The Greek Myths 1 and 2

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One last comment, I found it interesting to think about whether or not these myths influenced morality - or at least tried to influence it. Certain stories seemed to be pushing a certain point of view (as many stories do) on the reader. Just some food for thought.

Also included are the Homeric, Orphic and Olympian creation myths, as well as two "philosophical" creation myths. One of the biggest surprises I found while reading was the story Deucalion's Flood. In short, it's Noah's Ark before there was Noah's Ark. Makes you wonder how original that bible story is. Starting with the Pelgasian creation myth and ending with Odysseus’s homecoming, this compendium covers all the traditional ancient Greek myths and legends over the course of 171 chapters. The second volume rounds the set out with the remaining two of the big five – Grettir’s Saga and the Laexdala Saga – and several other tales. Fabulous illustrations are by John Vernon Lord and the endpaper maps are drawn by Reginald Piggott.It was a trial, because it is by no means a piece of light literature. Of course, certain amount of gore is to be expected, but my early age experiences with Irena and Jan Parandowski’s renderings of Greek myths into Polish did not fully prepare me for the extent, intensity and denseness of violence, incest, torture, betrayal, and general human irrationality that is present in Graves’s detailed compendium. One of the saddest pictures in the world - a favourite bookshop in the process of getting demolished.

Simply put, The Greek Myths Volume One and Two , are filled with violence and perversion. Every single story contains murder and rape. No Greek hero is exempt from practicing treachery, adultery, and, in one instance, necrophilia. Leaving children out for exposure was common. Many of the heroes were spared from an early death by compassionate shepherds, or even female animals who nursed them. This was such an opportune find. I did not know who the hell Robert Graves was at the time - I was captivated by the covers of the Penguin India edition (it was in two volumes), and I was nuts over mythology, so I immediately bought it. It opened a whole new vista for me. Sadly, the shop is no more. The corporation demolished it - rightly - because it was unsafe. They now have an air-conditioned store where the books are arranged alphabetically in neat rows, and you can enquire for a particular tome and it will pop up on the computer. All the luxuries of modernity, but it does not work for me; no sirree.)

Soft cover. Condition: Near Fine. All four 1992 issues of this literary magazine from The Folio Society. The Spring issue contains: William C. Spengemann on Columbus; Giles Gordon on the short story; Philip Hyman on medieval cookery; Graham Handley on Trollope; and Peter Levi on Sir Richard Fanshawe. The Summer issue contains: Julian Symons on Erskine Childers; Philip Hoare on Nancy Mitford and Stephen Tennant; Celia Lamont-Jones on Jerome K. Jerome; Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe on Humphrey Repton; and Peter Levi on sea poems. The Autumn issue includes: Andrew Birkin on Peter Pan; Peter Khoroche on Sanskrit writings and Sakuntala; Paul Roberts on Kenneth Hopkins; G.H. Bunting on James Woodforde's "Diary of a Country Parson"; and Peter Levi on Anthony Hecht. The Winter issue includes: Kenneth McLeish on Greek myths; Stephen Goddard on Guy de Maupassant; and Peter Levi on youth and poetry. Three of the issues contain David Holloway's column "Talking About Books". Four journals stapled into printed wrappers. All near fine. Mi è chiara la distinzione fra "volgarismo" e "cultismo", epperò mi permetto di definire colto un uso consapevole di questo termine nell'accezione negativa, accezione ormai attestata anche nei dizionari (cfr. Devoto-Oli, attualmente curato da Luca Serianni), laddove la maggior parte dei parlanti, legata alla grammatica di base insegnata a scuola, continua a percepirlo come errore. Graves interpreted Bronze Age Greece as changing from a matriarchal society under the Pelasgians to a patriarchal one under continual pressure from victorious Greek-speaking tribes. In the second stage local kings came to each settlement as foreign princes, reigned by marrying the hereditary queen, who represented the Triple Goddess, and were ritually slain by the next king after a limited period, originally six months. Kings managed to evade the sacrifice for longer and longer periods, often by sacrificing substitutes, and eventually converted the queen, priestess of the Goddess, into a subservient and chaste wife, and in the final stage had legitimate sons to reign after them.

It is a very interesting read for those interested in Greek mythology, but again it is closer to a “Who's Who” of mythology and Classical Literature and not the full stories. If you are looking for stories with heroes fighting monsters I would suggest you look elsewhere, however if you are looking a deeper understanding of where the characters you know (and either love or hate) come from and interacted with the world, this is for you.Graves analyses mythology in strict historical context. No psychological or philosophical musings here. But his depth and breadth of coverage are fantastic. Each short chapter first presents the story, then analyses it in detail through notes, with secondary references provided wherever required. It is a book to savour at leisure, and justifies multiple readings if you want to get the maximum out of it. The Greek Myths has been heavily criticised both during and after the lifetime of the author. Critics have deprecated Graves's personal interpretations, which are, in the words of one of them, "either the greatest single contribution that has ever been made to the interpretation of Greek myth or else a farrago of cranky nonsense; I fear that it would be impossible to find any classical scholar who would agree with the former diagnosis". Graves's etymologies have been questioned, and his largely intuitive division between "true myth" and other sorts of story has been viewed as arbitrary, taking myths out of the context in which we now find them. The basic assumption that explaining mythology requires any "general hypothesis", whether Graves's or some other, has also been disputed. [7] The work has been called a compendium of misinterpretations. [8] Sibylle Ihm refers to Graves's "creative mishandling of the Greek myths." [9] Robin Hard called it "comprehensive and attractively written," but added that "the interpretive notes are of value only as a guide to the author's personal mythology". [10] The Disraeli scholar Michel Pharand replies that "Graves's theories and conclusions, outlandish as they seemed to his contemporaries (or may appear to us), were the result of careful observation." [11] The Greek God Hermes (Mercury to the Romans and the son of Zeus), I have a particular fondness for. Many years ago I was in a garden centre in England and I saw this lovely little bronze statue of Mercury. I paid a lot more for it than I should have done but I knew that a pay cheque was around the corner and now it sits in my lounge. Perhaps it should be in the garden but I like to be reminded of it. So Mercury, sorry Hermes, I stand corrected. Strange really but Hermes is one of my favourite perfumes.