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

This book tells many myths from lots of different myth systems very well, briefly but in great detail and the commentary isn't overbearing and rle imbues the tellings with a little spark. So far I've read Norse Gods and the Adventures of Odysseus for my Myth course at Uni and they're really helping my wider reading without bogging me down in excessive reading.

I have bought this to replace my copy which is now falling apart due to frequent use. This is an excellent compendium of Greek, Roman and ( some) Norse and Germanic myths and legends and written in a readable style. too

The stories are well told, but seem to be more for the adult reader as the writing style is not really suitable for children.

This was a present. But before I bought it I read the best reviews about it. My boyfriend is a huge fan of Greek Mythologies and just wanted a simple more pocket size book. And he said that this by far the best book on all the Mythologies he read so far. So big thumbs up!

This is a scholarly work but it is both informative and accessible. The introduction is superb and Edith Hamilton is very helpful in outlining her sources and her reasons for choosing them. I use it all the time as a reference book.

Like many of the other people who have reviewed this book, I first read Hamilton's book on mythology when I was quite young. I was fortunate to have grown up in a time when bookshelf sets of stories were the norm in family homes. I read my way through Hamilton's stories of the gods in no time flat, and then re-read the book several more times. When I took a folklore course at Uni, it was still considered a standard book for teaching, and I greeted it like the old friend it was. Now, my son has had his interest sparked in mythology through the Percy Jackson books, so he is now deep into the world of myth. It's so exciting to see another generation being drawn into the world of the gods and heroes.

I wanted a primer on the Greek and Roman mythologies. This, by recommendation, seemed to be the best at a reasonable price. What a disappointment though. I feel now just as ignorant of the stories of the Gods as I did at the start. To put this in context I have recently read the Odyssey and feel I have a reasonable grasp of the story. Just flicking back through 'Mythology' I found that I had read the story here. Obviously none of the story had filtered into my brain. This is that same with any other story in this book. I find Hamilton's style a little disturbing. Sometimes sentences are long and rambling and not well punctuated requiring them to be read several times before getting any sense of their meaning. It is not necessarily that the language is archaic because it isn't but it sometimes does not flow well. My copy of Odyssey (translated by Samuel Butler) does use archaic language and I can live with that. The downside to Butler's translation is that it using Roman texts for the story. This leads to another problem with 'Mythologies' in that Hamilton refers to both Greek and Latin origins, all clearly marked in the introductions to each story, and then retells the stories in her own words. This rendition, in the case of Odysseus, does not follow the flow of the story as written in the original. It does not critique the stories from the different sources but ends up to my mind leading to rather difficult reading in which the stories themselves are not registering in my brain at least. If this is your first expedition into the Mythologies I would give this book a miss.

This was a gift to my manager to help her appreciate my culture. She appreciated the thought and really enjoyed the book! I'm hoping for a raise next :)

Loved it so much

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Very easy to read and very entertaining as well as informative.

Excelente libro

This is a book that was recommended to me by a college professor of mine. It was used as a reading in his course, and was a genuinely fascinating read. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in learning more about Mythology as a whole.