I suppose for most of us the Greek myths are primarily stories – a wonderful range of timeless narratives that have captivated people, across the Western world especially, throughout the millennia since their first devising. In truth it was probably those stories that were primarily responsible for my own study of Latin and Greek and reading classics as my degree subject. But wonderful though they are simply as narratives, the myths had – and still have – their own origins and contexts, and it is these that are explored in this fascinating companion. It is worth stressing that this is a companion, not a dictionary or encyclopaedia, so that it features discussion of myths as themes or in various contexts, not their re‐telling.
The overall structure and the individual chapters of the book are discussed by the editor in his preface, setting the wider scene from ancient times to modern and locating each contribution within its individual context and in the wider picture presented by the whole volume. Part 1 discusses Sources and Interpretations in seven chapters, from Lyric and Greek Myth to Hellenistic mythographers. Homer, of course, has a chapter, but because it was the subject of my final year undergraduate dissertation, “Hesiod and Greek myth” (by Roger D. Woodard) caught my special attention: what in my own words of 40 years ago was a probably rather hesitant look at the Near Eastern sources of and influences on the Theogony has now developed through many scholars into a more definite and exhaustive study of Hesiod as “a view to the East” and “an Indo‐European tradition.” Further chapters on tragedy, Aristophanes and Plato lead to the important discussion of the role of Hellenistic scholars in the study and transmission of Greek myths, from prehistoric and classical sources into the corpus of texts and interpretations passed forward to medieval and ultimately modern interpretation.
The central section “Response, integration, representation”, offers five chapters looking at key or significant (in modern scholarship) subjects. Claude Calame's discussion of Greek myth and Greek religion is an essential element, emphasizing the prominence of cult practice in the presentation and use of myth. Jenifer Neils's treatment of “Myth and Greek art: creating a visual language” examines the visual narrative in Greek myth, while Ada Cohen's “Mythic landscapes of Greece” develops the theme more specifically. That leads to a discussion of “Politics and Greek myth”, while the final contribution in this section discusses the pivotal role of Ovid in the interpretation of Greek myth in early imperial Rome.
Part 3 will attract many less specialist readers, for here four chapters look at the reception of Greek myth. The first discusses “Women and Greek myth” then the other three look at Greek myth in medieval and renaissance literature, in modern English and American literature, and “Greek myth on the screen”. These last two chapters are, inevitably, the most accessible to non‐specialist audiences, and Martin M. Winkler's chapter on Greek myths in the movies reflects the first, and often only, exposure of many modern audiences to the myths. Duccio Tessari's lighthearted 15 commandments of how to construct a mythological film, quoted in full here, are delightful, and include No. 13: “Take care the make‐up people retrieve the blood from scenes of violence: it costs 6,000 lire a liter and can be used at least one more time”. Or more pragmatically even than that, No. 15: “Save dangerous scenes for the last days of shooting: if actors get hurt, the insurance company pays, and now the film is finished”.
The contributors are listed with brief biographies and, naturally, all are academics from the USA and Europe. Each chapter has a list of references and there is an extensive consolidated bibliography at the end of the volume. The index is adequate without being very detailed. A total of 16 monochrome plates present 25 illustrations, especially geared to the chapters on visual interpretation, including five stills from films.
The discussions reflect current scholarly thinking and research and address current scholarly issues within the subject. The earlier chapters are probably more for specialist audiences than more general, but these may still attract interest from readers further a field, and the later chapters especially are more accessible to wider modern audiences. But I come full circle to the attraction of myths as narratives, and to their depiction of an ancient world which presents some features seemingly both timeless and paralleled in the modern world, yet which ultimately must remain as stated by Louis Macneice:
And how one can imagine oneself among themI do not know;It was all so unimaginably differentAnd all so long ago.
