BEST TALKING BOOK EVER, 31 Jan 2008
At once i loved this Talkingbook It was a brilliant find and i really loved it

Disappointing, 09 Nov 2006
I was so disappointed by this audio CD. The actor has a voice similar to Julian Clary and mispronounces some of the characters names! It could have been done a lot better.
Graphically gruesome in places, my rising 6 year old had nightmares. The Greek Myths are much loved in our house. We have books and audio books and this is the first disappointment.

Keeps the kids happy on long car journeys, 02 Aug 2006
We purchased this CD on the basis of another Amazon review and weren't disappointed. Ths kids (aged 8 & 6) love the stories (Heracles, Theseus, Perseus, Jason and the Argonauts among others) and the CD is requested on every car journey! It's a painless way of getting a bit of knowledge/history into us all. The stories are re-told in modern language with some music thrown in for effect at key points, which all adds to the effect. The narrator has a pleasant voice (important when these CDs are played repeatedly!) and even though we all know the stories backward now, enjoy them still.

BEST TALKING BOOK EVER, 31 Jan 2008
At once i loved this Talkingbook It was a brilliant find and i really loved it

Disappointing, 09 Nov 2006
I was so disappointed by this audio CD. The actor has a voice similar to Julian Clary and mispronounces some of the characters names! It could have been done a lot better.
Graphically gruesome in places, my rising 6 year old had nightmares. The Greek Myths are much loved in our house. We have books and audio books and this is the first disappointment.

Keeps the kids happy on long car journeys, 02 Aug 2006
We purchased this CD on the basis of another Amazon review and weren't disappointed. Ths kids (aged 8 & 6) love the stories (Heracles, Theseus, Perseus, Jason and the Argonauts among others) and the CD is requested on every car journey! It's a painless way of getting a bit of knowledge/history into us all. The stories are re-told in modern language with some music thrown in for effect at key points, which all adds to the effect. The narrator has a pleasant voice (important when these CDs are played repeatedly!) and even though we all know the stories backward now, enjoy them still.

Fantastic, 16 Jun 2007
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. One of the bots at reception, a tall greek from Corfu, saw me waiting and handed me the book, "I have committed it all to memory", "you can keep it" he vocoded. I sat down and read a few chapters before I started to think I'd told Darren the wrong moon. He must have gone to Europa. I couldn't wait another hour for contact with Europa, and had been told by Darren not to use the telecom relay networks around Jupiter. I stopped reading and caught the Ganymede/Europa bus from outside the hotel. After about ten minutes of listening entertained to the bus' weird babble of tongues, I got a call from Darren, he said he'd contracted Liver Flees while sightseeing on Jupiter's rocky core and was currently resting at the health centre on Europa. His voice was strangely restrained, I wasn't sure whether he was joking, though I remembered from a Jessop Attenborough programme, that Liver Flees need hydrogen to survive, and since the last of Jupiter's hydrogen had been tapped 130 years ago, i figured he was just protecting his cover, maybe the space masons were with him.

Sat next to me on the bus, was a mother and child of a familiar Mandarin-speaking alien race - The Squit. These clothe-less people are descendants of what on earth we call `birds', The mother had what looked like bird feathers for hair and the child was young enough to still have the fingers of one arm attached the wing, the other arm was free and flailing. The mother was very attractive but the child was annoying. It was telling me story after story, all of which ending in "and I didn't even cry". I tried to think of something to say to end the onslaught yet still maintain my chances with the mother. In desperation I asked the mother "what's your favourite seed". I really wish I hadn't. She seized the opportunity to recite a litany of edible seeds from far and wide. Stumbling to think of a top top favourite seed, she looked up at the ceiling in thought. This gave me time to catch sight of her flange and busters, the joyous vision of overpowering my torment. Before I could completed SWOT analysis, she looked at me and carried on with her jabbering fusillade of seed talk. In total awe I looked back up at her beautiful beak, clasped it shut and kissed her on her beady black eye.

A remarkable reference book, 22 Sep 2004
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...

The myths are great but the commentary is horrible, 30 Dec 2003
This is a fine scholarly work collecting together all the Greek myths from various sources (Hesiod, Homer, Apollodorus, Pindar, etc.) and retelling them in a highly accessible manner. However, for every page of Greek myth there are two pages of Graves's commentary and here is where the problem lies. It's all sacred queen and sacrificial king nonsense, the sort of prehistoric fantasy that he went on about at tedious length in the 'White Goddess'. Lacking documentary evidence, he feels free to impose whatever fantasy he likes on prehistoric European society and, at heart, Graves was nothing more than a new-age mystic. Nonetheless, buried among the dross there is real scholarship which makes you feel that you should read the commentary in case you miss something genuinely illuminating. It does make it damned hard going, though.

An Exhaustive Text for Advanced Students of Greek Mythology, 13 Apr 2003
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.

Mindblowing, 12 Sep 2001
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 confusing stories into perspective and Summarises the symbolisum of the stories.

BEST TALKING BOOK EVER, 31 Jan 2008
At once i loved this Talkingbook It was a brilliant find and i really loved it

Disappointing, 09 Nov 2006
I was so disappointed by this audio CD. The actor has a voice similar to Julian Clary and mispronounces some of the characters names! It could have been done a lot better.
Graphically gruesome in places, my rising 6 year old had nightmares. The Greek Myths are much loved in our house. We have books and audio books and this is the first disappointment.

Keeps the kids happy on long car journeys, 02 Aug 2006
We purchased this CD on the basis of another Amazon review and weren't disappointed. Ths kids (aged 8 & 6) love the stories (Heracles, Theseus, Perseus, Jason and the Argonauts among others) and the CD is requested on every car journey! It's a painless way of getting a bit of knowledge/history into us all. The stories are re-told in modern language with some music thrown in for effect at key points, which all adds to the effect. The narrator has a pleasant voice (important when these CDs are played repeatedly!) and even though we all know the stories backward now, enjoy them still.

Fantastic, 16 Jun 2007
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. One of the bots at reception, a tall greek from Corfu, saw me waiting and handed me the book, "I have committed it all to memory", "you can keep it" he vocoded. I sat down and read a few chapters before I started to think I'd told Darren the wrong moon. He must have gone to Europa. I couldn't wait another hour for contact with Europa, and had been told by Darren not to use the telecom relay networks around Jupiter. I stopped reading and caught the Ganymede/Europa bus from outside the hotel. After about ten minutes of listening entertained to the bus' weird babble of tongues, I got a call from Darren, he said he'd contracted Liver Flees while sightseeing on Jupiter's rocky core and was currently resting at the health centre on Europa. His voice was strangely restrained, I wasn't sure whether he was joking, though I remembered from a Jessop Attenborough programme, that Liver Flees need hydrogen to survive, and since the last of Jupiter's hydrogen had been tapped 130 years ago, i figured he was just protecting his cover, maybe the space masons were with him.

Sat next to me on the bus, was a mother and child of a familiar Mandarin-speaking alien race - The Squit. These clothe-less people are descendants of what on earth we call `birds', The mother had what looked like bird feathers for hair and the child was young enough to still have the fingers of one arm attached the wing, the other arm was free and flailing. The mother was very attractive but the child was annoying. It was telling me story after story, all of which ending in "and I didn't even cry". I tried to think of something to say to end the onslaught yet still maintain my chances with the mother. In desperation I asked the mother "what's your favourite seed". I really wish I hadn't. She seized the opportunity to recite a litany of edible seeds from far and wide. Stumbling to think of a top top favourite seed, she looked up at the ceiling in thought. This gave me time to catch sight of her flange and busters, the joyous vision of overpowering my torment. Before I could completed SWOT analysis, she looked at me and carried on with her jabbering fusillade of seed talk. In total awe I looked back up at her beautiful beak, clasped it shut and kissed her on her beady black eye.

