Edith Hamiltons novel Mythology is very well -known, this text introduces Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology. Hamilton really makes these stories come to life for the modern reader, her book is extremely informative on all the Greek and Roman myths. Hamilton makes sure to not only give facts in her book, but also includes context with it. She chooses the most distinguished myths, giving straightforward and easy to follow explanations while also adding graceful narratives to the stories meaning.
Greek, Roman, and Norse myths are the base of Western culture, and these stories really sparked creativity in people all the way from ancient times up until now.
This book contains a plethora of stories about the Gods and their interaction with each other and with humans. These tails start off at the very beginning and continue throughout the first generation of Gods and Goddesses until they begin interacting with mortals. When they start doing this, it causes many issues for both humans and the Gods.
Mythology conveys the worlds ancestry and the adventures of the Gods and mythological creatures that occur in the stories. We get to know the Greek Gods from Olympus and the Norse Gods from Valhalla in this book. We keep up with the great war, also known as the Trojan war and the tales of Odysseus. We take in the tales of the Olympians, Titans, Cupid and Jason and the Golden Fleece. I have always enjoyed reading about the Greek Gods and Edith Hamilton really does an amazing job of telling these stories keeping it simple yet interesting at the same time.
Hamilton states the point of this book is to show us the way the human race thought and felt untold ages ago. (13) She is also wanting to entertain her readers and give the audience more knowledge about the Roman and Greek Myths and how the ancient civilizations explained them, which she succeeds in doing. Hamilton wrote small passages at the beginning of the stories giving information on the original writers. The goal was to be as accurate as possible to the originals so the readers could understand what the original writers were like. Hamilton organized her book well making it an easy to follow read. She would group love stories in one section and then tales of the Trojan War in another. She also separated the Greek stories from the Roman ones. Hamiltons book was extremely educational when discussing the relationship between mortals and immortals. A lot of the stories are like one another, but were told by a different person, they would use a God, Goddess, or mortal that was similar.
Some of the myths use the same type of theme throughout the stories, for example, love would be one of the recurring ones. In some of the stories, people were told that the Gods gave love to the humans and it was not something they could avoid. Some of these stories would be heartfelt and emotional, while others contained humor in them. This really captured the audiences attention when reading the myths. The Quest of The Golden Fleece captured many readers attention, people wanted to know what happened to Jason and what the future held for him.