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19 November 2007

ask MeCha - good alternatives to Bulfinch's? [More:]

I can't access Ask @ work, besides I don't think this question is worth it.

The mister's expressed interest in brushing up on Graeco-Roman mythology. Before you recommend them, I've already given him my old, beloved and well thumbed editions of Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth and Hero With A Thousand Faces.

I think he wants something less with the analysis / symbology meanings, more with the nuts-and-bolts anthology. Just the facts, ma'am.

I remember my mom's old torn-up college lit edition of Bulfinch's Mythology being a favourite read when I was a kid, and I think it's pretty much what he's looking for. My problem is that (as an adult) it reads as tho it's been edited-for-genteel-upperclass-sensibilities. That and it's kind of dated.

Who's got a good recommendation for a modern anthology of Graeco-Roman tales/fables/mythos that's not been overly bowdlerized?
Bulfinch's The Age of Fable (Or Beauties of Mythology) is available on the Web at Bartleby.com, so that your mister could at least sample it, before you decide to buy a copy (paper or e-book). It's one of those works that is broad enough in readership, and valuable enough in scope and execution, that it has, over time, kind of squelched its competition, for readers in modern English.
"Written to “teach mythology not as a study but as a relaxation from study,” these ageless volumes span the ages: from the Olympus of Zeus and the Valhalla of Thor, to the Round Table of King Arthur and the escapades of Robin Hood."
That said, the Norton Book of Classical Literature edited by Bernard Knox, is a worthwhile modern compilation of various translations of classic works, although it is more an anthology of classic literature, than purely a survey of mythology. Edith Hamilton's Mythology is a good thumbnail reference for those looking for a lively guide to Olympian characters, and being of smaller scope, is certainly more portable than Bulfinch for Hamilton restricting herself to ancient Greek mythology. Last year, a friend gave me Buxton's The Complete World of Greek Mythology, which has many interesting illustrations, and attempts to set, for the modern reader, in concise fashion, the world from which Greek myths sprang, although it contains only snippets of major myths that Bulfinch includes in toto. You may want to check if your local libraries have copies you and your mister can examine, before buying.

But for day to day homilies, I prefer leaving Greece's gods on Olympus, and looking to translations of Aesop, of which, Project Gutenberg offers an interesting edition.
posted by paulsc 19 November | 16:00
MeCha Decorating Tip #27 || AskFilmMecha: What about the dialogue in Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner? (possible spoilers)

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