A remarkable reference book, 22 Sep 2004
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...

The myths are great but the commentary is horrible, 30 Dec 2003
This is a fine scholarly work collecting together all the Greek myths from various sources (Hesiod, Homer, Apollodorus, Pindar, etc.) and retelling them in a highly accessible manner. However, for every page of Greek myth there are two pages of Graves's commentary and here is where the problem lies. It's all sacred queen and sacrificial king nonsense, the sort of prehistoric fantasy that he went on about at tedious length in the 'White Goddess'. Lacking documentary evidence, he feels free to impose whatever fantasy he likes on prehistoric European society and, at heart, Graves was nothing more than a new-age mystic. Nonetheless, buried among the dross there is real scholarship which makes you feel that you should read the commentary in case you miss something genuinely illuminating. It does make it damned hard going, though.

An Exhaustive Text for Advanced Students of Greek Mythology, 13 Apr 2003
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.

Mindblowing, 12 Sep 2001
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 confusing stories into perspective and Summarises the symbolisum of the stories.

Don't myth it..., 05 Jan 2006
'Mythology for Dummies' is part of the widely-read 'Dummies' series, and lives up to most of the expectations one might have of a volume in that series. It has the requisite cartoons, the various side-bar items throughout the text, and the the top-ten lists at the end - in this case, the Top Ten Places (which includes Vahalla, Elysium, Atlantis, even Brigadoon) and the Top Ten Monsters (Gorgons, Unicorns, the Sphinx, dragons, etc.).

This is a volume of mythology is not just classical Greek and Roman mythology (that which most people think of when they think of mythology). It does include these in good measure, but also goes further afield to include an overview of the main characters, stories and ideas of mythological constructs in cultures all over the world. These include some that are familiar and related to the Greco-Roman traditions - Egypt, ancient Mesopotamia, Celtic and Nordic mythologies. There are also those that are quite removed from this collection of pantheons - the Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Native American traditions of mythology are also included here.

The first section gives a brief overview of what mythology is and isn't. It doesn't go too deeply into the debate over religion (after all, one person's mythology might be another person's religion). It does give some insight into the purpose of such stories for the cultures that maintained them, and how we have come to regard such tales in more modern times. Mythology is not just about gods, goddesses and monsters, after all. Often there is a very strong human component in the myths, which can serve for ethical and moral instruction as well as inspiration. These are written in the witty style typical of the series - 'How to spot a myth a mile away' is one section title. Mythology is also shown to be not something exclusively of the ancient world - American myths such as Johnny Appleseed and Br'er Rabbit are highlighted as examples.

Some of the stories included here fall more under the category of 'legend' than 'mythology' in popular definition - the stories of King Arthur, for example, do fall under the category of mythology, although it is rarely assigned such categorisation for a host of reasons. However, the Arthurian legends are contained here (one section is entitled 'Sex, Lies, and Good Jousting'). The text also ventures into the delicate area of the parallels between ancient Mesopotamian legends and early Biblical stories - tales such as the Tower of Babel and the Great Flood bear striking similarity to many extra-canonical tales in the ancient region.

The prose is good and accessible, like most of the Dummies books. There are some graphics and line-art drawings, and the chapters are short enough for the typical reader to finish easily in one sitting. This is a fun way to learn the old stories, and relate them to modern times. I would recommend this book for adults with a general interest, and also for undergraduate students and even high school students who want a survey of the material.

BEST TALKING BOOK EVER, 31 Jan 2008
At once i loved this Talkingbook It was a brilliant find and i really loved it

Disappointing, 09 Nov 2006
I was so disappointed by this audio CD. The actor has a voice similar to Julian Clary and mispronounces some of the characters names! It could have been done a lot better.
Graphically gruesome in places, my rising 6 year old had nightmares. The Greek Myths are much loved in our house. We have books and audio books and this is the first disappointment.

Keeps the kids happy on long car journeys, 02 Aug 2006
We purchased this CD on the basis of another Amazon review and weren't disappointed. Ths kids (aged 8 & 6) love the stories (Heracles, Theseus, Perseus, Jason and the Argonauts among others) and the CD is requested on every car journey! It's a painless way of getting a bit of knowledge/history into us all. The stories are re-told in modern language with some music thrown in for effect at key points, which all adds to the effect. The narrator has a pleasant voice (important when these CDs are played repeatedly!) and even though we all know the stories backward now, enjoy them still.

Fantastic, 16 Jun 2007
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. One of the bots at reception, a tall greek from Corfu, saw me waiting and handed me the book, "I have committed it all to memory", "you can keep it" he vocoded. I sat down and read a few chapters before I started to think I'd told Darren the wrong moon. He must have gone to Europa. I couldn't wait another hour for contact with Europa, and had been told by Darren not to use the telecom relay networks around Jupiter. I stopped reading and caught the Ganymede/Europa bus from outside the hotel. After about ten minutes of listening entertained to the bus' weird babble of tongues, I got a call from Darren, he said he'd contracted Liver Flees while sightseeing on Jupiter's rocky core and was currently resting at the health centre on Europa. His voice was strangely restrained, I wasn't sure whether he was joking, though I remembered from a Jessop Attenborough programme, that Liver Flees need hydrogen to survive, and since the last of Jupiter's hydrogen had been tapped 130 years ago, i figured he was just protecting his cover, maybe the space masons were with him.

Sat next to me on the bus, was a mother and child of a familiar Mandarin-speaking alien race - The Squit. These clothe-less people are descendants of what on earth we call `birds', The mother had what looked like bird feathers for hair and the child was young enough to still have the fingers of one arm attached the wing, the other arm was free and flailing. The mother was very attractive but the child was annoying. It was telling me story after story, all of which ending in "and I didn't even cry". I tried to think of something to say to end the onslaught yet still maintain my chances with the mother. In desperation I asked the mother "what's your favourite seed". I really wish I hadn't. She seized the opportunity to recite a litany of edible seeds from far and wide. Stumbling to think of a top top favourite seed, she looked up at the ceiling in thought. This gave me time to catch sight of her flange and busters, the joyous vision of overpowering my torment. Before I could completed SWOT analysis, she looked at me and carried on with her jabbering fusillade of seed talk. In total awe I looked back up at her beautiful beak, clasped it shut and kissed her on her beady black eye.

A remarkable reference book, 22 Sep 2004
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...

The myths are great but the commentary is horrible, 30 Dec 2003
This is a fine scholarly work collecting together all the Greek myths from various sources (Hesiod, Homer, Apollodorus, Pindar, etc.) and retelling them in a highly accessible manner. However, for every page of Greek myth there are two pages of Graves's commentary and here is where the problem lies. It's all sacred queen and sacrificial king nonsense, the sort of prehistoric fantasy that he went on about at tedious length in the 'White Goddess'. Lacking documentary evidence, he feels free to impose whatever fantasy he likes on prehistoric European society and, at heart, Graves was nothing more than a new-age mystic. Nonetheless, buried among the dross there is real scholarship which makes you feel that you should read the commentary in case you miss something genuinely illuminating. It does make it damned hard going, though.

