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

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What I did, was read Fry’s retelling first (containing more in-depth retellings of stories in the first half of this novel), this novel and I will eventually read the primary texts. No one in modern times has shown us more vividly than Edith Hamilton 'the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome. I wouldn’t recommend Stephen’s Fry retelling over this, to me, it doesn’t serve as a replacement but more of a complement.

There is a lot of information which I preferred to read a little at a time which took almost a year to finish. You end up second-guessing yourself - maybe the classic status is causing you to be unduly deferential. A great introduction to greek and roman mythology with reasoning behind why she decided to include (or not include) every section and story.To sum up the points in its favor: Hamilton does well on the three basic criteria (accessibility, credibility, extent of coverage) the writing is clear, she is commendably rigorous about sourcing, and there are no glaring gaps in the extent of coverage. I never really understood back then why it seemed that I was one of the few who enjoyed reading this and majority of our class despised having to be given the assignment to read it. The second is that Hamilton shows an absolute lack of respect for the Norse Myths, offering up a paltry 20 pages that were carelessly tacked onto the rear end of this work as though she’d squeezed out all of her best Greek Myths and the Norse tales were just the left-over dregs, like the dags on an oxes ass!

Edith Hamilton (1868-1963) was born of American parents in Dresden, Germany, and grew up in Indiana. This is an ambitious work, which Edith Hamilton brings to life Greek and Roman Mythology (mainly and Norse partly), being a keystone of Western Culture.Though the explanations are clear, I found I got more from this this time as I am more receptive now to the chapters that have more of an encyclopaedic feel. This 75th anniversary illustrated edition does have colour plates but I don't find them as detailed or compelling as those in our older edition. In 1895 she moved back to Germany with her sister to study humanities and classics at the university of Munich (the then centre of classical studies).