Customer Reviews

Who's Who in Classical Mythology

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this book as preparation for a Mediterranean study-cruise. It is a sort of encyclopedia of Greek and Roman mythology. Any classical mythological name can be found here with a synopsis of their major stories Just be warned: each character's story tends to be so interesting as to lead you to look up all the other characters that appear, and you will find yourself reading for hours.

Who's Who is an excellent resource, but it is not meant for those who wish to sit down and read Greek myths. The book is set up in an encyclopedic fashion. References to specific Greek mythological figures are easy to locate. However if you are looking for Greek myths in story form, this is not the text for you.

Grant and Hazel have provided a finely grained and authoritative dictionary-style reference that is quite handy for identification of any figure from classical mythology. The book will prove useful for keeping at one's side when reading Homer, Hesiod, Sophocles, Euripides and company. Very helpful appendices include genealogical trees, alphabetical list of classical authors referred to, and clear and informative maps.

This book is one of the best i've ever read on Greek/Roman myth, and i've read many in my life. This book contains entries on characters rarely found anywhere else such as Nox, the Greek personification of night. As such i often use this book as a measuring stick against other books in this area.

The book itself is great. It's probably the best in its subject area. But the Kindle version is extremely difficult to navigate. The mythological characters are listed in alphabetical order with no efficient way of finding the character you want. There is no click-able list of A-Z to access the section you want, nor is there a list of just each character's name or any kind of index to get you to the person you want. So if you want to find the entry for, say, Zeus, you can't just click on "Z" or find a list and click on "Zeus." You can search for his name, but it results in 680 results in the book, or over 114 "pages" of search results. You could try randomly typing in location areas trying to find the "Z" section, but that's not easy either. Even a lesser-known character search brings up several hits and it's not easy from the little blurbs to determine which one is the entry you want, so it takes several tries to find exactly what you're looking for.

Also, many of the genealogy charts are impossible to read because they have been shrunken down too much to fit the screen. There is no way to change the font size on the charts. It's a minor thing, but there you go.

This isn't a problem with just this Kindle edition book, but it's a big problem. The book itself I'd give 5 stars, but the Kindle edition only 2 because of its major flaws.

Loved that I could buy this on my Kindle! Any way to save a buck is a-okay with me. Looking forward to using it when I head off to class.

I developed a passion for- some might even say obession with- Greek Mythology when I was nine. By the age of 10 I had graduated from Bulfinch's and D'Aulaire's to the big kid reference section. This was one of the references I used pretty often to try and piece together the larger story of the gods, heroes and kings. I remember frequently starting out on one topic and spending the next two hours jumping from one related topic to another- some of the best memories of my childhood.

Although not a story but an encyclopedic guide, this gives a pretty good feel for the history of the period, from the period of the Titans (pre-Achaean history?) to the war in Troy to Rome. Any questions about Theseus, Perseus or Heracles? Come on over!

This guide was published for the first time in 1973, and it shows. The discussion of goddesses and female figures are given a much shorter shrift here than their male counterparts. I don't think anyone would argue that this period didn't define patriarchy, but the stories of Demeter, Persephone and even Hera have been elucidated elsewhere in greater detail, and it would be informative to mention the early mysteries that predate Olympian worship. I also scratch my head at some of the things they removed- they can define Hemera, but not Aether?

The best guide I have ever used- ever- is Who's Who in Greek and Roman Mythology. If you can get your hands on that, buy it. Otherwise, this isn't bad to have.