I Am Arachne: Fifteen Greek and Roman Myths

by Elizabeth Spires, Mordicai Gerstein (Illustrator)

Short, snappy, and accessible

In this singular collection, the heroes and heroines of fifteen Greek and Roman tales give their own dramatic, first-person accounts of events. From the magnificent spinner Arachne, who learns that a mortal should never challenge a god, to the god Pan, who prefers Earth to Mount Olympus, to the beautiful, self-indulgent Pandora and the gold-stricken Midas -- the reader becomes a confidant to the tellers of these sometimes humorous, sometimes sad, always engaging tales of wonder, woe, romantic love, and jealousy.

Mordicai Gerstein's energetic, whimsical illustrations combine with Elizabeth Spires' playful renditions for a totally fresh take on familiar and not-so-familiar myths.

Genres: Mythology

160 pages, Hardcover

First published March 26, 2001

About the author

Elizabeth Spires is the author of five collections of poetry as well as several books for children. She has been the recipient a Whiting Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Amy Lowell Travelling Poetry Scholarship, and two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1998 she received the Witter Bynner Prize for Poetry from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Maryland Author Award from the Maryland Library Association. Her poems have been featured on National Public Radio and have appeared in The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, The New Criterion, and in many anthologies, including Contemporary American Poetry (7th edition) and The New Bread Loaf Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry. She lives in Baltimore with her husband, the novelist Madison Smartt Bell, and their daughter, and is a Professor of English at Goucher College where she holds a Chair for Distinguished Achievement.







Now the Green Blade Rises (2002)

>> read " 'In Heaven It Is Always Autumn' "





Worldling (1995)

>> read "Truro," "Worldling," and "Celia Dreaming"

Also by Elizabeth Spires

- Annonciade
- Swan's Island
- Globe

Editor

The Instant of Knowing: Lectures, Criticism, and Occasional Prose of Josephine Jacobsen

Books for Children

- The Mouse of Amherst
- I Am Arachne
- Riddle Road

Reviews

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a perfectly fine re-telling which we read aloud for school.

A handful of the myths carried across the male-male relationships in the original. I thought she did a fine job of it: that was certainly a thing in the source material.

[Montse Guillen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever wondered where things things came from? Like winter or even bugs and creepy crawly things? I Am Arachne is a book about greek mythology with a all sorts of crazy stories but if you really pay attention they may have double meaning.
This book is astonishing. If you love greek mythology then youll love this book. I love finishing a small story and going to the next. It may not be a long story but these are just as good.
I highly recommend this book to everyone. The charachters are amazing and the story behind them as well. Elizabeth Spires did an amazing job.

[Lisa Rathbun · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this collection of twelve Greek and Roman myths, all told in the first person, including Pandora, Arachne, and Midas, to Tithonus and Callisto. The first-person approach makes the characters more relatable instead of the dispassionate tone a lot of the myths use when describing terrifying or exalting deeds. I would love to read these aloud to an upper elementary or junior high classroom. I think they're a fun way to connect young people to ancient myths.

[Alfajirikali · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great early reader!