Myths of Greece and Rome

by Jane Ellen Harrison

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

79 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Jane Ellen Harrison (9 September 1850 – 15 April 1928) was a British classical scholar and linguist. Harrison is one of the founders, with Karl Kerenyi and Walter Burkert, of modern studies in Ancient Greek religion and mythology. She applied 19th century archaeological discoveries to the interpretation of ancient Greek religion in ways that have become standard. She has also been credited with being the first woman to obtain a post in England as a ‘career academic’. Harrison argued for women's suffrage but thought she would never want to vote herself. Ellen Wordsworth Crofts, later second wife of Sir Francis Darwin, was Jane Harrison's best friend from her student days at Newnham, and during the period from 1898 to her death in 1903.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_El...

Reviews

[Linniegayl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was originally written about 100 years ago, but still remains interesting. It's a very short piece that focuses on the history of the gods, rather than on their perceived powers or popular stories featuring them. After a brief introduction about new (100 years ago) changes in scholarly attitudes to Greek mythology and religion, the author moves on to a series of chapters each focused on a particular god or goddess.

[lid]

In Greece, there are two main characteristics of the two main theological strata: the Mother is Pelasgin and Minoan, the Father Indo-European—that is Hellenic. The Mother is accompanied usually by a male attendant, either son or lover but his position is always strictly subordinate. We have seen how this relation survives in the guardianship of Hera to Jason, of Athena to Perseus, to Herakles, to Theseus. With the coming of patriarchal conditions this high companionship ends; the women goddesses are sequestered to a servile domesticity, they become abject and amorous.

Moreover, Homer is so dazzled bu his human heroes and their radiant counterparts mirrored in Olympus that he never cares as little, it seems, for the before as for the hereafter. Homer has only a glimmering eschatology, a shadowy Tartaros and Elysian fields where great heroes and those connected by marriage with the gods go after death, but in which common human has no place.