An Exhaustive Text for Advanced Students of Greek Mythology, 13 Apr 2003
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.

Mindblowing, 12 Sep 2001
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 confusing stories into perspective and Summarises the symbolisum of the stories.

Don't myth it..., 05 Jan 2006
'Mythology for Dummies' is part of the widely-read 'Dummies' series, and lives up to most of the expectations one might have of a volume in that series. It has the requisite cartoons, the various side-bar items throughout the text, and the the top-ten lists at the end - in this case, the Top Ten Places (which includes Vahalla, Elysium, Atlantis, even Brigadoon) and the Top Ten Monsters (Gorgons, Unicorns, the Sphinx, dragons, etc.).

This is a volume of mythology is not just classical Greek and Roman mythology (that which most people think of when they think of mythology). It does include these in good measure, but also goes further afield to include an overview of the main characters, stories and ideas of mythological constructs in cultures all over the world. These include some that are familiar and related to the Greco-Roman traditions - Egypt, ancient Mesopotamia, Celtic and Nordic mythologies. There are also those that are quite removed from this collection of pantheons - the Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Native American traditions of mythology are also included here.

The first section gives a brief overview of what mythology is and isn't. It doesn't go too deeply into the debate over religion (after all, one person's mythology might be another person's religion). It does give some insight into the purpose of such stories for the cultures that maintained them, and how we have come to regard such tales in more modern times. Mythology is not just about gods, goddesses and monsters, after all. Often there is a very strong human component in the myths, which can serve for ethical and moral instruction as well as inspiration. These are written in the witty style typical of the series - 'How to spot a myth a mile away' is one section title. Mythology is also shown to be not something exclusively of the ancient world - American myths such as Johnny Appleseed and Br'er Rabbit are highlighted as examples.

Some of the stories included here fall more under the category of 'legend' than 'mythology' in popular definition - the stories of King Arthur, for example, do fall under the category of mythology, although it is rarely assigned such categorisation for a host of reasons. However, the Arthurian legends are contained here (one section is entitled 'Sex, Lies, and Good Jousting'). The text also ventures into the delicate area of the parallels between ancient Mesopotamian legends and early Biblical stories - tales such as the Tower of Babel and the Great Flood bear striking similarity to many extra-canonical tales in the ancient region.

The prose is good and accessible, like most of the Dummies books. There are some graphics and line-art drawings, and the chapters are short enough for the typical reader to finish easily in one sitting. This is a fun way to learn the old stories, and relate them to modern times. I would recommend this book for adults with a general interest, and also for undergraduate students and even high school students who want a survey of the material.

Stunning, essential reading for the spiritual growth of Man!, 25 Jul 2006
Get the abridged Oxford World's Classics edition which includes Frazer's original speculation on the wholly ritual, and symbolic, nature of Christ's crucifixion and, overall, you'll digest a book that will speak to you in ways you never imagined a book could. A sweeping account, from the very dawn of recorded history to the relative present, of Mankind's beliefs, traditions and rituals, The Golden Bough propels you from the start into an epic true story of nothing less than Mankind's inexhaustable quest for an understanding of - and union with - the mysterious, divine powers that create and sustain the world's existence.

With this remarkable work, so brilliantly researched and weaved together, we learn that universal themes and common tribal practices have been adopted by Man throughout all of history, and across all the world's diverse cultures, suggesting that we really do operate from a "collective unconsciousness", as Swiss therapist Jung termed it.

What is strongly suggested from Frazer's starkly drawn postcards from the past is that the enactment of myth and ritual may actually have a real impact, both esoterically and exoterically, on actual life and nature. It's not all cosmetic or mere superstition. And, indeed, once we re-engage with these universal, deeply rooted ideas, we might even find a registering of their phenomena in our personal and collective psyche. Reading this book for these metaphysical side effects alone is worth the investment!

In an ideal, spiritually oriented world, this book would be read in primary schools world-wide as a vital companion to Darwinism, to teach children how modern religion is nothing more than a re-branding of old myths and rituals - with these religions, in turn, being grossly misinterepted as facts instead of symbols, and entrusted to the "teachings" of a corrupt, inept and hopelessly unenlightened church order. The best we can do in the absence of this book being compulsory reading in schools is to get a copy as soon as we hear about it as adults and let Frazer's genius do the rest. What are you waiting for?

Apocalpyse Now, 02 Dec 2002
If you have a special room for Coppola's Apocalpyse Now in your heart, then this is a must read. In a scene in the temple, Coppola zooms the Golden Bough as Marlon Brando's reference book in the secluded "paradise of horror" he has built. This book is mystical, inspirational and influential to people who search for answers besides the traditional. To gain an additional insight- see how mankind was explanining the life and world we live way back...

More ideas than you can shake a magic stick at., 24 Aug 2002
This work scores a big fat zero for political correctness and it is occasionally infuriating because of its outmoded conclusions, but it reveals a wonderful picture of a lost age of superstition and simple humanity. The thing that struck me was the spectrum of beliefs that human beings are capable of. The ancient ideas that the author tells us of somehow make the rational world we live in today seem almost inhuman. The information is often anecdotal and unsupported, but it's a marvellous read. I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in the original pool of raw ideas that Man lived by when he first looked about the world and tried to find some meaning, and how that may have led to religion, and ultimately reason.

A charming and witty study although old fashioned and slow, 06 Apr 2001
Although old fashioned in presentation, method and writing style (and apparently opinion) this graceful text drives you from myth and folklore to magic and voodoo, a journey around the globe linking social and anthropological topics from a range of cultures into a honed argument that is so charmingly offered that if it wanders occasionally from its original point(s) you find yourself forgiving for the horizons these meanders spread before you

Indespensable, 30 Nov 2000
Have you ever had a seemingly impossible to win argument? Or needed an excuse for an impromptu celebration? Then grab a copy of The Golden Bough...enough pagan holidays and fire festivals to satisfy the most ardent firework junkie, and loads of useful (?) facts as well. It is also very interesting to browse through, and you can find out a surprising amount.

BEST TALKING BOOK EVER, 31 Jan 2008
At once i loved this Talkingbook It was a brilliant find and i really loved it

Disappointing, 09 Nov 2006
I was so disappointed by this audio CD. The actor has a voice similar to Julian Clary and mispronounces some of the characters names! It could have been done a lot better.
Graphically gruesome in places, my rising 6 year old had nightmares. The Greek Myths are much loved in our house. We have books and audio books and this is the first disappointment.

Keeps the kids happy on long car journeys, 02 Aug 2006
We purchased this CD on the basis of another Amazon review and weren't disappointed. Ths kids (aged 8 & 6) love the stories (Heracles, Theseus, Perseus, Jason and the Argonauts among others) and the CD is requested on every car journey! It's a painless way of getting a bit of knowledge/history into us all. The stories are re-told in modern language with some music thrown in for effect at key points, which all adds to the effect. The narrator has a pleasant voice (important when these CDs are played repeatedly!) and even though we all know the stories backward now, enjoy them still.

