Songs on Bronze: The Greek Myths Made Real [Audio CD]

Nigel Spivey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2006

The Greek myths are recognized as universal stories without equal. Here, Cambridge classicist Nigel Spivey presents them for precocious youth as the spellbinders they are.

Said Spivey, "I intended to write this book for my young children -- with due regard for their delicate sensibilities. They, however, grew up more quickly than I wrote. So, I accepted the violence and sensuality of the myths and make little effort to purify them."

In bold, easily understood prose, he tells of Demeter and Persephone, of Prometheus' creation of humankind, of Jason and the Argonauts, of the wrath of Achilles and the travels of Odysseus, of Oedipus’s crime and Orpheus’s excursion into the Underworld. In his hands, these stories are revealed anew as outsize tales of love and strife, of secret compacts and open rivalries, and of the overwhelming power of Eros.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Psychological realism infuses Greek myths as reimagined by Cambridge classicist Spivey. Thus Herakles sounds as if he were confessing to a therapist when he explains his bravery: "It's an act, isn't it? The power of make-believe. The odd thing is... promise you won't laugh... I used to get fired up by believing that my opponent was some maniac—yes, a maniac—coming after my wife and children." Spivey's heroes, as a result, are emotionally accessible but divested of their frightening grandeur. Their adventures still make for rollicking good tales, of course, and Spivey is at his best when clipping his diction and telling it straight; neatly closing one story with Odysseus overcoming his reluctance to go to war, Spivey writes: "Odysseus shrugged. His forebodings told him otherwise. His armor was rusting on hooks in an outhouse. Yet he went to fetch it." Spivey's language is sometimes pleasingly epigrammatic: Eros is "zero's opposite." But too often he dresses up classical myths in togas of pop psychology. After Pandora's box is opened, for instance, we are told Prometheus and his brother "knew their world would never be the same." The Greek myths are formidable, but apparently they do have an Achilles heel: clichéd English makes them go limp. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Rollicking good tales." --Publishers Weekly

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio Inc.; Unabridged edition (September 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786175281
• ISBN-13: 978-0786175284
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 6.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,695,289 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Greek Mythology as Novel, January 4, 2006

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Songs on Bronze: The Greek Myths Made Real (Hardcover)

Nigel Spivey is a brilliant scholar whose works related to antiquities have been the topic of numerous excellent books (his most recent 'How Art Made the World: A Journey to the Origins of Human Creativity', 'Understanding Greek Sculpture', 'Enduring Creation: Art, Pain, and Fortitude ' among the many). If there is a thread of continuity in his writing it is the kind aspect that he writes in a fashion that is immensely readable!

SONGS ON BRONZE: THE GREEK MYTHS MADE REAL is actually more of a novel than a translation or regurgitation of the old myths that have endured in many forms for centuries and still inform the arts and literature. Spivey researched these grand stories and has elected to relate them in modern terms. But purists need not worry: Spivey has not 'dumbed down' the classics. He has molded each of the myths and their interrelationships with a nod to contemporary psychology, and while this may chip away at some of the grandeur of the figures of these tales, that feature that can make the myths distant and fraught with excessive unpronounceable names and places, Spivey makes the mythological characters seem like real superheroes. At last here are vague, multi-named gods who become familiar folk under Spivey's pen.

The book is solid and in the relatively short space of 275 pages covers the creation, Prometheus and Pandora, Demeter and Persophone, Herakles, Theseus, Perseus, Jason, the Oresteia and Oedipus, the Odyssey, the Trojan War along with more minor myths and that is a lot of information to make palatable. But palatable it is and in the end this fine book reads like a terrific novel, one whose characters we completely understand! Highly recommended. Grady Harp, January 06

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very fun to read, October 4, 2006

By 

Gregory J. Casteel "Dr. Gregory J. Casteel" (Athens, AL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Songs on Bronze: The Greek Myths Made Real (Paperback)

This is an abbreviated retelling of some of the most important stories from Greek mythology, in contemporary language. It is well written, with a literary style befitting the subject; but the stories have been abridged so that you don't get bogged down in trivial details; and the language is modern enough so that you don't have to agonize your way through it, struggling to figure out what the author is trying to say.

The contents include:

Prelude: Orpheus in Love

I. AN EARLY CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD
Out of Chaos
Prometheus and Pandora
Demeter and Persephone

II. HEROES IN THE MAKING
Herakles
Theseus
Perseus
Jason and the Argonauts

III. WAR ABOUT TROY
The Judgment of Paris
The Wrath of Achilles
Troy Taken

IV. A HERO'S COMING HOME
The Travels of Odysseus

V. THE STUFF OF TRAGEDY
The House of Atreus
Oedipus

Unending: Orpheus in the Underworld


To give you a better sense of what sort of book this is, here is a brief excerpt from the Author's Note:

"Songs on Bronze originated from the desire to fashion a single, organic narrative of as much Greek mythology as most people might want or need to know.

"This means a less than comprehensive work. Not every tale of the ancient Greek repertoire has been included here. Some stories ... are much abbreviated. I wanted this book to be a fluent read, not an unrelenting inventory of names, places, and atrocious events. ...

"At the outset I intended to write this book for my young children -- with due regard for their delicate sensibilities. They, however, grew up more quickly than I wrote. So I accepted the violence and sensuality of the myths, and made little effort to purify them. ..."

This is a fun introduction to the stories of Greek mythology.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spivey Hits the Mark --- Filling in missing cultural development!, July 23, 2005

By 

Will P. Thompson "W. Thompson, D.Sc." (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Songs on Bronze: The Greek Myths Made Real (Hardcover)

Too often, our modern schools depend on gadgetry as opposed to old fashioned learning. As a result, many of today's computer generation are totally unaware of much of our cultural heritage. To know the future, one must know and review civilization's past; making the same mistake over and over only leads us nowhere. However, Spivey has given us an easy to follow, background read in ancient Greek mythology that serves to fill in some of the blanks. Concise, witty, and written by a master of our wondrous English language, Nigel Spivey has provided a delightful read that serves to shore up the continued lack of cultural background missing from the knowledge base of many people. Thank you, Dr. Spivey; may your "Songs on Bronze" be a best seller! It is easy to understand why you hold a responsible position at one of the world's great centers of learning -- Emmanuel College, Cambridge University, Cambridge, England.