Greek Mythology

[Anycall]

http://www.theoi.com/greek-mythology/greek-gods.html

[bellytimber]

Hi Yeti, I'd start with a general book called "Heroes, Gods, and Monsters" by Evslin. The book is aimed at younger readers but in my opinion it's a more fun/accessible place to start than Hamilton. It's definitely worth the two days it will take you to read it, and it's the book to give as a gift to some bright eleven-year-old that you think might like mythology.

But then, yeah, I'd read Edith Hamilton's Mythology for another general survey. By now lots of the names and relationships will be sorting themselves out in your head. Hamilton gives pretty faithful translations to the actual texts, but she cuts out boring stuff for the sake of storytelling. Read the introductory chapters too, they give good context.

After you've read those then you'll have definitely have an idea of the specific characters and stories you like, and then you're good to go. Before buying something you should always thumb through a few translations for a minute to see if you're responding to one better--some of the "standard" translations were done two centuries ago and sound stilted to a lot of people today. If you want to read Homer, you might think The Odyssey is more fun and less confusing to start with; I'd rate the translations 1. fagels 2. fitzgerald 3. lattimore, but whatever. (For The Iliad I'd go 1. lattimore 2. fagles 3. fitzgerald.)

If you want to read about some of the dramatic patterns that underlie all mythology/stories, you might like Joseph Campbell's "The Hero with a Thousand Faces." Also Joseph Campbell's interview series with Bill Moyers on PBS was terrific.

[pete fabrizio]

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yeah that would be cool. are some translations more highly respected than others?

this would be fine i guess? :

http://www.amazon.com/Odyssey-Robert.../dp/0140268863

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I minored in Classics, a couple profs always used his translations, others Lattimore.

anyways, I'm not sure where I would starts. wikipedia seems like a good place for just basic facts/stories.

if you want to get more serious, the Iliad and Odyssey are both fantastic but dense and can be difficult to get through. I recommend reading Cliffs Notes for a chapter, then reading the actual translation once you already know what happens.

The Iliad is mainly the story of Achilles at the time of the sack of Troy (the famous war ended by the "Trojan Horse" ruse). the Iliad is largely about war, pretty badass.

The Odyssey tells of the travels of Odysseus as he attempts to get home from Troy. this is much more mystical/magical than the Iliad and tells lots of stories you might have heard of.

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My ex-girlfriend is a classicist. Once, when asked who in the entire world she would most like to have dinner with, she picked Robert Fagles.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

also check out this movie!!!

[Nielsio]

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<font color="purple">Joseph Campbell</font>

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[React1oN]

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yeah that would be cool. are some translations more highly respected than others?

this would be fine i guess? :

http://www.amazon.com/Odyssey-Robert.../dp/0140268863

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I minored in Classics, a couple profs always used his translations, others Lattimore.

anyways, I'm not sure where I would starts. wikipedia seems like a good place for just basic facts/stories.

if you want to get more serious, the Iliad and Odyssey are both fantastic but dense and can be difficult to get through. I recommend reading Cliffs Notes for a chapter, then reading the actual translation once you already know what happens.

The Iliad is mainly the story of Achilles at the time of the sack of Troy (the famous war ended by the "Trojan Horse" ruse). the Iliad is largely about war, pretty badass.

The Odyssey tells of the travels of Odysseus as he attempts to get home from Troy. this is much more mystical/magical than the Iliad and tells lots of stories you might have heard of.

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My ex-girlfriend is a classicist. Once, when asked who in the entire world she would most like to have dinner with, she picked Robert Fagles.

[/ QUOTE ]What can you do being a classicist other than a professor? An author? Anything else?

[classicist]

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yeah that would be cool. are some translations more highly respected than others?

this would be fine i guess? :

http://www.amazon.com/Odyssey-Robert.../dp/0140268863

[/ QUOTE ]

I minored in Classics, a couple profs always used his translations, others Lattimore.

anyways, I'm not sure where I would starts. wikipedia seems like a good place for just basic facts/stories.

if you want to get more serious, the Iliad and Odyssey are both fantastic but dense and can be difficult to get through. I recommend reading Cliffs Notes for a chapter, then reading the actual translation once you already know what happens.

The Iliad is mainly the story of Achilles at the time of the sack of Troy (the famous war ended by the "Trojan Horse" ruse). the Iliad is largely about war, pretty badass.

The Odyssey tells of the travels of Odysseus as he attempts to get home from Troy. this is much more mystical/magical than the Iliad and tells lots of stories you might have heard of.

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My ex-girlfriend is a classicist. Once, when asked who in the entire world she would most like to have dinner with, she picked Robert Fagles.

[/ QUOTE ]What can you do being a classicist other than a professor? An author? Anything else?

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Teach at an all girls catholic high school!!!!

Also, the "Clash of the Titans" suggestion above is actually pretty good, a lot of those old sword and sandal myth movies are solid.

Fagles is a polarizing figure for classicists. His new Aeneid translation is total crap, and his Odyssey is barely tenable (and only tolerated because it's good for high school students and people not in the field). He is, however, very charismatic, so I probably wouldn't mind having dinner with him.

[PokrLikeItsProse]

Watch Hercules and Xena then look up things mentioned on Wikipedia to see how much the actual myths differed from how they were used in the two series.

[smokingrobot]

Homer's Iliad.

[Azizal]

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why on earth is this interesting? everything in the world interests me except for this lame useless topic

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Boring maybe. Useless never. American culture is basically the great-great-great-great grandchild of Greek Culture. Every form of western culture owes it's origin in part to the Greeks.

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Either you're Greek, or you spent thanksgiving at a Greek person's home and they didn't stop telling you this for the entire time. Crazy greeks.

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Nah, I've just read a lot of ancient history. No Greek friends or relatives. I do have a Greek screenname on several poker sites tho.