A fearful goddess who presides over the realm of the dead, which is called Hel (not synonymous with our word “hell,” however). The fact that a female occupies this position is a significant and striking difference from Greek and Roman myth. The Valkyries We meet the Greek gods on Olympus and Norse gods in Valhalla. We follow the drama of the Trojan War and the wanderings of Odysseus.

a b c d e f g Carol Kort (2007). A to Z of American Women Writers. Facts on File. pp. 125. ISBN 978-0-8160-6693-3. We hear the tales of Jason and the Golden Fleece, Cupid and Psyche, and mighty King Midas. We discover the origins of the names of the constellations. And we recognize reference points for countless works of art, literature, and cultural inquiry--from Freud's Oedipus complex to Wagner's Ring Cycle of operas to Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra. Casazza, Joseph. "Taming the Savageness of Man": Robert Kennedy, Edith Hamilton, and Their Sources", The Classical World, Baltimore, Winter 2003. Retrieved on 09 October 2018. Alice remarked, "Instead of the grandeur and beauty of Aeschylus and Sophocles, it seemed that the important thing was their use of the second aorist." See Singer, 74–75. Hm. I declared August "History Month" and read, amongst various others, Bulfinch's Mythology of which I was quite disappointed. In my research of his work and how it came to be I found a reference to this book by Edith Hamilton, who superseded Mr. Bulfinch in most classrooms. Thus I read this book in an attempt to find a better written encyclopedia. Unfortunately, I did not succeed.Now having said that, I have to note the caveat that this is not a scholarly work. This is a summary, a boiling-down, a sugar-coating of a topic that frankly could have been presented in a much more academic, dry manner. I'm glad it wasn't. These are not cursory run-throughs. They're full of detail and color. Roman name: Saturn. Cronus becomes the ruler of the Titans by overthrowing his father Ouranos. He swallows each of his children as his wife Rhea gives birth to them. Rhea is able to save one, Zeus, who forces Cronus to vomit up his siblings, with whom he defeats the Titans for control of the universe. Prometheus Sicherman, Barbara (1984). Alice Hamilton, A Life in Letters. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-01553-3. I also enjoyed how the author included different versions of the tales and who originally wrote these down- for example, there are different versions of Jason on the Argo, whether Atalanta was part of the Argo or not and a different tale of Ipigneia’s demise (which I especially loved as her story was so sad!). Edith Hamilton may have written Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes more than a half century ago and she may have been fairly ancient when she did so, but she still put out one seriously readable book!

Roman name: Neptune. The god of the sea, Poseidon is Zeus’s brother and second only to him in power. Poseidon holds a decade-long grudge against Odysseus. The often cruel and unpredictable violence of the seas is assumed to be a result of his anger. Hades Another son of King Priam, Hector is the bravest and most famous of the Trojan warriors. Unlike his brother Paris, he faces challenges with great strength and courage. His death ends the Iliad. Aeneas John William Waterhouse, Echo and Narcissus, in which Echo (who can only echo what other people say) fails to save Narcissus from drowning himself while admiring his own wonderful visage. Find sources: "Mythology"book– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( July 2009) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Hamilton was born in 1867 to an American family living in Dresden, Germany, and grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In 1894, she graduated from Bryn Mawr, a women’s school in Baltimore, and was then appointed headmistress there in 1896. In 1922, she retired from her headmistress position to focus on her writing and her studies of ancient Greek and Roman civilization. Hamilton’s experiences at Bryn Mawr undoubtedly affected the perspective of Mythology, where the theme of women struggling in a male-dominated world runs throughout the text. She died in 1963, having been made an honorary citizen of Athens, an award that signified what she considered the pinnacle of her life.

Greatly he failed, but he had greatly dared. And how Edith Hamilton tells Phaëthon’s story is just as engrossing. The idea of “ancient Greece” itself is problematic: for most of its history, the country was disunified, comprising frequently warring city-states, each with its own culture and history. Myths largely emerged from Athens, the most dominant of the city-states and the one that especially encouraged intellectual and artistic pursuits. It is not surprising, then, that the greatest literary legacy of ancient Greece would emerge from this dominant city.