Fantastic, 16 Jun 2007
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. One of the bots at reception, a tall greek from Corfu, saw me waiting and handed me the book, "I have committed it all to memory", "you can keep it" he vocoded. I sat down and read a few chapters before I started to think I'd told Darren the wrong moon. He must have gone to Europa. I couldn't wait another hour for contact with Europa, and had been told by Darren not to use the telecom relay networks around Jupiter. I stopped reading and caught the Ganymede/Europa bus from outside the hotel. After about ten minutes of listening entertained to the bus' weird babble of tongues, I got a call from Darren, he said he'd contracted Liver Flees while sightseeing on Jupiter's rocky core and was currently resting at the health centre on Europa. His voice was strangely restrained, I wasn't sure whether he was joking, though I remembered from a Jessop Attenborough programme, that Liver Flees need hydrogen to survive, and since the last of Jupiter's hydrogen had been tapped 130 years ago, i figured he was just protecting his cover, maybe the space masons were with him.

Sat next to me on the bus, was a mother and child of a familiar Mandarin-speaking alien race - The Squit. These clothe-less people are descendants of what on earth we call `birds', The mother had what looked like bird feathers for hair and the child was young enough to still have the fingers of one arm attached the wing, the other arm was free and flailing. The mother was very attractive but the child was annoying. It was telling me story after story, all of which ending in "and I didn't even cry". I tried to think of something to say to end the onslaught yet still maintain my chances with the mother. In desperation I asked the mother "what's your favourite seed". I really wish I hadn't. She seized the opportunity to recite a litany of edible seeds from far and wide. Stumbling to think of a top top favourite seed, she looked up at the ceiling in thought. This gave me time to catch sight of her flange and busters, the joyous vision of overpowering my torment. Before I could completed SWOT analysis, she looked at me and carried on with her jabbering fusillade of seed talk. In total awe I looked back up at her beautiful beak, clasped it shut and kissed her on her beady black eye.

A remarkable reference book, 22 Sep 2004
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...

The myths are great but the commentary is horrible, 30 Dec 2003
This is a fine scholarly work collecting together all the Greek myths from various sources (Hesiod, Homer, Apollodorus, Pindar, etc.) and retelling them in a highly accessible manner. However, for every page of Greek myth there are two pages of Graves's commentary and here is where the problem lies. It's all sacred queen and sacrificial king nonsense, the sort of prehistoric fantasy that he went on about at tedious length in the 'White Goddess'. Lacking documentary evidence, he feels free to impose whatever fantasy he likes on prehistoric European society and, at heart, Graves was nothing more than a new-age mystic. Nonetheless, buried among the dross there is real scholarship which makes you feel that you should read the commentary in case you miss something genuinely illuminating. It does make it damned hard going, though.

An Exhaustive Text for Advanced Students of Greek Mythology, 13 Apr 2003
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.

Mindblowing, 12 Sep 2001
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 confusing stories into perspective and Summarises the symbolisum of the stories.

Don't myth it..., 05 Jan 2006
'Mythology for Dummies' is part of the widely-read 'Dummies' series, and lives up to most of the expectations one might have of a volume in that series. It has the requisite cartoons, the various side-bar items throughout the text, and the the top-ten lists at the end - in this case, the Top Ten Places (which includes Vahalla, Elysium, Atlantis, even Brigadoon) and the Top Ten Monsters (Gorgons, Unicorns, the Sphinx, dragons, etc.).

This is a volume of mythology is not just classical Greek and Roman mythology (that which most people think of when they think of mythology). It does include these in good measure, but also goes further afield to include an overview of the main characters, stories and ideas of mythological constructs in cultures all over the world. These include some that are familiar and related to the Greco-Roman traditions - Egypt, ancient Mesopotamia, Celtic and Nordic mythologies. There are also those that are quite removed from this collection of pantheons - the Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Native American traditions of mythology are also included here.

The first section gives a brief overview of what mythology is and isn't. It doesn't go too deeply into the debate over religion (after all, one person's mythology might be another person's religion). It does give some insight into the purpose of such stories for the cultures that maintained them, and how we have come to regard such tales in more modern times. Mythology is not just about gods, goddesses and monsters, after all. Often there is a very strong human component in the myths, which can serve for ethical and moral instruction as well as inspiration. These are written in the witty style typical of the series - 'How to spot a myth a mile away' is one section title. Mythology is also shown to be not something exclusively of the ancient world - American myths such as Johnny Appleseed and Br'er Rabbit are highlighted as examples.

Some of the stories included here fall more under the category of 'legend' than 'mythology' in popular definition - the stories of King Arthur, for example, do fall under the category of mythology, although it is rarely assigned such categorisation for a host of reasons. However, the Arthurian legends are contained here (one section is entitled 'Sex, Lies, and Good Jousting'). The text also ventures into the delicate area of the parallels between ancient Mesopotamian legends and early Biblical stories - tales such as the Tower of Babel and the Great Flood bear striking similarity to many extra-canonical tales in the ancient region.

The prose is good and accessible, like most of the Dummies books. There are some graphics and line-art drawings, and the chapters are short enough for the typical reader to finish easily in one sitting. This is a fun way to learn the old stories, and relate them to modern times. I would recommend this book for adults with a general interest, and also for undergraduate students and even high school students who want a survey of the material.

Stunning, essential reading for the spiritual growth of Man!, 25 Jul 2006
Get the abridged Oxford World's Classics edition which includes Frazer's original speculation on the wholly ritual, and symbolic, nature of Christ's crucifixion and, overall, you'll digest a book that will speak to you in ways you never imagined a book could. A sweeping account, from the very dawn of recorded history to the relative present, of Mankind's beliefs, traditions and rituals, The Golden Bough propels you from the start into an epic true story of nothing less than Mankind's inexhaustable quest for an understanding of - and union with - the mysterious, divine powers that create and sustain the world's existence.

With this remarkable work, so brilliantly researched and weaved together, we learn that universal themes and common tribal practices have been adopted by Man throughout all of history, and across all the world's diverse cultures, suggesting that we really do operate from a "collective unconsciousness", as Swiss therapist Jung termed it.

What is strongly suggested from Frazer's starkly drawn postcards from the past is that the enactment of myth and ritual may actually have a real impact, both esoterically and exoterically, on actual life and nature. It's not all cosmetic or mere superstition. And, indeed, once we re-engage with these universal, deeply rooted ideas, we might even find a registering of their phenomena in our personal and collective psyche. Reading this book for these metaphysical side effects alone is worth the investment!

In an ideal, spiritually oriented world, this book would be read in primary schools world-wide as a vital companion to Darwinism, to teach children how modern religion is nothing more than a re-branding of old myths and rituals - with these religions, in turn, being grossly misinterepted as facts instead of symbols, and entrusted to the "teachings" of a corrupt, inept and hopelessly unenlightened church order. The best we can do in the absence of this book being compulsory reading in schools is to get a copy as soon as we hear about it as adults and let Frazer's genius do the rest. What are you waiting for?

Apocalpyse Now, 02 Dec 2002
If you have a special room for Coppola's Apocalpyse Now in your heart, then this is a must read. In a scene in the temple, Coppola zooms the Golden Bough as Marlon Brando's reference book in the secluded "paradise of horror" he has built. This book is mystical, inspirational and influential to people who search for answers besides the traditional. To gain an additional insight- see how mankind was explanining the life and world we live way back...

More ideas than you can shake a magic stick at., 24 Aug 2002
This work scores a big fat zero for political correctness and it is occasionally infuriating because of its outmoded conclusions, but it reveals a wonderful picture of a lost age of superstition and simple humanity. The thing that struck me was the spectrum of beliefs that human beings are capable of. The ancient ideas that the author tells us of somehow make the rational world we live in today seem almost inhuman. The information is often anecdotal and unsupported, but it's a marvellous read. I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in the original pool of raw ideas that Man lived by when he first looked about the world and tried to find some meaning, and how that may have led to religion, and ultimately reason.

