The Story of the Greeks

by Hélène A. Guerber

This collection is filled with stories of people and events, both real and mythical, that form the foundation of western culture. Written to be appreciated by all ages, readers will get to know classic tales such as those of Icarus, Jason, Theseus in the Labyrinth, Hector and Achilles, Athens and Sparta, Troy, Socrates, Damon and Pythias, the sword of Damocles, Alexander the Great, the Colossus of Rhodes, and many more until Greece ends up a Roman province. History and culture will come alive with the help of maps and all the original illustrations in this complete and unabridged edition. Be sure to look for The Story of the Romans, also from Living Book Press.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Greece, Classics, Mythology, School, Historical

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1896

About the author

Hélène Adeline Guerber (1859 – 1929), better known as H.A. Guerber, was a British historian most well known for her written histories of Germanic mythology.

Her most well known work is Myths of the Norsemen: From the Eddas and Sagas - George G. Harrap and Co. Ltd., 1908 in London.

Other histories by Guerber include Legends of the Rhine (A.S. Barnes & Co., New York, 1895; new edition 1905), Stories of the Wagner Opera, The Book of the Epic, The Story of the Ancient World, The Story of the Greeks, The Story of the Romans, Legends of the Middle Ages, The Story of the Renaissance and Reformation, The Story of the Thirteen Colonies, and The Story of the Great Republic.

Reviews

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning of Greek history is therefore like a fairy tale; and while much of it cannot, of course, be true, it is the only information we have about the early Greeks. It is these strange fireside stories, which used to amuse Greek children so many years ago, that you are first going to hear.
The key word in the title is story. Do not confuse this book with a history of the Greeks, rather a dumbing of Greek history for an assumed audience of young readers. Very young. Guerber commits several errors about the role of myths in culture. (Interested readers may consult J. R. R. Tolkien’s “On Fairy Stories” in The Tolkien Reader.)
The Greeks used to tell their children that Deu-ca´li-on, the leader of the Thes-sa´li-ans, was a descendant of the gods.
While a rehash myths and legends, the author engages young readers at the level they are most likely to be interested—even to the point of indicating the syllabication of daunting Greek names. Compared to Thucydides, Guerber tells more readable stories.
Northwest of Sparta, in the country called E´lis and in the city of O-lym´pi-a, rose a beautiful temple for the worship of Ju´pi-ter (or Zeus), the principal god of the Greeks.
First published 125 years ago, the book reflects Guerber’s Anglo-Christian point of view. One wonders why she refers to the Greek gods by the names of their Roman counterparts. (Nice, if inaccurate, cover art.)
Thus ends the history of ancient Greece, which, though so small, was yet the most famous country the world has ever known,-the country from which later nations learned their best lessons in art, philosophy, and literature.

[Ava · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to be honest, when I was reading this I HATED it. Since I'm playing catch-up I'm reading double, so my curriculum schedule has me reading about 18 chapters a week, and it was just too much. (Although I hardly ever got it all done in time.) But once I had finished, and was thinking about it, I was so glad that I did read it, it's all so interesting, and I'm glad that I know what I know from it.

I'm definitely not EXCITED to start Story of the Romans, but it must be done. 😔

[Lindsay B · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to rate this book three and a half stars, but that's not an option. And AO didn't have me read the last few chapters for some reason...

[Gina Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of very short and succinct stories about Ancient Greece it was an engaging overview.

[Sandi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book outloud to my 10 and 8 year old sons for homeschool in our study of Ancient Greece. I didn't like the first third of the book and I wanted to give up (in fact I did for a short while before we returned to it). Then in the middle third I began to tolerate the book, and finally in the last third of the book I grew to appreciate the book.

I read the 4th edition of the book. I found in the editors effort to help "dumb down" and lessen all of the talk of myths in the book, that they actually made the transitions from chapter to chapter very choppy and confusing. I was constantly confused if the story was real or just a myth, and one chapter didn't transition well to the next, all the while you are bumbarded with names and stories. It was confusing.

But after I got passed the first 3rd of the book, I began to appreciate the book. The chapters were a good length for a read aloud session with my kids, and each chapter was told in a narration stylet that I appreciated as a homeschool mom. It was particularly nice to read this parallel to our reading of the Old Testament, as it really helped expand our view of life in the surrounding nations during the time of the Old Testament.

[Brit Chhangur · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pre-read for AO year 6! The history of Ancient Greece, written in a lot of very short stories. Definitely a bit lost in all the names, but a fascinating history, and makes me want to focus more on Plutarch for a closer look at some of those key lives! Overall a great history read!

[Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author makes history interesting by treating it as a story of important figures and events. The language is easy to comprehend and the pace is quick. It is written nothing like the tediously mind numbing textbooks of modern classrooms. My children (5 & 7) come to me daily asking to have this book read to them.

[Courtney Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid elementary grade history book. I wish there was a high school or even middle school level geek history book nearly as readable. My older kids joined along and added some plutarch.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s difficult to cover this much history without it all blurring into a series of names and dates. There are very few dates in the book, but many many names. That’s by design, I gather from her preface, as she feels that stories about people are much more interesting to younger readers than stories of events. I think she’s right there, and this can also apply to older readers as well. It’s just that there were so many names and events, that for me it just became difficult to track it on a bigger-picture level. The illustrations were good.
AO Yr 6

[Richard Myers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok book

The book is written in a simple format that doesn’t go very deep into the early history of the Greeks.

