![]() | Greek Gods and Heroes by Robert Graves
Buy new: £3.02 / Used from: £0.69 IMHO the best secondary source on classic mythology; by Roman emperor Claudius the Stutterer's (fictional) biographer ("I, Claudius;" "Claudius the God"): Well-written, informative and comprehensive.
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![]() | Theogony and Works and Days (Oxford World's Classics) by Hesiod
Buy new: £7.19 / Used from: £2.39 One of the oldest primary sources on the Olympian gods, their ancestors and progeny and the creation of the world according to Greek mythology (partly differing from Homer, though).
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![]() | The Homeric Hymns (Oxford World's Classics)
Buy used from: £4.99 In fact the work of several poets, these in addition to the Iliad and the Odyssey constitute the core of (originally orally transmitted) Greek mythology.
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![]() | The Iliad: the Odyssey by Homer
Buy used from: £22.46 The 2 best-known works associated with Homer in an acclaimed new translation: the 10-year Trojan War & the Trojan horse creator's 20-year-journey home. (Both originally transmitted only orally, too.)
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![]() | The Aeneid (Everyman's Library classics) by Virgil
Buy new: £7.69 / Used from: £6.93 Ancient Rome's companion piece to the above; the wanderings of the forefather of Romulus and Remus, Rome's mythical founders. Composed by Virgil and commissioned by emperor Augustus himself.
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![]() | The Early History of Rome: Bks. 1-5 (Penguin Classics) by Livy
Buy new: £6.68 / Used from: £4.49 Rome's mythical foundation, lore and early history, artfully told in the classic text authored by Virgil's contemporary, Augustan historian Titus Livy.
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![]() | The Metamorphoses: a New Verse Translation (Penguin Classics) by Ovid
Buy new: £6.71 / Used from: £4.57 The foremost Roman collection of classic mythology; both Greek and Roman. The one must-read besides the Iliad, the Odyssey and the Aeneid, even if you're not looking at any other primary sources.
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![]() | The Voyage of Argo by Apollonius of Rhodes
Buy new: £5.98 / Used from: £0.30 The most comprehensive primary version of the tale of Jason and the Golden Fleece (Jason's ill-fated wife Medea in particular later also became the subject of several plays, though; see below).
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![]() | The Voyage of the "Argo": The Argonautica of Gaius Valerius Flaccus
Buy used from: £8.00 A few centuries later, Apollonius's humanly flawed hero becomes the stuff of one of literary history's first great (albeit sadly uncompleted) tales of adventure and bravery.
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![]() | The Complete Greek Tragedies: Aeschylus v.1: Aeschylus Vol 1 by Grene
Buy new: £7.55 / Used from: £0.01 By the father of the Greek tragedy: Sacrifice, murder and revenge at the beginning and the end of the Trojan War in king Agamemnon's house, but new civilization arises under Athena's guidance at last.
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![]() | The Complete Greek Tragedies: Aeschylus, Pt.2 v. 2 by Grene
Buy new: £7.99 / Used from: £1.22 Aeschylus on Prometheus (fire for humanity, torture ever after); Danaus's 50 daughters in Argos ("The Suppliants"); patricide & incest ("7 Against Thebes"); and the battle of Salamis ("The Persians").
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![]() | The Complete Greek Tragedies: Sophocles, Pt.1 v. 8 by Grene
Buy new: £7.50 / Used from: £0.34 Sophocles's famous cycle about Oedipus, king of Thebes, who (unknowingly) kills his father and marries his own mother; and Antigone, who defends her divine right even if she has to die for it.
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![]() | The Complete Greek Tragedies: Sophocles Vol II by Grene
Buy new: £6.92 / Used from: £1.93 Sophocles's non-Thebes plays (Troy in 3 of 4): Embittered warrior Ajax; woeful Electra (Orestes's sister/Agamemnon's daughter); wounded & betrayed Philoctetes; plus Heracles's tragic wife Deianeira.
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![]() | The Complete Greek Tragedies: Euripides Vol 1 (Euripides)
Buy new: £6.63 / Used from: £0.47 Euripides's take on Alcestis's self-sacrifice for her husband's life; Medea's fate after marrying Jason; Heracles's children in Athens (Heracleidae); and Hippolytus, Theseus, Phaedra and Aphrodite.
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![]() | The Complete Greek Tragedies: Euripides Vol 2: Euripides Vol 4 by Grene
Buy new: £7.50 / Used from: £0.71 Euripides on Odysseys and Polyphemos the Cyclops; Heracles and divine malice; Iphigenia after being sacrificed by Agamemnon; and an alternative history of Helen (Egypt instead of Troy!).
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![]() | The Complete Greek Tragedies: Euripides Vol 3: Euripides Vol 5 by Grene
Buy new: £7.83 / Used from: £2.14 The Trojan War seen from a female perspective: Hecuba, Andromache, other Trojan Women and life's unpredictability; plus Ion, Apollo's unjustly unacknowledged son.
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![]() | The Complete Greek Tragedies: Euripides Vol 4: Euripides Vol 6 by Grene
Buy new: £7.50 / Used from: £1.62 Rhesus, Troy's failed savior (is this truly by Euripides?); war and the rule of law (Suppliant Women); Agamemnon's sacrifice before going to Troy (Iphigenia) and Orestes's post-matricide lot.
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![]() | The Complete Greek Tragedies: Euripides Vol 5
Buy new: £7.50 / Used from: £1.19 Euripides on Electra (different from Sophocles & Aeschylus!); the battle for Thebes between Oedipus's sons (The Phoenician Women); and king Pentheus' refusal to worship Dionysos (The Bacchae).
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![]() | Aesop's Fables (Penguin Popular Classics) by Aesop
Buy new: £2.16 / Used from: £0.01 No mythology, but a popular favorite practically ever since the time of their first collection in writing 2 millenia ago and probably as influential as any play by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides etc.
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![]() | The Gods of the Greeks by C. Kerényi
Buy new: £7.11 / Used from: £0.12 Background information on the mythological deities' cultural, spiritual and psychological importance in the context of ancient Greek society and of the humanistic tradition as a whole.
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![]() | The Heroes of the Greeks by C. Kerényi
Buy new: £8.96 / Used from: £1.32 Kerenyi's companion volume to "Gods of the Greeks" ...
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![]() | Athene - Virgin and Mother in Greek Religion: Study of Pallas Athene (Dunquin Series: No. 9) by Carl Kerenyi
Buy new: £14.99 / Used from: £7.66 ...and his look at Zeus's daughter/advisor, the patroness of wisdom, warfare & the city of Athens (also part 2 of my screen name; part 1 is a Titan, Greek mythology's equivalent of Iustitia: justice).
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![]() | Remus: A Roman Myth by T.P. Wiseman
Buy new: £19.94 / Used from: £11.24 A modern examination of Roman mythology, as seen particularly in the context of the city's foundation.
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![]() | Bullfinch's Mythology (Modern Library) by Thomas Bulfinch
Buy new: £9.39 / Used from: £2.56 The standard before Graves's book (see above #1); more detailed - originally published in 3 parts & a true brick when compiled in 1 volume - but primarily for those seriously interested in this area.
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![]() | Mythology (Back Bay books) by Edith Hamilton
Buy new: £7.32 / Used from: £2.97 If all you want is a brief introduction, though, Edith Hamilton's "Mythology" (or her even shorter "Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes") will probably do just fine - it even covers Norse myths as well.
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