A charming and witty study although old fashioned and slow, 06 Apr 2001
Although old fashioned in presentation, method and writing style (and apparently opinion) this graceful text drives you from myth and folklore to magic and voodoo, a journey around the globe linking social and anthropological topics from a range of cultures into a honed argument that is so charmingly offered that if it wanders occasionally from its original point(s) you find yourself forgiving for the horizons these meanders spread before you

Indespensable, 30 Nov 2000
Have you ever had a seemingly impossible to win argument? Or needed an excuse for an impromptu celebration? Then grab a copy of The Golden Bough...enough pagan holidays and fire festivals to satisfy the most ardent firework junkie, and loads of useful (?) facts as well. It is also very interesting to browse through, and you can find out a surprising amount.

The complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, 24 May 2003
On opening the cover of this Book,I little realised it would be so hard to put down again, seduced by lavish illustrations and a very understandable format of what is after all a very diverse, though interesting subject, yes there are many other books on the market covering this subject, we can all argue about Egyptian religion,but I feel this book is a sound fountation for anybody with that initial interest in this subject,It makes a worthy addition to the rest of the Thames and Hudson series, if you only ever buy one book on Egyptian religion look no further

BEST TALKING BOOK EVER, 31 Jan 2008
At once i loved this Talkingbook It was a brilliant find and i really loved it

Disappointing, 09 Nov 2006
I was so disappointed by this audio CD. The actor has a voice similar to Julian Clary and mispronounces some of the characters names! It could have been done a lot better.
Graphically gruesome in places, my rising 6 year old had nightmares. The Greek Myths are much loved in our house. We have books and audio books and this is the first disappointment.

Keeps the kids happy on long car journeys, 02 Aug 2006
We purchased this CD on the basis of another Amazon review and weren't disappointed. Ths kids (aged 8 & 6) love the stories (Heracles, Theseus, Perseus, Jason and the Argonauts among others) and the CD is requested on every car journey! It's a painless way of getting a bit of knowledge/history into us all. The stories are re-told in modern language with some music thrown in for effect at key points, which all adds to the effect. The narrator has a pleasant voice (important when these CDs are played repeatedly!) and even though we all know the stories backward now, enjoy them still.

Fantastic, 16 Jun 2007
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. One of the bots at reception, a tall greek from Corfu, saw me waiting and handed me the book, "I have committed it all to memory", "you can keep it" he vocoded. I sat down and read a few chapters before I started to think I'd told Darren the wrong moon. He must have gone to Europa. I couldn't wait another hour for contact with Europa, and had been told by Darren not to use the telecom relay networks around Jupiter. I stopped reading and caught the Ganymede/Europa bus from outside the hotel. After about ten minutes of listening entertained to the bus' weird babble of tongues, I got a call from Darren, he said he'd contracted Liver Flees while sightseeing on Jupiter's rocky core and was currently resting at the health centre on Europa. His voice was strangely restrained, I wasn't sure whether he was joking, though I remembered from a Jessop Attenborough programme, that Liver Flees need hydrogen to survive, and since the last of Jupiter's hydrogen had been tapped 130 years ago, i figured he was just protecting his cover, maybe the space masons were with him.

Sat next to me on the bus, was a mother and child of a familiar Mandarin-speaking alien race - The Squit. These clothe-less people are descendants of what on earth we call `birds', The mother had what looked like bird feathers for hair and the child was young enough to still have the fingers of one arm attached the wing, the other arm was free and flailing. The mother was very attractive but the child was annoying. It was telling me story after story, all of which ending in "and I didn't even cry". I tried to think of something to say to end the onslaught yet still maintain my chances with the mother. In desperation I asked the mother "what's your favourite seed". I really wish I hadn't. She seized the opportunity to recite a litany of edible seeds from far and wide. Stumbling to think of a top top favourite seed, she looked up at the ceiling in thought. This gave me time to catch sight of her flange and busters, the joyous vision of overpowering my torment. Before I could completed SWOT analysis, she looked at me and carried on with her jabbering fusillade of seed talk. In total awe I looked back up at her beautiful beak, clasped it shut and kissed her on her beady black eye.

A remarkable reference book, 22 Sep 2004
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...

The myths are great but the commentary is horrible, 30 Dec 2003
This is a fine scholarly work collecting together all the Greek myths from various sources (Hesiod, Homer, Apollodorus, Pindar, etc.) and retelling them in a highly accessible manner. However, for every page of Greek myth there are two pages of Graves's commentary and here is where the problem lies. It's all sacred queen and sacrificial king nonsense, the sort of prehistoric fantasy that he went on about at tedious length in the 'White Goddess'. Lacking documentary evidence, he feels free to impose whatever fantasy he likes on prehistoric European society and, at heart, Graves was nothing more than a new-age mystic. Nonetheless, buried among the dross there is real scholarship which makes you feel that you should read the commentary in case you miss something genuinely illuminating. It does make it damned hard going, though.

An Exhaustive Text for Advanced Students of Greek Mythology, 13 Apr 2003
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.

Mindblowing, 12 Sep 2001
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 confusing stories into perspective and Summarises the symbolisum of the stories.

Don't myth it..., 05 Jan 2006
'Mythology for Dummies' is part of the widely-read 'Dummies' series, and lives up to most of the expectations one might have of a volume in that series. It has the requisite cartoons, the various side-bar items throughout the text, and the the top-ten lists at the end - in this case, the Top Ten Places (which includes Vahalla, Elysium, Atlantis, even Brigadoon) and the Top Ten Monsters (Gorgons, Unicorns, the Sphinx, dragons, etc.).

This is a volume of mythology is not just classical Greek and Roman mythology (that which most people think of when they think of mythology). It does include these in good measure, but also goes further afield to include an overview of the main characters, stories and ideas of mythological constructs in cultures all over the world. These include some that are familiar and related to the Greco-Roman traditions - Egypt, ancient Mesopotamia, Celtic and Nordic mythologies. There are also those that are quite removed from this collection of pantheons - the Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Native American traditions of mythology are also included here.

The first section gives a brief overview of what mythology is and isn't. It doesn't go too deeply into the debate over religion (after all, one person's mythology might be another person's religion). It does give some insight into the purpose of such stories for the cultures that maintained them, and how we have come to regard such tales in more modern times. Mythology is not just about gods, goddesses and monsters, after all. Often there is a very strong human component in the myths, which can serve for ethical and moral instruction as well as inspiration. These are written in the witty style typical of the series - 'How to spot a myth a mile away' is one section title. Mythology is also shown to be not something exclusively of the ancient world - American myths such as Johnny Appleseed and Br'er Rabbit are highlighted as examples.

Some of the stories included here fall more under the category of 'legend' than 'mythology' in popular definition - the stories of King Arthur, for example, do fall under the category of mythology, although it is rarely assigned such categorisation for a host of reasons. However, the Arthurian legends are contained here (one section is entitled 'Sex, Lies, and Good Jousting'). The text also ventures into the delicate area of the parallels between ancient Mesopotamian legends and early Biblical stories - tales such as the Tower of Babel and the Great Flood bear striking similarity to many extra-canonical tales in the ancient region.

