A Handbook of Greek Mythology

by Herbert J. Rose, Robin Hard (Editor)

In this new and substantially revised edition of H. J. Rose's classic survey and analysis of the evolution and tradition of Greek myth, Robin Hard adds various features which bring the work up-to-date with contemporary scholarship and address the needs of students.
* a new preface analysing and contextualising H. J. Rose's attitude to myth
* a new chapter devoted to the epic and other poetic sources of the myths, narrative prose mythography and the various forms of rationalisation
* a new chapter examining the relationship between the different myths of Gods and heroes, with genealogical tables. Robin Hard shows how the myths of individual families and distinct locations hold together to form a coherent pseudo-historical pattern
* extensively revises and simplifies notes
* a new annotated bibliography.
A Handbook of Greek Mythology presents a invaluable and user-friendly guide to the myths and legends of ancient Greece - their genesis, sources, development and significance.

Genres: Mythology, History, Nonfiction, Ancient History, Religion, Ancient, Greece

376 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1928

About the author

H.J. Rose or Herbert Jennings Rose

Reviews

[Sarah Kauthen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a lot of good information and spirited analysis in here if you can struggle past Rose's rather Victorian lexicon of “barbarians”, “civilisation”, “savages” as he attempts to shove myths into an inadequate and restrictive cataloguing structure with labels like: “märchen” v. “pseudo-religous”, “east” v. “west”, “genuine folktale” v. “rubbish”, etc. The author has the unfortunate tendency to promote the value of western culture at the expense of the “backwards” east. While the book maintains some value, Rose's pro-western bias is so pronounced that I cannot discount the damaging effect of his jaundiced view upon his evaluation of eastern influences. The “märchen” cross-cultural theme comparisons in Chapter 10 at first seemed to hold promise but turned out a bit barmy. As in Hamilton, there's a brief addendum of Italian mythology which was very interesting.

[kate rehurek · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very in-depth guide to Greek mythology. I would give it five stars except the amount of run-on sentences was too much. Since the whole book is about being informative, I fell that an information dump plus strung-out sentences made the book harder to follow. Other than that, the book was very straightforward and had a wonderful chronological line (which I know is very hard to do in mythology where there are several writers).

[Faith Rivens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful for in-depth understanding of Greek myths, if not a little convoluted in its execution.

[Constantine]

2 copies

[Muhammad Hamza Ramzan · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a critique on Greek Mythology then the mytholgies itself.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

A extremely dull and thick explanation of Greek mythology that is definitely tinted by the author’s beliefs and opinions. There are better handbooks out there.

[Matthew Gallaway · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provides an exhaustive overview of Greek mythology from the beginning of the world up through Roman appropriation. Rose's tone is definitely/hilariously a bit arch and at times not-exactly progressive or pc when it comes to non-heterosexual activity among the ancients, but given that he was writing in the Dark Ages (1959), we can forgive.