Greek and Roman mythology books 101

hello welcome to the very first video that I'm making that has to do with books to read if you want to learn about Greek and Roman mythology I looked on I looked on YouTube and I noticed that there several videos that have to do with world mythology if you're interested so instead of doing another one of those I thought maybe if you're interested in actually actually learning what books to read for yourself I figured let me present let me make a video that has to do with with these books that I've read for many years I started around 1986 and I vary in amount and off ever since not only in Greek and Roman mythology but world mythology so for this first video I thought let me start with Greek and Roman mythology which is what most people are familiar with so basically there's a to start off with you probably would like to start off with a book that has to do with a sort of bird's eye gives you a little bit of alternates and to kind of whet your appetites to see if you're interested in the subject and then after these books after one of these books then you may want to read an English translation of book of ancient Greek original so I have several books here that kind of give you a starts for example my favorite is we probably hardly this it's mythology by Edith Hamilton this is a hardcover version but there's in any bookstore there's a cheap paperback versions this is a beautifully written book very easy to read and she goes through all the basic Greek and Roman myths what not all of them but all the important ones to kind of whet your appetite to see if this is for you so it's simple it's not very long and and I highly recommend it of course you've probably also heard of Thomas bull French Thomas bullfinch was also a he bought a very famous book simple called mythology but it's it's it actually has three books that first is the age or fable and that's the one that deals with Greek and Roman mythology I don't have a copy of the age or fable but I do have a copy of this book which is called the golden the golden age of myth and legend and it is basically Thomas bullfinches age or fable it's just kind of a souped-up fancy version of its it's very good he very poetically and beautifully tries to give his rendition of Greek and Roman mythology at the very end he also touches on other mythologies but they're only okay I mean it's almost as if it's an afterthought like yeah those stories are good too I wouldn't really bother with when he goes into other areas like Norse or Egyptian I would stick with the that's for another video I would stick for the Greek and Roman stuff he has it here another book that's kind of like the previous two is this book which a lot of lot fewer people heard of and it's simply called myths and legends of Greece and Rome and it's by here it is it's by H a Gerber and G yu-er BER and and this is actually a very nice little book it's kind of like Bulfinch and and Edith Hamilton's book if you could find that one and finally I want to mention this book that everybody a lot of people know about its Robert Graves is the Greek myths it's usually in two volumes I happen to find one that's one volume the problem with the Greek myths is that yeah he's got a lot of facts and details but it's kind of mind-boggling to read it I mean trying to read it he throws so many facts facts argue that instead of going through a story it keeps interrupting the narrative by talking about well according to this source it says this and according to that source this happens it gets really tiresome but it's a good book to have as a reference you know to look through any myths you like and you want a little more detail on it okay so that's enough for the general books so now you've read one of those and whichever one you want and now you want to go on to the actual English translation of of the ancient Greek and Latin texts so of course the I'm trying I'm going to try and go in chronological order here in terms of the history of the writing the the oldest is of course Homer Homer of course wrote the and this particular translation is very good it's by Robert Fitzgerald's there's a lot of translations of homer out there everybody's got their favorite this is the one I wrote Robert Fitzgerald he's very good and of course he wrote The Iliad Homer and he wrote the opposite so the Iliad is about the Trojan War and the Odyssey is about this year's trying to get home okay now next up in terms of history in terms of it in terms of what's neck what's influence neck what's next would be Hessians Hesiod's wrote two stories he worked through poems the first is called the Theogony and the second is called work some days work some days has a lot less mythology Theogony is the more important of the two in terms of mythology he basically tells you it goes back to the beginning of time and how the universe was created and what gods and goddesses appeared first and all that cool stuff so so I see it is pretty important next up would be another series of stories of the gods and goddesses called the Homeric hymns this particular one is is by is put out by Oxford world classics and of translations by Cruden see are you dden no Homer didn't write them but they're called the Homeric hymns series of stories a series of hymns to the gods and it tells various stories about them so it's also an important source of Greek mythology now the next one are the what's called the tragedians the tragedians are our writers in ancient greece who instead of writing poems or epics they wrote plays there's three of them there's Aeschylus Sophocles and Euripides now the oldest is Aeschylus here Aeschylus wrote we have seven place you probably wrote more about unfortunately only seven have survived but out of the out of other four seven three of them are part of what's called the arrestee and trailer this this one has all three you may want to find another book that has all seven not going to go into with the others with the other for all but the arrestee and trilogy is really important it consists of Agamemnon when he comes home victorious from the Trojan War then the libation bearers and then finally the admit the remedies don't worry about those names yet just worry about getting the or Espeon trilogy by Aeschylus it's the most important three next up would be Sophocles you probably heard of Sophocles because he Rhodes we also have only seven stories that survived by him but like Aeschylus he there's three stories that are really important from Sophocles and that's called the Oedipus cycle it consists of Oedipus Rex Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone and this particular book is really good it this particular version of Sophocles because this cheap little paperback has actually all the plays in one little book and it includes three plays that's part of the Oedipus trilogy the Oedipus cycle and of course everybody knows this from psychology the story of Oedipus when he finds that he slept with his mother and killed