The prose is good and accessible, like most of the Dummies books. There are some graphics and line-art drawings, and the chapters are short enough for the typical reader to finish easily in one sitting. This is a fun way to learn the old stories, and relate them to modern times. I would recommend this book for adults with a general interest, and also for undergraduate students and even high school students who want a survey of the material.

Stunning, essential reading for the spiritual growth of Man!, 25 Jul 2006
Get the abridged Oxford World's Classics edition which includes Frazer's original speculation on the wholly ritual, and symbolic, nature of Christ's crucifixion and, overall, you'll digest a book that will speak to you in ways you never imagined a book could. A sweeping account, from the very dawn of recorded history to the relative present, of Mankind's beliefs, traditions and rituals, The Golden Bough propels you from the start into an epic true story of nothing less than Mankind's inexhaustable quest for an understanding of - and union with - the mysterious, divine powers that create and sustain the world's existence.

With this remarkable work, so brilliantly researched and weaved together, we learn that universal themes and common tribal practices have been adopted by Man throughout all of history, and across all the world's diverse cultures, suggesting that we really do operate from a "collective unconsciousness", as Swiss therapist Jung termed it.

What is strongly suggested from Frazer's starkly drawn postcards from the past is that the enactment of myth and ritual may actually have a real impact, both esoterically and exoterically, on actual life and nature. It's not all cosmetic or mere superstition. And, indeed, once we re-engage with these universal, deeply rooted ideas, we might even find a registering of their phenomena in our personal and collective psyche. Reading this book for these metaphysical side effects alone is worth the investment!

In an ideal, spiritually oriented world, this book would be read in primary schools world-wide as a vital companion to Darwinism, to teach children how modern religion is nothing more than a re-branding of old myths and rituals - with these religions, in turn, being grossly misinterepted as facts instead of symbols, and entrusted to the "teachings" of a corrupt, inept and hopelessly unenlightened church order. The best we can do in the absence of this book being compulsory reading in schools is to get a copy as soon as we hear about it as adults and let Frazer's genius do the rest. What are you waiting for?

Apocalpyse Now, 02 Dec 2002
If you have a special room for Coppola's Apocalpyse Now in your heart, then this is a must read. In a scene in the temple, Coppola zooms the Golden Bough as Marlon Brando's reference book in the secluded "paradise of horror" he has built. This book is mystical, inspirational and influential to people who search for answers besides the traditional. To gain an additional insight- see how mankind was explanining the life and world we live way back...

More ideas than you can shake a magic stick at., 24 Aug 2002
This work scores a big fat zero for political correctness and it is occasionally infuriating because of its outmoded conclusions, but it reveals a wonderful picture of a lost age of superstition and simple humanity. The thing that struck me was the spectrum of beliefs that human beings are capable of. The ancient ideas that the author tells us of somehow make the rational world we live in today seem almost inhuman. The information is often anecdotal and unsupported, but it's a marvellous read. I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in the original pool of raw ideas that Man lived by when he first looked about the world and tried to find some meaning, and how that may have led to religion, and ultimately reason.

A charming and witty study although old fashioned and slow, 06 Apr 2001
Although old fashioned in presentation, method and writing style (and apparently opinion) this graceful text drives you from myth and folklore to magic and voodoo, a journey around the globe linking social and anthropological topics from a range of cultures into a honed argument that is so charmingly offered that if it wanders occasionally from its original point(s) you find yourself forgiving for the horizons these meanders spread before you

Indespensable, 30 Nov 2000
Have you ever had a seemingly impossible to win argument? Or needed an excuse for an impromptu celebration? Then grab a copy of The Golden Bough...enough pagan holidays and fire festivals to satisfy the most ardent firework junkie, and loads of useful (?) facts as well. It is also very interesting to browse through, and you can find out a surprising amount.

The complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, 24 May 2003
On opening the cover of this Book,I little realised it would be so hard to put down again, seduced by lavish illustrations and a very understandable format of what is after all a very diverse, though interesting subject, yes there are many other books on the market covering this subject, we can all argue about Egyptian religion,but I feel this book is a sound fountation for anybody with that initial interest in this subject,It makes a worthy addition to the rest of the Thames and Hudson series, if you only ever buy one book on Egyptian religion look no further

Interesting read, 18 Nov 2008
I was originally looking for book on myths but this book takes a different approach and discusses myths in general. I have used several other books instead to read up on various myths. This book was still an interesting read, however, even though it wasn't what I had expected.

Interesting and relevant, 25 Feb 2008
As with many of these 'A Very Short Introductions' you will be disappointed if what you are looking for is a basic guide to the subject. OUP's brief seems to be to find people who have interesting things to say about the subject in question and to get them to write about their ideas at a basic level in relation to the subject in hand.

Here Helen Morales offers a fascinating insight into classical mythology. She does not offer a potted history of all the myths themselves, although she does offer information about where to get such information. Instead, and much more interestingly to my mind, she walks us through what myths as a genre mean, and what they do for us to make them still relevant for discussion centuries after they were first conceived.

She takes broad topics for her chapter headings, such as mythology and its resurgence in the popular beliefs of New Agers, or myth as a vehicle for political machinations. Within that she discusses one or two key myths and shows how they have been used and developed over the centuries.

This is well written, easy to read and fun. It really whets the appetite for more research into the subject. It has some good illustrations, although those of mosaics would have been better on a bigger scale, unfortunately not to be, as the books are designed to be pocket sized. There are useful things like time lines, some good charts and a good bibliography. A great tool.

BEST TALKING BOOK EVER, 31 Jan 2008
At once i loved this Talkingbook It was a brilliant find and i really loved it

Disappointing, 09 Nov 2006
I was so disappointed by this audio CD. The actor has a voice similar to Julian Clary and mispronounces some of the characters names! It could have been done a lot better.
Graphically gruesome in places, my rising 6 year old had nightmares. The Greek Myths are much loved in our house. We have books and audio books and this is the first disappointment.

Keeps the kids happy on long car journeys, 02 Aug 2006
We purchased this CD on the basis of another Amazon review and weren't disappointed. Ths kids (aged 8 & 6) love the stories (Heracles, Theseus, Perseus, Jason and the Argonauts among others) and the CD is requested on every car journey! It's a painless way of getting a bit of knowledge/history into us all. The stories are re-told in modern language with some music thrown in for effect at key points, which all adds to the effect. The narrator has a pleasant voice (important when these CDs are played repeatedly!) and even though we all know the stories backward now, enjoy them still.

Fantastic, 16 Jun 2007
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. One of the bots at reception, a tall greek from Corfu, saw me waiting and handed me the book, "I have committed it all to memory", "you can keep it" he vocoded. I sat down and read a few chapters before I started to think I'd told Darren the wrong moon. He must have gone to Europa. I couldn't wait another hour for contact with Europa, and had been told by Darren not to use the telecom relay networks around Jupiter. I stopped reading and caught the Ganymede/Europa bus from outside the hotel. After about ten minutes of listening entertained to the bus' weird babble of tongues, I got a call from Darren, he said he'd contracted Liver Flees while sightseeing on Jupiter's rocky core and was currently resting at the health centre on Europa. His voice was strangely restrained, I wasn't sure whether he was joking, though I remembered from a Jessop Attenborough programme, that Liver Flees need hydrogen to survive, and since the last of Jupiter's hydrogen had been tapped 130 years ago, i figured he was just protecting his cover, maybe the space masons were with him.

