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Greek Myths
 
 
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Greek Myths (Paperback)

by Robert Graves (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 784 pages
  • Publisher: QPD; Illustrated Edition edition (26 Nov 1991)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0140171991
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140171990
  • Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 13.5 x 3.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 10,653 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #2 in  Books > Mind, Body & Spirit > Mythology > Storytelling
    #2 in  Books > Fiction > 20th Century Classics > Graves, Robert
    #3 in  Books > Reference > Other Reference By Subject > Student Guides > Research

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Product Description

Product Description

In a work that has become a classic reference book for both the serious scholar and the casual inquirer, Graves retells the adventures of the important gods and heroes worshipped by the ancient Greeks. Each entry provides a full commentary which examines problems of interpretation in both historical and anthropological terms, and in light of contemporary research.


About the Author

Robert Graves was born in 1895 in Wimbledon, the son of Irish writer Perceval Graves and Amalia Von Ranke. He went from school to the First World War, where he became a captain in the Royal Welch Fusiliers. After this, apart from a year as Professor of English Literature at Cairo University in 1926, he earned his living by writing, mostly historical novels, including: I, Claudius; Claudius the God; Count Belisarius; Wife of Mr Milton; Sergeant Lamb of the Ninth; Proceed, Sergeant Lamb; The Golden Fleece; They Hanged My Saintly Billy; and The Isles of Unwisdom. He wrote his autobiography, Goodbye to All That, in 1929, and it was soon established as a modern classic. The Times Literary Supplement acclaimed it as 'one of the most candid self portraits of a poet, warts and all, ever painted', as well as being of exceptional value as a war document. Two of his most discussed non-fiction works are The White Goddess, which presents a new view of the poetic impulse, and The Nazarine Gospel Restored (with Joshua Podro), a re-examination of primitive Christianity. He also translated Apuleius, Lucan and Suetonius for the Penguin Classics, and compiled the first modern dictionary of Greek Mythology, The Greek Myths. His translation of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (with Omar Ali-Shah) is also published in Penguin. He was elected Professor of Poetry at Oxford in 1961 and made an Honorary Fellow of St John's College, Oxford, in 1971. Robert Graves died on 7 December 1985 in Majorca, his home since 1929. On his death The Times wrote of him, 'He will be remembered for his achievements as a prose stylist, historical novelist and memorist, but above all as the great paradigm of the dedicated poet, "the greatest love poet in English since Donne".'
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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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79 of 80 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A remarkable reference book, 22 Sep 2004
By A Customer
This book is remarkable for many reasons. It covers the entire cannon of greek myths and legends in a refreshing and illuminating way. Graves cross-indexes the entire book with a kind of "internet-link hypertext" (this book was written WAY before the WWW) that can lead to surprising connections. And yes, he does present his ingenious "key" to understanding the "true" meanings "hidden" behind these stories, but he had the decency to separate these from the more generally accepted "University course" interpretations. And, as even critical reviewers have pointed out, even if you disagree with what he has to say, he was an extremely well read and scholarly man with an astonishing knack for rendering the past vivid and meaningful. His opinions are always thought provoking and worth reading...
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215 of 222 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An Exhaustive Text for Advanced Students of Greek Mythology, 13 April 2003
By Gary F. Taylor "GFT" (Biloxi, MS USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Robert Graves' THE GREEK MYTHS falls between the Victorian bombast of Bulfinch and the popular style of Edith Hamilton, less stylistically intimidating than the former and more scholarly than the latter. Originally published as a two volume set in 1955 with author revisions in 1957 and 1960, this single volume text does not abridge the original text but merely confines it to a single binding.

One's reaction to THE GREEK MYTHS will depend to some extent on one's purpose in acquiring it. This is an exhaustive collection of Greek mythology that far outstrips any other modern anthology that I have encountered, including myths both better known and extremely obscure. Each myth is presented in concise, graceful prose, and where possible Graves includes genealogies of the characters and major variations of each myth; an interpretive essay also follows each myth.

While Graves' retelling of the myths themselves have been widely praised, his interpretations of the myths have been somewhat criticized--and justly so. Graves tends to see incarnations of the "White Goddess" and the "Sacrificial King" in every third story; more dangerously, he tends to tie the myths to historical events in a highly speculative way. While this does not undercut the interest of his interpretations, it does hold a number of traps for the casual reader, who may assume that Graves' essays offer standard, scholastically unbiased interpretations based on proven historical events.

For myself, I use Graves' THE GREEK MYTHS as both reference and pleasure-reading, and I enjoy it a great deal; it is an indispensable purchase for any one with a serious interest in Greek mythology or for any one who must frequently reference the same for scholarly purposes, and I strongly recommend it to them. At the same time, however, I would hesitate to recommend it to readers who have not previously been exposed to Greek mythology or who wish only a general knowledge of the major Greek myths; in such cases I would instead recommend Edith Hamilton's MYTHOLOGY: TIMELESS TALES OF GODS AND HEROES.

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79 of 88 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The most exhaustive comparison of Greek Myth & stories extan, 4 Feb 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Greek Myths: Volume 1 (Paperback)
Robert Graves, like Joseph Campbell, is one of half a dozen mythographers who are in the top rank of this century. His exhaustive research and comparisons of sources are stunning in scope but instead of being bewildering he has captured the themes and synergies between stories and come to some remarkably cogent conclusions. Graves sees history in the myths rather than psychology, primarily, and believes that they tell veiled stories of real happenings that became emotionally and spiritually significant and therefore ripened into the orthodox Greek religion of the millenium B.C.. Just as the stories, therefore, of Jesus and Moses are also cloaked in a real history, he analyzes the probabilities that the coming of Zeus' patriarchy played a huge role in the formation of the Greek myths, and he tells us credibly how this influence clashed with the beliefs of earlier times. Graves has few peers in the depth and scope and detail of his understanding and because his research is so comprehensive, his conclusions must be given great weight.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Highly misleading
Robert Graves was a total individualist, and this book is highly misleading. Graves takes a load of disparate sources and stitches them together as though each myth were one... Read more
Published 12 days ago by Fuficius Fango

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic
I read this book in two sittings. The first while waiting in a hotel reception for my friend Darren. He was fairly late but I had plenty of time to kill. Read more
Published on 16 Jun 2007 by High Commissioner

3.0 out of 5 stars The myths are great but the commentary is horrible
This is a fine scholarly work collecting together all the Greek myths from various sources (Hesiod, Homer, Apollodorus, Pindar, etc. Read more
Published on 30 Dec 2003 by C. C. Williams

5.0 out of 5 stars Mindblowing
It takes a while to get through it but believe me, its worth it. Robert Graves gives an insight to the lives and the beliefs of the greeks all those years ago and puts all the... Read more
Published on 12 Sep 2001 by mark_arnold@breathemail.net

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