The Greek myths

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His interpretation of the myths is a bit subjective, so the reader needs to treat that aspect as such. Etsy’s 100% renewable electricity commitment includes the electricity used by the data centres that host Etsy. All that being said, you can still use the book in this way, it is just not the optimum format and there may be better books out there for this purpose. Celtic Myths and Legends was compiled in 2006 by acclaimed folklorists Caitlin and John Matthews, with more lovely illustrations by Jane Ray.

Everything I’ve read by Robert Graves has been either homophobic or misogynistic (despite his own dubious sexuality), so understandably that makes me a bit leery about him.With a novelist's skill and a poet's eye, Graves draws on the entire canon of ancient literature, bringing together all the elements of every myth into one epic and unforgettable story. For example, Heracles and Iphicles, Castor and Polydeuces, and Eteocles and Polyneices are just three of many examples.

One was that I enjoyed a pilot episode of I, Claudius, so I assumed that the writing on which it was based must have been pretty good. My edition came with an introduction by Kenneth McLeish which mentioned the importance of this book in re-establishing the Greek myths as suitable reading for adults. He then has a paragraph where he adds “others say”, or “it’s said elsewhere” that it was in fact the named character that killed the king or if he did it was with a bow and arrow, or that it was the kings wife who killed him and then killed the named character and was then turned into an olive tree as punishment by the Gods. The Legends of King Arthur was released in 2000, introduced by Richard Barber and featuring a number of different translations of the Arthurian legends.

Myths and Legends of Russia released in 2009 is a highly sought after volume due to the particularly exquisite silhouette illustrations by Niroot Puttapipat. A good introductory volume on myths - and one which deserves "Folioisation" - is Edith Hamilton's Mythology.

The Norse gods which peopled the Anglo-Saxon past survive in Beowulf; Cuchulainn, Taliesin and the magician Merlin take shape from Celtic mythology; and saints include Helena who brought a piece of the True Cross to Britain, and Joseph of Arimathea whose staff grew into the Glastonbury thorn. So really all one can do about this rather complicated book as I’ve done is to concentrate on for example, Pandora, as she fascinates me, to begin with and find out who she’s related to (which in itself is like being on an odyssey) and working out from there as if I were a spider on the web awaiting my next “kill”.Robert Graves believes in some really weird things, like that pre-Hellenic Greece was a matriarchal society that believed in a "Mother Goddess" or "Triple Goddess" that was common to all Eastern Mediterranean worship. If you’re interested in a comparison between the original books and the smaller multi-part volumes that Folio also released a few years later for some of these editions – whilst the text is identical and the obvious difference is size, I believe the most important distinction is in the illustrations – the single volume editions contains beautiful two-colour images, whilst the illustrations in the smaller cheaper sets are produced only in black and white. Many years ago I was in a garden centre in England and I saw this lovely little bronze statue of Mercury.