Reviews

• Wonderful retelling of greek myths for 15 years and up

  Wonderful retelling of greek myths for 15 years and up; this book should never go out of print. If you want your teenager really appreciate Greek Mythology, give him this book instead of 'a new accessible version' and enjoy reading and rereading it yourself.

• Excellent book

  I first read this book as a child, but lost it due to my mother being a teacher and it being taken to her school to never return. But I never forgot it, or its companion - The Golden Shadow. It's a wonderful retelling of the Greek creation myths, told in a vibrant, fluid manner. If Robert Graves is too dry and academic for you, this book should surprise you pleasantly. The illustrations are also amazingly good and incredibly atmospheric.

• Outstanding Greek Creation Myth

  Woven around the life of Hephaestus, this synthesis of the Greek creation myths is the work of two poets known for their own writing collaborating with one of the UK's foremost illustrators. I have been a classicist all my life and have never read anything that evolves so perfectly from the raw incomprehension of primitive man to heartrending humanity against a backcloth of inexorable fate and wonder. To enjoy this fully, without having to refer all the time to a classical dictionary, you will need to have read a straightforward (children's) book of myths, or to have some other previous knowledge of them. Only then will you be able to be sucked in to the whirlpool of this retelling. Then you will read it again. It is so well written that at each re-reading you find greater depths and subtleties. And then you will read Homer with a proper, dispassionate understanding of heroism and death; and Sophocles as he lays bare the agonising dilemmas of the morality which must develop from this code in a qestioning society. The best introduction that I know to the birth of Western society: and possibly, because the Greeks asked questions, to getting us to ask questions about today's World society. A wonderful book in its own right, full of passion, power and poetry.

• Great book for pre-teens and teens

  This was a favorite book pf mine during early high school years. I've even re-read it as an adult and still enjoy it today. A must read for lovers of Greek Mythology!

• Powerful Retelling of the Greek Myths as One Story

  Leon Garfield displays such beautiful use of language in this book. The imagery is exceptional.

Purchase links