Greek Myths: Gods and Goddesses (Macmillan Collector's Library)

Greek Myths: Gods and Goddesses (Macmillan Collector's Library)

The gods and goddesses of ancient Greece lived sprawling, dramatic, gloriously strange lives. Their behaviours swung wildly—benevolent one moment, violent the next; didactic then fickle; loving then enraged. Their stories intertwine across millennia, each generation reinterpreting them according to the politics and fashions of its time. Yet through all these transformations, their magic endures. Why? Because these myths capture something fundamental about human nature: our capacity for both greatness and folly, our hunger for power and love, our terror of fate and our desperate hope that we might somehow escape it.

Classicist and curator Jean Menzies has assembled a stunning collection of retellings from nineteenth and twentieth-century writers, scholars and teachers, bringing to vivid life the stories of Zeus and his tempestuous reign, Athena's wisdom and warfare, Poseidon's dominion over the seas, Hermes' cunning, Pandora's fateful gift, and many more. Coupled with Menzies' own entertaining and illuminating commentary, Greek Myths: Gods and Goddesses guides readers through the mythological cosmos, revealing the complexity, power and strangeness that have captivated Western culture since ancient times. This beautifully presented hardback—part of the Macmillan Collector's Library with gilt-edged pages, ribbon markers and pocket-sized format—is the perfect introduction for those discovering Greek mythology for the first time, and a wonderful gift for anyone enchanted by these timeless tales. A book to love, to keep, and to return to again and again.