his father he tears out his eyes well that's this the third play right which is really important is simply called Euripides this particular book is really neat it contains now luckily for Paul sent for Euripides we have a lot more than seven plays that have survived there's like something like more than 10 but this this nice little paperback has 10 of his place some of some of this 10 does so you may want to pick up something by Euripides I would recommend collection of us mean collection and one little cheat volume of as many plays they could cram in here okay now okay so the tragedians are over with what's next okay there's another epic that we have besides Homer who reveal in the Odyssey we have actually another writer called apollonius rhodius also known as apollonius of rhodes and he wrote something called the algo Nautica also known as the voyage of our go now this is better known as jason and the argonauts that remember that great movie with the skeletons that sword fight well we have we have this offer to thank for it again he's well here he's written as apollonius rhodius he's also called apollonius of rhodes because he was from Rhodes and and the organ Attica is also translated as the voyage of Olga Olga was the name of the ship there's different English translations I really like this one by Peter Green because it's actually in verse the the other translations out there they're in prose they're written you know they're not written in verse form in poetry but this book by P of green it took me a while to find subtract this one down it's not the most easy it's not the easiest one to find there's other ones that are easy to find that are in prose but I really like this one because he gives it to us in verse which you know Apollonius deserves so this is a great story this is the most now everybody knows a Apollonius of roses version of the alga Nautica but not too many people know that there's actually another version of the voyage of all go which I didn't know until I discovered it by accident by a writer by a Roman writer by the name of Gaius valerius flaccus and Gaius valerius flaccus actually gave us his version of the voyager of paco and it's actually very good unfortunately he never finished it i forgot if he died or he got tired of it i don't member but it's unfinished but it's still worth reading if you want if you like the story so much and you want another version now moving into out of greek writing and into well besides this this book moving out of greek and moving into Roman literature we have if you want to read if you want to keep reading classical myths you have to read audits the metamorphosis now of it was unlike unlike the previous books I've spoken of it's not in ink it wasn't written originally in ancient Greek it was written in Latin but it's obvious the metamorphosis is as it's an amazing compendium of of the ancient Greek and Roman myths uh he basically gives us his version of these ancient myths but written much later during Roman times and and this is a great this is a must read it's a great compendium and it contains so many wonderful stories and they all end in some sort of metamorphosis where somebody is transformed into something else and so this is Ovid's metamorphoses absolutely essential now I'm gonna I'm going to digress here and I know I'm talking about Latin literature now but there's another ancient Greek book that people talk about that's also important when it comes to compendiums and that's another lesson own book and that's called the library of Greek mythology by Apple odorous now I'm not to be confused with Apollonius of Rhodes this is Apple low doors and he wrote something called the library of Greek mythology now this is this is written in ancient Greek the reason why I'm going back to ancient Greek after I present that this Latin book is because they're both comparable in the sense that they're both compendiums of Greek mythology they both crammed with a lot of myths this one Ovid's the metamorphosis is a lot more popular than below there is but if you're really hungry for all of these ancient sources and what they have to say about the myths I will recommend both of them the both were really really good now moving further is another book that you must read and that is the Aeneid by Virgil this again like the previous like Homer this is also a wonderful translation by Robert Fitzgerald's and again those other translations out there but this one I really liked is the one I read and so Virgil via needs and this is a must read this is like this is sometimes considered the greatest Latin work ever or at least the greatest like poem ever written and basically just like The Odyssey where it talks about the district trying to get home after the war this tells the story of the losing side the Trojans what happened to them what happened to their survivors well it's the story of the hair aeneas and how he takes his his soldiers and his family out of troy while it's burning to the ground and how he founds well he doesn't really found italy but basically he travels to Italy and his descendants become the founders of Rome so this is this is an Austrian book now there's a little book here that doesn't get as much love we heard of the Greek tragedians but there's another tragic writer that was Roman and he wrote tragedies too and that was Seneca Seneca of course he was actually a very wise Roman he was the tutor to to Nero the notorious Emperor and he was a great learning man and he wrote he wrote tragedies too based on the ancient Greek myths and we have six of them that survived and they're all in one this particular one book published by Oxford world classics and I really like Seneca he's a lot more gory than the Greek tragedy and you know those Romans they like things don't worry um so he it's great stuff sometimes they say he left sometimes they say he left seven tragedies but the seventh one is people argue whether or not he really wrote it so but but these are six so if you really want to you know if you're really into plays and you read the you know the Greek tragedies you want to read more go to Seneca now there's another book here that was also written in ancient Rome and it's usually not talked about much when you talk about books on Greek and Roman mythology and that's been been included for one reason I'll tell you in a second it's called the Golden Ass by Apuleius and it's really an amazing story it's basically a magical story about a guy who accidentally by playing with magic potions by accident gets turned into an ass and and he has to suffer until he's released from the shape of an ass and but what's really important about this book is that not only is it a great read but it contains the story of eros and ah that's a very important story in Greek and Greek mythology and basically if that story if you really like that story and you want to read the actual source where it comes from and the longest version there is it's in this book Opel is the golden mass and it's