished to discover, if they had used Hamilton's text in an earlier high school setting, that there is a lot more sex and violence in the 'real' stories than they had been previously exposed to.

Of course, one of the primary aspects of the mythological tales was not to explain the cosmos or to build complex theological constructs (reason did these, often with help from the myths, but not using the myths as the basis), but rather the illustration of moral truths -- those of honesty, virtue, and courage as primarily valued in Greek and Roman society. Evil befalls those who do not lead a moral life; rewards come to those who do. Of course, there is a bit of whimsy in the cosmos -- bad things happen to good people, etc., even in ancient Greece. The fluctuating personalities of the gods (and the number of them) ultimately gives a satisfying explanation (if not a satisfying reason) why such things might occur.

As a long-time student of mythology, I was generally disappointed with this book. It hardly appreciates the richness of Greek mythology; Hamilton rather plods through the stories in Greek mythology (the book ought to be called "Greek and Roman Mythology," as it is mostly stories from ancient Greek culture, and its imitators, the Romans), except for that last chapter on Norse mythology. The only useful parts are the introductory chapters, which provide a nice overview of the themes of Greco-Roman mythology, how it came about, brief bios of major writers, etc, and the genealogical tables at the back of the book. For a better introduction to mythology, and a book that encompasses more than Greco-Roman mythology, read Michael Macrone's "Brush Up Your Mythology."

Mythology is classicist Edith Hamilton's book on Greek, Roman and Norse mythology, illustrated by Steele Savage (no kidding). The bulk of the work is devoted to the Greek, and the Norse is mentioned only in passing. Myths are arranged thematically, not chronologically (except for the initial creation), which is disruptive to the flow of the work.

Hamilton does several things well. First, she gives history on the authors from whom these stories have descended, and differentiates between their styles. Second, she gives good insight into the character of the people of the time as well as into the character of the mythological figures. She obviously knows the material and cares about it.

Mythology reads like a history book. Many stories get wrapped up too quickly, and quite a few are told too simplistically. Many details are left out. The writing is juvenile at times, and paragraph flow is occasionally an issue. This is almost a Cliff's Notes on mythology. Ultimately, Hamilton makes most of these myths boring. Others, with too many details cut out, the reader will find hard to get into.

Mythology has some good things to offer, but on the whole, this is an inferior way to enjoy the myths. This book may be useful to some as a quick-reference guide, but that's about it.

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT

This book is hot, it kicks, it rocks, it rules. Can't say it enough; this is phenomenal storytelling, this is pure unsullied love for classic myth, this is beautiful. You cannot find a more complete source than this. All the stories are there, all the details, every little insignificant character. You want animated tale-spinning, you have it here. All the passion and the morals and the humour and the fire and the history and the charm and the beauty and the mystery...collected into this single volume. It's a crime not to read it.

MYTHOLOGY is the text I was given when I first started teaching my mythology class for juniors and seniors. Boy, was I in for a disappointment. Not only does Edith Hamilton blandly summarize every story, but she leaves out many of the details that students are eager to absorb. She also spends plenty of time quoting poetry, without giving a clear indication who the poet is or why she suddenly begins a recitation in the middle of the paragraph. This book is NOT a good text for a high school mythology class. Some teachers argue that the elevated language and confusing sentence structure is good practice for kids, but when it makes it nearly impossible to appreciate the myths held captive by such literary labyrinths, it's not worth it.

Bullfinch's Mythology is a much better choice in my opinion. His language is even loftier, but he attempts to dramatize the myths whereas Hamilton can't seem to breathe any life into them.