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From: sara@mhuxj.UUCP (TRIGS)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: greek myths books
Message-ID: <364@mhuxj.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Mar-86 22:46:54 EST
Article-I.D.: mhuxj.364
Posted: Tue Mar 11 22:46:54 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Mar-86 07:36:57 EST
References: <3185@sdcc3.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
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> Does anyone know any good books about the Greek Myths?
> I love reading the stories, as does my boyfriend, but
> we've already read the two books I own many times. I'd like
> both adult versions and kid versions.
> Thanks in advance,

To: ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdcc3!nancy
Subject: re:Greek myths

Probably the best way to get at the Greek myths is to read them in
the original written sources-i.e., works like THE ILIAD and THE ODYSSEY,
the Greek dramas and a number of ancient lyrics. Most "mythology" books
are really drawing on these sources. If you are relatively new to poetry,
try to find something readable in this generation. Thus you should avoid
things like Alexander Pope's brilliant but very 18th cent. translation
of THE ILIAD (the Elizabethan Chapman translation is better if you insist
on a historical translation). It is also misleading to read a prose
translation (e.g. S.Butler's), as these things were, after all, conceived
and executed as poems and not novels. Among the good 20th cent. translations
are Richard Lattimore's ILIAD and Robert Fitzgerald's ODYSSEY. There are
quite a few decent translations of the plays including an OEDIPUS REX
by no less a poet than Yeats. If you want some good scholarly books on
the myths, I would recomend THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES by Joseph
Campbell and THE GREEK MYTHS by Michael Grant. Bullfinch, of course,
is still valuable as a reference. Good hunting! Let me know if you find
what you are looking for.   Regards, Jeffery Triggs
p.s. THE ODYSSEY, which some scholars claim might have been written by
a woman, is the more readable of the epics.
> 
> -- 
> ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdcc3!nancy

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