Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes, 75th Anniversary Illustrated Edition

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Dionysus, or Bacchus, god of wine. He embodies both the good and evil effects of alcohol. At times he is a jovial partier and patron of music and art, but at other times he is the god of madness and frenzy. Demeter

Fearsome one-eyed giants, of whom Polyphemus is the most famous. In some myths they are the children of Heaven and Earth; in others they are the sons of Poseidon. They forge the thunderbolts of Zeus, who favors them. Polyphemus Roman name: Juno. Zeus’s wife and sister, Hera is a very powerful goddess known mostly for her jealousy. She is often vicious and spiteful, and it is usually Zeus’s infidelity that incites her. Many unfortunate mortals endure hardships by provoking Hera’s wrath. Poseidon Edith Hamilton may have written Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes more than a half century ago and she may have been fairly ancient when she did so, but she still put out one seriously readable book! Hamilton's re-telling of those old myths is considerably interesting. I just can't remember all those hard-to-pronounce many names. However, the knowledge that I got reading each story was really overwhelming. This is really a book that needs to be read by everyone.Greatly he failed, but he had greatly dared. And how Edith Hamilton tells Phaëthon’s story is just as engrossing.

After retiring as an educator in 1922 and moving to New York City in 1924, Hamilton began a second career as an author of essays and best-selling books on ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. [30] She had studied Greek and Latin from her youth and it remained her lifelong interest. "I came to the Greeks early," Hamilton told an interviewer when she was ninety-one, "and I found answers in them. Greece's great men let all their acts turn on the immortality of the soul. We don't really act as if we believed in the soul's immortality and that's why we are where we are today." [4] Hamilton wrote a number of well-known books about Greek and Roman life, most notably The Greek Way (1930) and The Roman Way (1932). These books, along with Mythology, became standard interpretations of classical life and art, as Hamilton focused on the ways Greek and Roman value systems serve as the foundation for modern European and American societies. She wrote the books between World Wars I and II, and they clearly reflect the search for cultural roots that many felt was needed during that historical period. Written in a time of great upheaval—the global economic Depression and Europe’s disintegration before World War II— Mythology’s focus on the shared, broad, and ancient cultural heritage of America and Europe gave the book widespread appeal. Edith was the oldest of five siblings that included three sisters ( Alice (1869–1970), Margaret (1871–1969), and Norah (1873–1945)) and a brother (Arthur "Quint" (1886–1967)), all of whom were accomplished in their respective fields. Edith became an educator and renowned author; Alice became a founder of industrial medicine; [14] Margaret, like her older sister, Edith, became an educator and headmistress at Bryn Mawr School; [15] and Norah was an artist. Hamilton's youngest sibling, Arthur, was nineteen years her junior. He became a writer, professor of Spanish, and assistant dean for foreign students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Arthur was the only sibling to marry; he and his wife, Mary Neal (d. 1965), had no children. [6] [16] Education [ edit ] For more than fifty years her "love affair with Greece had smoldered without literary outlet". [4] At the suggestion of Rosamund Gilder, editor of Theater Arts Monthly, Hamilton began by writing essays about Greek drama and comedies. Several of her early articles were published in Theater Arts Monthly before she began writing the series of books on ancient Greek and Roman life for which she is most noted. Hamilton went on to become America's most renowned classicist of her era. [1]Significant families in Greek mythology: the house of Atreus, the royal house of Thebes, and the royal house of Athens Greek and Roman myths involving love and adventure, including the tales of Eros and Psyche and Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece Alice remarked, "Instead of the grandeur and beauty of Aeschylus and Sophocles, it seemed that the important thing was their use of the second aorist." See Singer, 74–75. a b c d e f g h i j Janice Lee Jayes, "Hamilton, Edith (1867–1963)" in Anne Commire, ed. (2002). Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Vol.6. Detroit: Yorkin Publications. p.728 . Retrieved April 19, 2017. This book makes me feel smarter," says my GR friend in her review of this book. I worked the same for me.