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Path: utzoo!watmath!credmond
From: credmond@watmath.UUCP (Chris Redmond)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: greek myths books
Message-ID: <1646@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 13-Mar-86 09:25:18 EST
Article-I.D.: watmath.1646
Posted: Thu Mar 13 09:25:18 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Mar-86 06:07:22 EST
References: <3185@sdcc3.UUCP> <364@mhuxj.UUCP>
Reply-To: credmond@watmath.UUCP (Chris Redmond)
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 14

>
>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

A particularly important collection of myths is Ovid's METAMORPHOSES,
which is also available in some good modern English translations.