Classical Mythology

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This work provides newcomers and enthusiasts with fresh insights into Greek and Roman myths and legends, beginning with an explanation of classical mythology's origins and its contemporary understanding. It emphasizes that classical myths and legends form a coherent system, encompassing narratives with geography, history, and interrelationships, governed by specific narrative rules and conventions. The book delves into individual stories and their cosmic settings, introducing key characters—gods, nymphs, satyrs, centaurs, monsters, and humans—and exploring their relationships, similarities, and differences, highlighting the mutual dependence between deities and humans. It describes the various physical realms of mythic action, including terrestrial landscapes, the Olympian gods' abode, the underworld, and Tartaros, the prison for defeated beings. The main section narrates the principal events of classical mythology chronologically, from the cosmos's beginning to the heroic age's conclusion, illustrating how individual narratives connect to the broader mythology. This chronological account is enhanced by a mythological dictionary detailing significant characters and themes, along with key concepts essential for understanding classical mythology's function. Richly illustrated with over one hundred images from ancient art, the second edition features a revised introduction, expanded lexical entries, an updated further-reading sec