Synopses & Reviews
Preeminent classicist Mary Lefkowitz reintroduces readers to the literature of ancient Greece, and demonstrates that these stories, although endlessly entertaining, are never frivolous. She shows that we can learn much from these myths, if we understand that they are stories about religious experience--about the meaning of divinity, the nature of justice, and the limitations of human knowledge.
Review
and#8220;A great success. . . . Acute and fascinating.and#8221;and#8212;Jasper Griffin,
New York Review of Books Review
and#8220;[The] excellent scholar Mary Lefkowitz . . . briskly retells [some of the] classic myths, not only from Homer, Hesiod, and Greek tragedy, but also those to do with the voyage of the Argonauts and the adventures of Virgiland#8217;s Aeneas.and#8221;and#8212;Peter Green,
Los Angeles Times Book ReviewReview
and#8220;[From] a super-competent, sometimes controversial, and always engaging professional classicist, . . . [a] fascinating study.and#8221;and#8212;Tracy Lee Simmons,
Washington Post Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 261-268) and index.
About the Author
Mary Lefkowitz is Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, Department of Classical Studies, Wellesley College. Among her books is
Not Out of Africa: How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History. Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Origins -- Chapter 2: Gods among mortals -- Chapter 3: The Gods in the Iliad -- Chapter 4: The Gods in the Odyssey -- Chapter 5: The Gods in Drama 1: Apollo and Orestes -- Chapter 6: The Gods in Drama II: Apollo, Athena, and others -- Chapter 7: The Gods in Hellenistic poetry -- Chapter 8: The Gods in the Aeneid -- Chapter 9: Changes.