Sat next to me on the bus, was a mother and child of a familiar Mandarin-speaking alien race - The Squit. These clothe-less people are descendants of what on earth we call `birds', The mother had what looked like bird feathers for hair and the child was young enough to still have the fingers of one arm attached the wing, the other arm was free and flailing. The mother was very attractive but the child was annoying. It was telling me story after story, all of which ending in "and I didn't even cry". I tried to think of something to say to end the onslaught yet still maintain my chances with the mother. In desperation I asked the mother "what's your favourite seed". I really wish I hadn't. She seized the opportunity to recite a litany of edible seeds from far and wide. Stumbling to think of a top top favourite seed, she looked up at the ceiling in thought. This gave me time to catch sight of her flange and busters, the joyous vision of overpowering my torment. Before I could completed SWOT analysis, she looked at me and carried on with her jabbering fusillade of seed talk. In total awe I looked back up at her beautiful beak, clasped it shut and kissed her on her beady black eye.

A remarkable reference book, 22 Sep 2004
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...

The myths are great but the commentary is horrible, 30 Dec 2003
This is a fine scholarly work collecting together all the Greek myths from various sources (Hesiod, Homer, Apollodorus, Pindar, etc.) and retelling them in a highly accessible manner. However, for every page of Greek myth there are two pages of Graves's commentary and here is where the problem lies. It's all sacred queen and sacrificial king nonsense, the sort of prehistoric fantasy that he went on about at tedious length in the 'White Goddess'. Lacking documentary evidence, he feels free to impose whatever fantasy he likes on prehistoric European society and, at heart, Graves was nothing more than a new-age mystic. Nonetheless, buried among the dross there is real scholarship which makes you feel that you should read the commentary in case you miss something genuinely illuminating. It does make it damned hard going, though.

An Exhaustive Text for Advanced Students of Greek Mythology, 13 Apr 2003
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.

Mindblowing, 12 Sep 2001
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 confusing stories into perspective and Summarises the symbolisum of the stories.

Don't myth it..., 05 Jan 2006
'Mythology for Dummies' is part of the widely-read 'Dummies' series, and lives up to most of the expectations one might have of a volume in that series. It has the requisite cartoons, the various side-bar items throughout the text, and the the top-ten lists at the end - in this case, the Top Ten Places (which includes Vahalla, Elysium, Atlantis, even Brigadoon) and the Top Ten Monsters (Gorgons, Unicorns, the Sphinx, dragons, etc.).

This is a volume of mythology is not just classical Greek and Roman mythology (that which most people think of when they think of mythology). It does include these in good measure, but also goes further afield to include an overview of the main characters, stories and ideas of mythological constructs in cultures all over the world. These include some that are familiar and related to the Greco-Roman traditions - Egypt, ancient Mesopotamia, Celtic and Nordic mythologies. There are also those that are quite removed from this collection of pantheons - the Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Native American traditions of mythology are also included here.

The first section gives a brief overview of what mythology is and isn't. It doesn't go too deeply into the debate over religion (after all, one person's mythology might be another person's religion). It does give some insight into the purpose of such stories for the cultures that maintained them, and how we have come to regard such tales in more modern times. Mythology is not just about gods, goddesses and monsters, after all. Often there is a very strong human component in the myths, which can serve for ethical and moral instruction as well as inspiration. These are written in the witty style typical of the series - 'How to spot a myth a mile away' is one section title. Mythology is also shown to be not something exclusively of the ancient world - American myths such as Johnny Appleseed and Br'er Rabbit are highlighted as examples.

Some of the stories included here fall more under the category of 'legend' than 'mythology' in popular definition - the stories of King Arthur, for example, do fall under the category of mythology, although it is rarely assigned such categorisation for a host of reasons. However, the Arthurian legends are contained here (one section is entitled 'Sex, Lies, and Good Jousting'). The text also ventures into the delicate area of the parallels between ancient Mesopotamian legends and early Biblical stories - tales such as the Tower of Babel and the Great Flood bear striking similarity to many extra-canonical tales in the ancient region.

The prose is good and accessible, like most of the Dummies books. There are some graphics and line-art drawings, and the chapters are short enough for the typical reader to finish easily in one sitting. This is a fun way to learn the old stories, and relate them to modern times. I would recommend this book for adults with a general interest, and also for undergraduate students and even high school students who want a survey of the material.

Stunning, essential reading for the spiritual growth of Man!, 25 Jul 2006
Get the abridged Oxford World's Classics edition which includes Frazer's original speculation on the wholly ritual, and symbolic, nature of Christ's crucifixion and, overall, you'll digest a book that will speak to you in ways you never imagined a book could. A sweeping account, from the very dawn of recorded history to the relative present, of Mankind's beliefs, traditions and rituals, The Golden Bough propels you from the start into an epic true story of nothing less than Mankind's inexhaustable quest for an understanding of - and union with - the mysterious, divine powers that create and sustain the world's existence.

With this remarkable work, so brilliantly researched and weaved together, we learn that universal themes and common tribal practices have been adopted by Man throughout all of history, and across all the world's diverse cultures, suggesting that we really do operate from a "collective unconsciousness", as Swiss therapist Jung termed it.

What is strongly suggested from Frazer's starkly drawn postcards from the past is that the enactment of myth and ritual may actually have a real impact, both esoterically and exoterically, on actual life and nature. It's not all cosmetic or mere superstition. And, indeed, once we re-engage with these universal, deeply rooted ideas, we might even find a registering of their phenomena in our personal and collective psyche. Reading this book for these metaphysical side effects alone is worth the investment!

In an ideal, spiritually oriented world, this book would be read in primary schools world-wide as a vital companion to Darwinism, to teach children how modern religion is nothing more than a re-branding of old myths and rituals - with these religions, in turn, being grossly misinterepted as facts instead of symbols, and entrusted to the "teachings" of a corrupt, inept and hopelessly unenlightened church order. The best we can do in the absence of this book being compulsory reading in schools is to get a copy as soon as we hear about it as adults and let Frazer's genius do the rest. What are you waiting for?

Apocalpyse Now, 02 Dec 2002
If you have a special room for Coppola's Apocalpyse Now in your heart, then this is a must read. In a scene in the temple, Coppola zooms the Golden Bough as Marlon Brando's reference book in the secluded "paradise of horror" he has built. This book is mystical, inspirational and influential to people who search for answers besides the traditional. To gain an additional insight- see how mankind was explanining the life and world we live way back...

More ideas than you can shake a magic stick at., 24 Aug 2002
This work scores a big fat zero for political correctness and it is occasionally infuriating because of its outmoded conclusions, but it reveals a wonderful picture of a lost age of superstition and simple humanity. The thing that struck me was the spectrum of beliefs that human beings are capable of. The ancient ideas that the author tells us of somehow make the rational world we live in today seem almost inhuman. The information is often anecdotal and unsupported, but it's a marvellous read. I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in the original pool of raw ideas that Man lived by when he first looked about the world and tried to find some meaning, and how that may have led to religion, and ultimately reason.

A charming and witty study although old fashioned and slow, 06 Apr 2001
Although old fashioned in presentation, method and writing style (and apparently opinion) this graceful text drives you from myth and folklore to magic and voodoo, a journey around the globe linking social and anthropological topics from a range of cultures into a honed argument that is so charmingly offered that if it wanders occasionally from its original point(s) you find yourself forgiving for the horizons these meanders spread before you

Indespensable, 30 Nov 2000
Have you ever had a seemingly impossible to win argument? Or needed an excuse for an impromptu celebration? Then grab a copy of The Golden Bough...enough pagan holidays and fire festivals to satisfy the most ardent firework junkie, and loads of useful (?) facts as well. It is also very interesting to browse through, and you can find out a surprising amount.

The complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, 24 May 2003
On opening the cover of this Book,I little realised it would be so hard to put down again, seduced by lavish illustrations and a very understandable format of what is after all a very diverse, though interesting subject, yes there are many other books on the market covering this subject, we can all argue about Egyptian religion,but I feel this book is a sound fountation for anybody with that initial interest in this subject,It makes a worthy addition to the rest of the Thames and Hudson series, if you only ever buy one book on Egyptian religion look no further

Interesting read, 18 Nov 2008
I was originally looking for book on myths but this book takes a different approach and discusses myths in general. I have used several other books instead to read up on various myths. This book was still an interesting read, however, even though it wasn't what I had expected.

Interesting and relevant, 25 Feb 2008
As with many of these 'A Very Short Introductions' you will be disappointed if what you are looking for is a basic guide to the subject. OUP's brief seems to be to find people who have interesting things to say about the subject in question and to get them to write about their ideas at a basic level in relation to the subject in hand.

Here Helen Morales offers a fascinating insight into classical mythology. She does not offer a potted history of all the myths themselves, although she does offer information about where to get such information. Instead, and much more interestingly to my mind, she walks us through what myths as a genre mean, and what they do for us to make them still relevant for discussion centuries after they were first conceived.

She takes broad topics for her chapter headings, such as mythology and its resurgence in the popular beliefs of New Agers, or myth as a vehicle for political machinations. Within that she discusses one or two key myths and shows how they have been used and developed over the centuries.

This is well written, easy to read and fun. It really whets the appetite for more research into the subject. It has some good illustrations, although those of mosaics would have been better on a bigger scale, unfortunately not to be, as the books are designed to be pocket sized. There are useful things like time lines, some good charts and a good bibliography. A great tool.

By Zeus!, 04 May 2005
Edith Hamilton's very popular 'Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes' is a very basic, very popular and very good text for the introduction of Greek and Roman mythology. This book by Hamilton, simply entitled 'Mythology' is an expansion of the material in the shorter book. Largely, however, it is a repetition of the same material.

In our Western culture, the term 'mythology' is most often equated with these tales, and Hamilton, first writing before World War II, has helped to reinforce that equation with the current generations of readers.

Those looking for the mythological stories of other cultures will be disappointed -- with the exception of a brief section on Norse mythology at the end (about five percent of the entire volume), it covers nothing outside the Greek and Roman pantheons. Of course, part of the difficulty of approaching mythology of other cultures is that, in many instances, it is not mythology to them; or, in the case of mythology, one needs a firmer grounding in the culture and religious aspects of that culture before the mythology becomes accessible.

Hamilton (raised, as I was astonished to discover, in Indiana, where I currently reside) studied at Bryn Mawr, and had a distinguished teacher career in addition to writing this useful text. Hamilton's writing is not complicated and very easy to follow -- this has made her texts selected often for high school and undergraduate courses in Greek and Roman mythology, more frequently perhaps than any other text produced in this century.

Hamilton begins the text with an essay giving an overview of what mythology is, and what the purpose of it was.

'Through it,' she wrote, 'we can retrace the path from civilised man who lives so far from nature, to man who lived in close companionship with nature; and the real interest of the myths is that they lead us back to a time when the world was young and people had a connection with the earth, with trees and seas and flowers and hills, unlike anything we ourselves can feel.'

She proceeds with a brief history of the development of Greek mythology, the origins of the stories lost in the mists of time. She tells of the influences of Greek thought on subsequent developments in thought and religion: 'Saint Paul said the invisible must be understood by the visible. That was not a Hebrew idea, it was Greek.' Unlike most religious constructs, the Greek mythological world tried to make sense of the greater life of the universe in terms that were very human indeed, with a minimum of mystery. 'The terrifying irrational has no place in classical mythology.'

This is not to say, of course, that there were not terrible stories and fantastic creatures -- indeed, the mythological stories are full of them -- Gorgons and hydras and chimaeras dire. But these are mostly metaphorical (and were understood as such), and primarily used for a hero to be made (this same idea has pervaded to the most recent Mission Impossible movie).

Hamilton proceeds after this essay to describe the members of the pantheon, the major and minor gods and goddesses, the ideas of creation, the heroes (human, semi-divine and divine), stories of love and devotion, justice and injustice, and, of course, of warfare, victory, defeat, and courage. Those heroes before the Trojan War, perhaps the Greek-mythological-equivalent of a world war, had battles and dire circumstances to fight and overcome. The Trojan War figured largely in the mythological frameworks of Greece and Rome -- all the gods and goddess were involved in this conflict, it seemed, as were many of the heroes of Greek mythology.

Hamilton, writing in a fairly conservative period of time, and in a fairly conservative culture, sanitised the mythological stories to a large extent. The Greeks were a very human and often rather bawdy bunch; the Romans were even moreso. Much of the sexuality in the mythological stories is omitted, save to demonstrate the less-desirable aspects. Quite often, undergraduates who study mythology are astonished to discover, if they had used Hamilton's text in an earlier high school setting, that there is a lot more sex and violence in the 'real' stories than they had been previously exposed to.

Of course, one of the primary aspects of the mythological tales was not to explain the cosmos or to build complex theological constructs (reason did these, often with help from the myths, but not using the myths as the basis), but rather the illustration of moral truths -- those of honesty, virtue, and courage as primarily valued in Greek and Roman society. Evil befalls those who do not lead a moral life; rewards come to those who do. Of course, there is a bit of whimsy in the cosmos -- bad things happen to good people, etc., even in ancient Greece. The fluctuating personalities of the gods (and the number of them) ultimately gives a satisfying explanation (if not a satisfying reason) why such things might occur.

Edith Hamilton tells the timeless tales of gods and heroes, 28 Jan 2004
Edith Hamilton's "Mythology" tell the "Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" of classical mythology and this volume, first written in 1942, is now a timeless classic itself. This was the first book of mythology that I ever read and it is still the best. When Hamilton retells the love story of Cupid and Psyche or the tragedy of Agamemnon and his children, she does so with a full sense of what it meant when first told by Apuleius or Aeschylus. These are not children's tales, but the heroic legends and religious beliefs of the ancient Greeks. Furthermore, the illustrations by Steele Savage have the elegance of wood block prints, which, for all I know, is exactly what they are. I appreciate Hamilton's choice to avoid relying on Ovid, for while the "Metamorphoses" is the most comprehensive ancient text dealing with the classical myths, Ovid is an unbeliever. For Hamilton the writings of Homer, Hesiod and Pindar are more abbreviated in terms of providing details for the myths, but at least they take the tales seriously.

Another strength of the book is how she organizes the myths in her seven parts: (1) Covers the complete pantheon of deities, including the lesser gods of Olympus and Earth and the later Roman additions, as well as the earliest heroes. (2) Retells the various tales of love, between mortals and the gods or each other, along with the Quest for the Golden Fleece and other early heroic adventures. (3) Focuses specifically on the greatest heroes, Perseus, Theseus and Hercules, with Atalanta thrown in the mix in a curious but understandable editorial decision by Hamilton. (4) Puts together Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid into a giant epic stretching from the Judgment of Paris to the founding of Roman, with th