By Jove! Brush Up Your Mythology (Paperback)

~ (Author), (Author) "According to the poet Hesiod, a leading expert on such matters, the first "power" in the universe was a vast, dark void known in Greek..." (more)
Key Phrases: Fortunate Isles, Trojan War, Golden Age (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This third book in the successful Brush Up series is a fun and informative review of classical mythology.

About the Author

Michael Macrone is the author of nine entertain-ing guides to literary and intellectual history. His specialties include the Shakespeare canon, classical writings, mythology, the Bible, and great ideas. He lives in San Francisco, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (April 8, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062720198
• ISBN-13: 978-0062720191
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #272,181 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's the Best!, December 16, 1999

By	"fallenangel" (Manhattan, Kansas) - See all my reviews

If you are looking for a quick review or a quick look into Mythology, this is the perfect book for you. It gives quick, concise accounts of mythology, from the beginning, Chaos which was the source of the first proper beings, to Pandora's box, the Muses, and Pegasus. This book helped my out so much better than any textbook that I've read. It's a wonderful reference book that every bookshelf should have!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Depends on what you were looking for..., December 24, 2002

By	X. Chen - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Not being familiar with Michael MacRone's(the author) work, I thought that this book would be your basic book of the ancient tales that the Romans would have spun. However, when I flipped through the pages of this book upon its arrival, I was sorely mistaken. This book does not have to do so much with the stories surrounding Zeus and the other Roman deities, but how ther culture has influence ours and the sayings and words derived from their language.
If you look from it as a purely fun read though, it is filled with interesting facts but often it leaves you with more questions; Michael MacRone spends too much time trying to explain the myths in a logical way when it is quite obvious that with such a 'titanic'(thanks to MacRone) body of information and the different way that Romans looked upon life just cannot be explained fully and should just be cherished as they are.
His 'witty' add-ins are quite off-putting to me, but you might enjoy them, his remarks are more like the ones of an extremely world-tired, snide, snickering person. All in all, it did not seem like he had much respect for what he was writing about, that is not a good launching off point to get others interested, sadly for MacRone.
I would have given this 2 stars because of his inept way of trying to make a mountain into a molehole(I know it sounds strange), but between the snide comments and fallible explanations, there were some glimmers of the fabulous work from countless of Romans before our time.

4.0 out of 5 stars A quick and dirty guide to remembering Greek Mythology, September 19, 2007

By	Chester Munchintonsonton - See all my reviews

I liked the book because it quickly covered a lot of material that I had forgotten, and it shows how many words and terms in the English language came from the Greeks.