[Christine Gustin · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up. Read this as part of our year long Ancient Greece study with my 6th and 8th grade kids. Loved it!

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is basically a children's book, but an excellent one at that.

It's a straightforward chronological history of Greece, with
authors and philosophers basically getting a passing mention.

The early history is by its own admission mythological and the
only myths covered are more or less those that involve the history
of the nation.

For me it actually served as a decent reference as to what happened
in the mess of changing alliances, and wars that happened
after the Peloponnesian War and the dissolution of Alexander's Empire.

I don't know how much it missed, the only thing I noticed is that the
story of Pyrrhus' expedition is absent.

Nonetheless it's a good, substantial summary that doesn't take too much
to get through: an excellent introduction to Greek history regardless
of your age.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This beautiful little story book begins with Greek mythology but by chapter 20 (there are 115 chapters), the mythology turns to ancient repeated stories of Homer and then to the history of the Greeks. The author does not wish to load the children with dates, but does include a couple of maps. Each little chapter from then on is history written as a story to whet the appetite of the listener to learn this important history of those who love freedom and who created such a important civilization. Although the description of events only covers about half of a millennium, the imprint left by these people have continued to be felt throughout the ages, especially as people left Europe to come to the New World in search of a place to think their own thoughts and govern themselves.

[王佳欢 Jiahuan Wang · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's like a history textbook for the high school students. Easy to comprehend and full of interesting stories, which make it readable to all ages, even so many years have pasted. The contents are somewhat simple and good enough for the people who are interested in Greek history but not much learned before.

[Victor Whitman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good storybook intro to Ancient Greek history. It has been awhile since I read this stuff, so it was fun.

[Philip Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it is indeed written for kids, in my opinion it really is a good introduction to
Greek history and really motivated me to read more on this topic.

[Private Account · Rating 4 out of 5]

My six-year-old loved this book. We rarely picked it up without reading many (little) chapters at a time. I couldn't ask for a better introduction to Greek history, unless this book had pictures, then it would have been even better! The writing could have been smoother, but for what it was, I really appreciated and enjoyed this book.

It does occur to me that I am not sure I would have enjoyed this book as a little girl. It's all men and wars and warriors (which my son loved). I wouldn't mind another version of this book about the women and children of ancient Greece. No, not about their oppression and sexism, but rather about their day to day lives - that's the kind of history I liked as a young girl. I didn't care about wars or heroes, I wanted to know about the culture and its holidays, courtship rituals, marriage ceremonies, what they ate, how they cooked it, how they raised their kids, what their homes looked like, etc.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm discovering a great gap in my "modren" propagandized education: I've I learned almost nothing about the primary foundations of western Civilization during my school years. It's my own fault, but I'm trying to fix it with some remedial reading on Greek history.

This book is a good, if basic, starting point and I would recommend it to anyone. It also offers a modern reader a good look at the stark differences in education, standards and expectation offered to students of the late 19th century compared to my own era of constant "Year 0" revisionism. Just as an embarrassing (and culturally solipsistic) example, my high school history education spent more time on the Vietnam War than on the Trojan War, the Peloponnesian War, and the rest of Greek history... combined.

[Carrie Dehart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book, my first foray into Greek history! So many different pieces of history that have been in my brain over the years were linked together as I read this. I especially found all the Greek-Persian wars fascinating, as I'd only heard of ancient Persia as it appears on Biblical history. This was part of my 6th graders curriculum, I pre-read it so I could talk intelligently about it with him.

[Summer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect for my AO Y6 student to read-aloud for history. We had fun revisiting characters from 50 Famous Stories and Plutarch. The names I had never heard before and TRIED to sound out, I'm sure an Ancient Greeks would roll over in the grave at my pronunciation, but we made it through. I really enjoyed the shortness of the chapters and that we got a succinct timeline of the Greeks. I was sad to see it end but know their influence is still with us.

[Kayla Dernier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for a decently detailed review of Greek History. It has a lot of names that are hard to remember, as the book does move quickly. It would be nice to have a timeline or something similar to add a visual aspect/keep the people in order. A map would be a great addition for tracking who is taking over where.

[Melissa Bair · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure I can really say that I "read" this, because it was a school book for 2023-24 that we did not finish completely! But I will get another chance when it's Hazel's turn to read it. This is a wonderful living book for elementary children on Greek history. The chapters are the perfect length for narration.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great history of Ancient Greece written in an accessible way at a middle school grade level with brief chapters and foreign names broken down for easy pronunciation on their first appearance. The book covers a span of time from the Pelasgians to the conquering of Greece by Rome.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jacob just finished this book for term 2 y6 of AO. It was so wonderful to see all the connections he was making towards the end of the book with other readings of Plutarch and Augustus Ceasar. He really liked this book...krb 3/22/19

[Ceciliahill55 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative. I was especially interested since we would be visiting Greece shortly, and it gave a good general history. The writing was rather dry, as it read more like a textbook, but still it kept my interest.

[Cherylg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book

👍🌏☺it helps to understand the history of the Trojans and the Greeks, this book my have a lot of chapters, but it's worth it and the chapters are short.

[Donald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spartans

Very easy to read with quick and informative chapters that basis review and give a quick synopsis of the legend and history.

[Shera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would rate this more 3.5 if I could. I liked it, and while I wouldn’t recommend it for casual readers necessarily, it’s definitely a great addition for those reading/learning about Ancient Greece.

[Sarah Lemmon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great narrative history of the Greeks for middle grades

[Maggie Allyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great history, and easy read!