Other Books on Greek Myth

The literature is vast, and only a few suggestions can be offered here. For those first approaching the subject (and others too), Fritz Graf, Greek Mythology: An Introduction(Baltimore, 1993), can be recommended unreservedly, as a concise but remarkably complete survey, examining the varieties of Greek myth and also changing attitudes to the myths and their interpretation in ancient and modern times, with helpful bibliographies. To this, three other works may be added which, in their different ways, convey an idea of the distinctive nature of Greek myth: K. Dowden, The Uses of Greek Mythology(London, 1992), a lively introductory work; G. S. Kirk, The Nature of Greek Myths(Harmondsworth, 1974), and above all, R. C. A. Buxton, Imaginary Greece: Contexts of Mythology(Cambridge, 1994), a very rich and suggestive study.

Timothy Gantz’s Early Greek Myth(Baltimore, 1993) is an invaluable guide to the literary and artistic evidence on the early mythological tradition. T. H. Carpenter, Art and Myth in Ancient Greece: A Handbook(London, 1991) offers a useful introduction to the treatment of myth in the visual arts. M. L. West, The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women(Oxford, 1985), explains the origins and nature of the genealogical scheme for heroic mythology which was adopted and developed by the early mythographer-historians, and thence by the author of the Library.

Paul Veyne, Did the Greeks Believe in their Myths?(Chicago, 1988), examines the complex and inconsistent attitudes of the Hellenistic and later Greeks to their traditional myths, and M. Detienne, The Creation of Mythology(Chicago, 1986), the development of our modern conception of mythology. On modern approaches to the interpretation of Greek myth since the eighteenth century, see Grafs discussion, and also the illuminating survey by J.-P. Vernant in Myth and Society in Ancient Greece(Brighton, 1966). And finally, two volumes of essays may be mentioned which show some of the ways in which scholars of the present day approach the interpretation of myth: J. N. Bremmer (ed.), Interpretations of Greek Mythology(London, 1987) and L. Edmunds, Approaches to Greek Myth(Baltimore, 1990).

THE LIBRARY OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY

CONTENTS

THE original text of the Librarycontains no formal subdivisions or chapter headings; at most, the author occasionally indicates that he has concluded his account of one family and is passing on to the next. This can make a modern edition difficult to use, even where it is prefaced with an analytical summary, and a reader first approaching the work is likely to feel, quite mistakenly, that it is formless or even chaotic. To overcome these problems, and to make the work’s implicit structure immediately intelligible, I have divided the book into titled chapters and subsections, as summarized in the following table. In the text, these headings, which form no part of the original text, are italicized.

The basic pattern should be apparent at a glance. Greek mythical history begins with the Theogony, accounting for the origin of the world and the divine order within it, and culminates with the Trojan War and its aftermath; and everything that happens in between forms part of the history—or can be related to the history—of the great families of heroic mythology. Considering the richness of the mythological tradition and the multiplicity of independent centres within the Greek world, there are remarkably few main families, only six here (or seven, depending on whether the Pelasgids in Arcadia are considered to be independent from the Inachids). A thorough grasp of their history is evidently the key to an understanding not only of the present work, but of the whole pattern of Greek mythology. Genealogical tables have therefore been added after the Contents (together with some brief remarks on the heroic families and their geographical setting). The roman figures (IA, IB, etc.) in the Contents refer to these tables, indicating which part of the text is covered by each table.

BOOK I

1. Theogony

Ouranos, Ge, and the birth of the Titans

The revolt of the Titans and rule of Cronos

The birth of Zeus and his war against Cronos and the Titans

Descendants of the Titans

Descendants of Pontos and Ge

Various children of Zeus and Hera; children of the Muses

The births of Hephaistos and Athene

Artemis and Apollo

The children of Poseidon; Demeter and Persephone

The revolt of the Giants

The revolt of Typhon

2. The Deucalionids

Prometheus and early man

Deucalion, Pyrrha, and the great flood

The immediate descendants of Deucalion

[IA]

Ceux and Alcyone; the Aloads; Endymion

Early Aetolian genealogies; Evenos and Marpessa

Oineus, Meleager, and the hunt for the Calydonian boar

The later history of Oineus, and the birth and exile of Tydeus

[IB]

Athamas, Ino, and the origin of the golden fleece

Sisyphos, Salmoneus, and other sons of Aiolos

Pelias and Neleus

The earlier history of Bias and Melampous

Admetos and Alcestis

[IC]

3. Jason and the Argonauts

Pelias orders Jason to fetch the golden fleece

Catalogue of the Argonauts

The women of Lemnos; in the land of the Doliones

The loss of Hylas and abandonment of Heracles

Polydeuces and Amycos; Phineus and the Harpies; the Clashing Rocks

Jason, Medea, and the seizure of the fleece

The murder of Apsyrtos and journey to Circe

To the land of the Phaeacians

Anaphe; Talos in Crete

The return to Iolcos and murder of Pelias

The later history of Medea

BOOK II

4. Early Argive mythology (the Inachids, Belid line)

The early descendants of Inachos

The wanderings of Io, and division of the Inachid line

[IIA]

Aigyptos, Danaos, and the Danaids

Proitos and Acrisios divide the Argolid

Bias, Melampous, and the daughters of Proitos

Excursus: the story of Bellerophon

Danae and the birth of Perseus

Perseus fetches the Gorgon’s head

Perseus and Andromeda

The later history of Perseus

The immediate descendants of Perseus

The exile of Amphitryon

[IIB]

5. Heracles, and the Heraclids

Amphitryon in Thebes, and the war against the Teleboans

The birth and early life of Heracles

Heracles and the Minyans; his first marriage, and madness

First labour: the Nemean lion

Second labour: the Lernaean hydra

Third labour: the Cerynitian hind

Fourth labour: the Erymanthian boar

Fifth labour: the cattle of Augeias

Sixth labour: the Stymphalian birds

Seventh labour: the Cretan bull

Eighth labour: the mares of Diomedes

Ninth labour: the belt of Hippolyte

Tenth labour: the cattle of Geryon

Eleventh labour: the apples of the Hesperides

Twelfth labour: the capture of Cerberos

The murder of Iphitos and Heracles’ enslavement to Omphale

The first sack of Troy

Campaigns in the Peloponnese

Marriage to Deianeira; Heracles in northern Greece

The sack of Oichalia; the death and apotheosis of Heracles

The children of Heracles

The return of the Heraclids

BOOK III

6. Cretan and Theban mythology (the Inachids, Agenorid line)

The abduction of Europa to Crete, and dispersal of the sons of Agenor

Minos and his brothers

Minos, Pasiphae, and the origin of the Minotaur

Catreus and Althaimenes

Polyidos and the revival of Glaucos