68 of 71 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Serious flaws, but still can't quite replace it, December 7, 2003
It is an anthology of mythology I often use simply to look up the major myths, because it's easy to find things in Bulfinch. If I knew of a modern alternative which filled the same role as well, I might rank Bulfinch a 3. It's a fairly good reference for Greek, Roman and Arthurian legends. He pretty much paraphrases e.g. Virgil's Aeneid and Ovid's Metamorphisis. He also provides the basic Egyptian and Viking myths. But anything East of the Levant is given very short shrift, probably because at the time this was written, those myths were not so available in the West.
There's no question he loved these stories, but I can't say I'm left with the feeling that he has been truly struck by the Myth, that the Myth has truly destabilized him the way it has Frazer, Jung or Joseph Campbell.
And no doubt this collection would not have been published at all at that time were he not willing to leave out significant facts that the book might be readable by well-bred ladies. Any castrations are left out or (worse) revised. Cronos was deposed. Theseus slays the Minotaur, but the part about how the Minotaur came to be in the first place is omitted. Attis comes across as a romantic story. You find neither the factual story behind it as laid out by Herodotus nor any intimation about the nature of the fantastical cult which arose around it as described in Frazer.
At the same time, although most major bookstores now have whole sections devoted to mythology, and hundreds of anthologies have come out, I've never quite found anything that takes the place of Bulfinch, and so I keep it on my shelf.
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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wonderful Reference, April 4, 2002
By A Customer
So many people are like me...they read and studied mythology in school, then rapidly forgot much of what they learned. Some knowledge of mythology, however, is necessary if one wants to undertand and appreciate great literature. So many great authors draw upon mythology in their work. One (and only one) example is Milton; so many people who say they don't understand "Paradise Lost" are simply missing allusions to the mythology contained instead.
I'm not a classicist, a theologian or a philosopher. I'm not an expert in ancient Greek or Latin. What I am is a lover of great literature and it pains me when I come upon a mythological reference I don't recognize or remember.
I tried using a classical dictionary, but found this created one problem while failing to solve another. The problem is that it is annoying to interrupt the flow of one's reading to look up an allusion in a dictionary. I'd almost rather skip the reading than do that. And, even after looking up an allusion, at least in a dictionary, we usually still don't understand the poetry and the full meaning of the myth.
"Bulfinch's Mythology" solves this problem. With this book, anyone can learn about the gods and goddesses of Greek and Roman antiquity, of Scandinavian, Celtic and Oriental fable and of the Age of Chivalry, in a readable and entertaining manner.
With "Bulfinch's Mythology," we certainly won't learn as much as a scholar, but we will learn enough to enjoy and appreciate the references to mythology we encounter in literature, painting, sculpture and music.
The stories in "Bulfinch's Mythology" are divided into three sections: The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry and The Legends of Charlemagne. The classical myths and legends have been derived from Ovid and Virgil. Although the stories are told in prose, they retain all the poetry of the original. The second section, the myths and sagas of the north, were drawn from Mallet's "Northern Antiquities."
Bulfinch has gone one step further than to simply present myth in an enjoyable and readable manner. He has included many poetic citations to help us better remember the myth in question and to see exactly how myth is incorporated into literature.
I love perusing this book. "Bulfinch's Mythology" has reintroduced me to the stories of Zeus and Hera, Venus and Adonis, Daphne and Apollo, Pygmalion and Galatea and many, many more.
If you want to learn more about myth, but don't want to make a comprehensive study of mythology, "Bulfinch's Mythology" may be the perfect book for you just as it is for me.
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28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Intro to Mythology, December 30, 2000
Bulfinch does a great job of retelling the classic Greek/Roman myths of antiquity as well as the myths of Old Europe including, among others, Arthur, Charlemange, Orlando, and Thor. One part that stands out is the Mabinogeon which (and this is noted on page 561 of the Modern Library edition) has a Thousand and One Nights fell to it. One part that appeared to not fit into the book at all was Chapter 37 of The Age of Fable, which hastily describes a portion of Eastern Mythology. Although this section has no true faults with the information, one gets the sense that Bulfinch quickly threw the myths together and since he didn't have room for them anywhere else he put them in this chapter. Although it does not take away from the quality of the book it might have been better had Bulfinch chosen either to elaborate slightly on the myths or to not include them altogether. However, for an introduction to classical mythology for the reader who is having trouble understanding Byron or Milton or Shakespeare or a hundred other classical European and American writers this book is a godsend. Bulfinch tailored this book to just this kind of reader. At times it may seem a bit dry, but Bulfinch intended his work to be used as a reference mainly (which is why he included a great index in the back of The Age of Fable).
For those readers who are interested in mythology as an end unto itself, I recommend this work as your main road map through this sometimes confusing trail. Robert Graves and Edith Hamilton's works are good also but in my opinion Bulfinch outdoes both of them. From here you will definitely want to look at the Madrus and Mathers 4 vol. edition of the Thousand Nights and One Night (that is the full title) if you liked the Eastern feel that you get in Chapter 37 in the Age of Fable and the Mabinogeon. If you are interested in the Greek and Roman myths mainly go straight to the horses mouth and read Ovid, Homer, and Virgil. For more European mythology, Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur is indespensable. I recommend Penguin's two volume edition but with some hesitation, as the annotation is a bit strange, making you flip back and forth between the front of the book and the back of the book. However, Penguin prints out almost every major mythological story, ranging from the Medieval French Romances to the Icelandic Sagas. As stated before, let Bulfinch lead you through this mass of myths, he knows what he's doing.
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