Book Review: Mythology by Edith Hamilton

Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes by Edith Hamilton

This great overview of stories from western mythology is mostly focused on Greek mythology which has such a strong literary tradition from the era before Christ. Roman mythology is mixed in with the Greek since it often overlaps or has continuations, like how the Aeneid follows Aeneas's travels after the Trojan War ends in the Iliad. Hamilton is selective in her sources, looking for the most full accounts. She refashions the texts of Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, and others to tell the stories of the gods and heroes of the ancient world. The last fifteen pages review some of the Norse mythology which is very different from the Greco-Roman works and is more closely related (at least linguistically) to the English-speaking world.

The book brings to life concise reviews and retellings of classic myths, both familiar and unfamiliar. Her style is very personable and she is aware of her biases. Ovid is too bombastic and over-the-top for her, though she does use him when he's more restrained or the only source. The book ends with family trees for the gods and heroes as well as an index to look up the stories and characters.

Highly recommended--this is a a great review of ancient Greco-Roman mythology.

Book Review: The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton

The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton

Classical scholar Edith Hamilton writes this panegyric to Ancient Greece, the land of city-states that was able to come together under the leadership of Athens and conquer the invading Persians. She describes the Greek culture in detail, looking at historians like Herodotus and Thcuydides, playwrights like Aeschylus and Sophocles, and philosophers like Socrates and Plato. She compares them both to what came before and what came after, showing the greatness of Greek thinking and understanding. She presents a lot of arguments showing their love of human perfection (seen in their art, especially sculpture) and human knowing (which moved on from superstitious assumptions about reality to insights on the true nature of things). Their love of freedom gave them the strength to overcome massive odds, both in war and in the cultural development. She esteems them quite highly over the Eastern cultures of their time and the modern cultures of our time.

Unfortunately, the author writes in such glowing terms that it is very hard to go along with her thesis. Certainly Ancient Greece provided a turning point in Western culture and has had an on-going impact. The authors mentioned above are well worth studying, but surely there have been others who have equaled or surpassed them in the two thousand five hundred years since their time.

I enjoyed reading the book, Hamilton writes well and knows a lot. But I am not quite convinced by it.

Mildly recommended--this is a great overview of the Greek contribution to Western Civilization, if it is a bit overblown.