The Greek myths

Product Information

A full-leather limited edition (not part of this series) of the same volume was later released in 2010.

This is a super 2 volume set of "The Greek Myths" by Robert Graves, published in 1996 ( 2001 ) by The Folio Society, London. He fought in World War I and won international acclaim in 1929 with the publication of his memoir of the First World War, Good-bye to All That. Reader's noteLike all other myths, those of the Greeks originally related to specific religious, philosophical, cultural and social ideas. This two-volume work is both a valuable reference book and a magical point of entry into the minds of those who lived so many centuries ago.After the war, he was granted a classical scholarship at Oxford and subsequently went to Egypt as the first professor of English at the University of Cairo. The two I had bought were then reissued in the smaller format to match the later ones, so now I have a 'wonky' set on the shelf. I’m not saying that none of the things he wrote on the subject are correct – some are likely to be – but his bias is strong to the point of being absurd, and his comments are generally not very reliable, to say the least. But with this volume, I have to say I was very disappointed with Folio’s decision to put all the pictures in a clump here in the centre.

Greetings, dear readers, and welcome to this tour de force through the Folio Society’s beloved myths and legends series! Robert Graves believes in some really weird things, like that pre-Hellenic Greece was a matriarchal society that believed in a "Mother Goddess" or "Triple Goddess" that was common to all Eastern Mediterranean worship. One was that I enjoyed a pilot episode of I, Claudius, so I assumed that the writing on which it was based must have been pretty good. is, according to Graves, because the discus represents the solar disc, itself representing the length of a single year, which was the extent of a king’s reign.

These women were not only the victims of this heinous crime but they also got to be punished for it by the ever jealous Hera. Graves decides that Hera’s marriage to Zeus represents (and commemorates) conquests of Crete and Mycenae, because Zeus “probably came to [Hera] disguised as a bedraggled cuckoo, in the sense that certain Hellenes who came to Crete as fugitives accepted employment in the royal guard, made a palace conspiracy, and seized the kingdoms. The result is a classic among classics, a treasure trove of extraordinary tales and a masterful work of literature in its own right. He also fills in the gaps those two poems leave, letting us know how the Trojan War began and what happened to some of the key players such as Achilles, who is alive in the Iliad, but already dead in the Odyssey.

Having done that though, I can honestly say that I am completely convinced that Graves' organizational scheme in this reference book is nothing short of brilliant. La scelta espositiva cronologica dà un'affascinante impronta narrativa all'imponente mole di conoscenze raccolte. Many years ago I was in a garden centre in England and I saw this lovely little bronze statue of Mercury.Each myth is followed by an interpretation of its origin and significance, in the terms of Graves' other essays on mythology, such as The White Goddess. Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links for which I may be compensated (this does not affect my reviews nor cost you any money, but helps support my site hosting costs). Blümel’s clients include The New Yorker, the International Herald Tribune, Die Zeit, Die Tageszeitung, Der Freitag, the Guardian Review, World of Interiors, MIT Technology Review, Los Angeles magazine, Condé Nast Traveller, the Financial Times and the Architectural Review, among others.

If you’re interested in a comparison between the original books and the smaller multi-part volumes that Folio also released a few years later for some of these editions – whilst the text is identical and the obvious difference is size, I believe the most important distinction is in the illustrations – the single volume editions contains beautiful two-colour images, whilst the illustrations in the smaller cheaper sets are produced only in black and white. Folio 60 (which only goes up to 2006) gives the last printing of the superior original version as 1998 and the 2-volume version as 2006.

Graves starts off, rightly so, with the early Pelasgian creation myths that tell the stories of the creation of the Universe, the Titans, Titanesses, and the first man, Pelasgus. Most purchases from business sellers are protected by the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013 which give you the right to cancel the purchase within 14 days after the day you receive the item. With a novelist’s skill and a poet’s eye, Graves draws on the entire canon of ancient literature, bringing together all the elements of every myth into one epic and unforgettable story.