it's it's worth reading even whether or not you just want to hear about psyche and arrows uh now moving on now okay a lot of this stuff was mostly Greek mythology I want to get into Roman mythology a little bit there's this great book by Michael Grant Michael Grant and it's simply called Roman myths it's a it's a pretty hefty book and it's very detailed in terms of you know he goes through all the essential Roman myths and the history behind them and it's very scholarly very important to read to read this book if you really want to know about Roman mythology and it's it's just so well written and so scholarly and I don't know too many other books that compare to this so this is Michael Grant Roman myths now there's another book on Roman myths which is put down by the series called the legendary past and it's also called Roman myths and this book is by Jane F Gardner and this is a great great little book it has it's it's got its crammed with so much it's not very thick but don't be fooled it's crammed with so much information in here and and again it goes through all the essential Roman myths that you don't hear about when you hear about Greek mythology Roman myths usually have to do with foundation that's great heroes good legendary hero heroes of the past when Rome was in its infancy back in the days when it was a kingship rather than an empire ah and there's one more book I want to tell you this is my last book I promise when it comes to Roman mythology there was a civilization before Rome and that was called the Etruscans and a lot of people don't know much much about that they had their myths too so in the same series as Roman myths there is another as part of the legendary past there's another book called the trusting myths now this is usually not included part of Greek and Roman mythology but it's really it's a great little book it's by bond Fonzie and Schwab born Fonzie and swaddling and I really I really like this book it really surprised me sure there's a lot of stories in here that kind of are kind of echo Greek and Roman mythology but it you know but but the Etruscan Ruskin's the Etruscans actually are a little different and and this little book is really great to add to your collection if you really want to round out okay you've read some Roman you read Greek and now you've read some Etruscan okay now I know I've given you a lot of books to read and you're probably wondering what of them why am i watching this video now I'm inundated with all these books I have to read well I came up with something called a hatchet list or machete list I'm going to cut the books down I'm going to give you a list now of what I think are the absolute essential books that you must must must must read now this this list is rather personal I'm sure there's some people watching out there that all this guy doesn't know what he's talking about that's not the list I would read but this is just my suggestion so what I'm going to do is bear with me now because my books are a mess this list is much shorter and I wish I can't cut it down but I'm going to encourage you to read book 1 Edith Hamilton's mythology it's all you needs book to actually books so Homer I'm sorry you got to read both of them when it comes to Homer can't skip around you got a reveal in the Odyssey you must suffer next book the great tragedians I would say that you must read that's sorry about that you must read and I know the tragedies does a lot of plays but at the very least gotta read East Coast you got to read his his or Espeon trilogy the treat the three stories that's the most the next thing you absolutely must read you don't have to read any of the plays by him but just those three the arresting in trilogy and the next three plays is what I told you okay now this book happens to have I'm sorry wrong book I got you I need I need these Sophocles book where did that go there we go Sophocles okay now this this particular edition has has the complete plays but at the very least you need to read the the Oedipus trilogy those three those three books about Oedipus the King okay at the very least those three books so that's that's six plays together not too much plays are pretty short and finally when it comes to the ancient plays this book by Euripides I think you should read at least a few plays by by him at the very least I would reckon personally I would recommend at the very least I think you should read the Bakke which is about Bacchus ibaka and Medea which is the wife of Jason and Jason of the alga knobs at the very least those two because they're really great stories but again that's my own personal opinion okay so when it comes to the tragedies you have to always read those the next book that I think you really should read and this is again I'm a little biased personal favorite the alga Nautica the voyage of all go because I just think it's such a great story ah and by Apollonius of Rhodes so you got to include this one in my opinion ah next up I think you should read of its metamorphosis okay like I said this is a compendium of Greek and Roman myths even if you just don't want to read too many books this book is very central now the next thing about Ovid's metamorphoses I know it's a little thick but the beautiful beauty about this book is that it's they're short stores so it's not like you got to read cover to cover you can you can flip through it and let's say in Edith Hamilton's mythology you you like the story so much of of Athena and Arachne when she turns her into aspire and say boy I want to read more about let's see what all it has to say about it so you can flip you can flip to that story and you could read you can read the full version in here so that's the that's the nice thing about this book is that you could you could flip around it and pick it up from time to time and read one of the stories of the metamorphosis and that'll you know and if at the end of the day you read 50% of the book that's pretty good okay now another book you absolutely absolutely must read I won't let you go unless you read it and that's my personal favorite and that's the Ennead by Virgil okay so the Aeneid by Virgil is in the essential list you have to read it it's it's it's such a riveting story you need by virtue of let's say am I missing anything what what must you last okay one more book Roman myths now I know the other book that I had before the Michael Grant book is much thicker but this is the hatchet list and this book is much smaller and don't be fooled by like I said before this book is packed with with with stories it's very it's written in such a concise way that includes so much and it's even even illustrated it I can't recommend it enough so basically with this with this little hatchet list you might be more encouraged to start reading the stories so until next time thank you so much for joining me

Channel: joeyraggs

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Length: 23min 31sec (1411 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 16 2017