ALERT: Before you purchase, check with your instructor or review your course syllabus to ensure that you select the correct ISBN. Several versions of Pearson's MyLab & Mastering products exist for each title, including customized versions for individual schools, and registrations are not transferable. In addition, you may need a CourseID, provided by your instructor, to register for and use Pearson's MyLab & Mastering products.
Packages
Access codes for Pearson's MyLab & Mastering products may not be included when purchasing or renting from companies other than Pearson; check with the seller before completing your purchase.
Used or rental books
If you rent or purchase a used book with an access code, the access code may have been redeemed previously and you may have to purchase a new access code.
Access codes
Access codes that are purchased from sellers other than Pearson carry a higher risk of being either the wrong ISBN or a previously redeemed code. Check with the seller prior to purchase.
-- Comprehensive and scholarly, this well-designed text presents Greek and Roman myths in a lively and easy-to-read manner. The material has been rearranged to make it easier to find and the new edition has been streamlined. It features fresh translations, numerous illustrations (ancient and modern) of classical myths and legends, and commentary that emphasizes the anthropological, historical, religious, sociological, and economic contexts in which the myths were told. It also provides a cultural context so that readers can see how mythology has influenced the world and how it continues to influence society today.
Table of Contents:
Contents
Preface
PART I Definitions and Background
1. The Nature of Myth
2. The Cultural Context of Classical Myth
3. The Development of Classical Myth
PART II Divine Myth
4. Myths of Creation: The Rise of Zeus
5. Myths of Creation: The Origins of Mortals
6. Myths of Zeus, His Wife Hera, and His Brother Poseidon
7. Myths of the Great God Apollo
8. Myths of Hermes, Pan, Hephaestus, Ares
9. Myths of the Female Deities
10. Myths of Fertility: Demeter and Related Myths
11. Myths of Fertility: Dionysus
12. Myths of Death: Encounters with the Underworld
PART III Legends
13. Gilgamesh: Introduction to Heroic Myth
14. Perseus and Myths of the Argive Plain
15. Heracles
16 Theseus and the Myths of Athens
17. The Myths of Crete
18. Oedipus and the Myths of Thebes
19. Jason and the Myths of Iolcus and Calydon
20. The Trojan War
21. The Fall of Troy and Its Aftermath
22. The Return of Odysseus
PART IV Roman Myth
23. Legends of Aeneas
24. Legends of Early Rome
PART V Interpretation
25. Theories of Myth Interpretation
Reference Charts
Chronology of the Ancient World
The Greek and Roman Pantheon
Index
PERSPECTIVES
1.1 The "Myth of Atlantis"
1.2 The Brothers Grimm
2 Frank Miller's 300
4.1 Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Children
4.2 The Biblical Creation Story
5.1 Kratos: God of War
5.2 Prometheus and the Romantics
6.1 The Three Graces
6.2 The Loves of Zeus in European Art (color insert)
7 Bernini’s Apollo and Daphnê
8 Pan and Pastoral Tradition
9 Venus: Images of Beauty in European Art (color insert)
10.1 Rossetti’s Proserpina Holding the Pomegranate
10.2 H. D.’s “Adonis”
11.1 Titian’s Bacchus and Ariadnê
11.2 Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy
12.1 Vampires
12.2 Michelangelo’s The Sibyl of Cumae
12.3 Dante’s Inferno
13 J. R. R. Tolkien’s Modern Hero in The Lord of the Rings
14.1 Vasari’s Perseus and Andromeda
14.2 Classical Myth and the Stars
15 Daumier’s Hercules in the Augean Stables
16 Boccaccio’s Misfortunes of Famous Men
17.1 Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson
17.2 Picasso’s Minotauromachia
17.3 Brueghel’s The Fall of Icarus
18 Gustave Moreau’s Oedipus and the Sphinx
19.1 Seneca’s Medea
19.2 Delacroix’s Médée
20.1 Yeats’s “Leda and the Swan”
20.2 The Beauty of Helen
21.1 The Trojan War in European Art (color insert)
21.2 Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida
22.1 Ulysses
22.2 The Legends of Odysseus in European Art (color insert)
22.3 Cavafy’s “Ithaca”
23 Aeneas, Augustus, and Mussolini
24.1 David’s Oath of the Horatii
24.2 The Lucretia of Rembrandt and Shakespeare
25 Apuleius’ Allegory of Cupid and Psychê
MAPS
I. The Ancient Mediterranean (inside front cover)
II. Southern and Central Greece, chapter 2
III. The Ancient Near East, chapter 3
IV. The Argive Plain, chapter 14
V. Heracles' Adventures in Greece, chapter 15
VI. Locations of Heracles' Deeds Abroad, chapter 15
VII. The Labors of Theseus, chapter 16
VIII. The Voyage of the Argo, chapter 19
IX. The Troad, chapter 20
X. Ancient Italy, chapter 23
XI. The Travels of Aeneas, chapter 23
XII. Imperial Rome, chapter 24
XIII. Greece, the Aegean, and Western Asia Minor (inside back cover)
CHARTS
CHART 3 Near Eastern Gods and Goddesses
CHART 4.1 The First Generation of Gods
CHART 4.2 The Offspring of Gaea and Uranus
CHART 4.3 The Offspring of Gaea and Pontus
CHART 4.4 Hittite and Greek Theogonies Compared
CHART 5 The Descent of the Greek Tribes from the Race of Titans
CHART 6.1 The Twelve Olympians
CHART 6.2 Zeus’s Divine Consorts and Their Children
CHART 14 The Descent of Perseus
CHART 15.1 The Descent of Heracles
CHART 15.2 Heracles' Wives and Offspring
CHART 16.1 Cecrops and His Descendants
CHART 16.2 The House of Erichthonius
CHART 17 The House of Crete
CHART 18 The House of Cadmus
CHART 19.1 The House of Aeolus
CHART 19.2 The House of Calydon
CHART 20.1 The House of Atreus
CHART 20.2 The House of Tyndareüs
CHART 20.3 The House of Troy
About the Author :
Barry B. Powell, after graduation from Berkeley and Harvard, taught at Northern Arizona University, then took a job at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he taught for 34 years. He is a master of many languages, both ancient and modern, and for many years taught Egyptian philology and culture at Wisconsin, in addition to courses in Classics. His book Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet, which advanced the thesis that one man invented the Greek alphabet in order to record the poet Homer, has become a classic and changed the way we think about the origins of Western Culture. He has written many other books, including two novels and a book of poetry. His book Classical Myth, is the best-selling book on the topic, and is now in its seventh edition. His book Homer is the best-selling study of this author. The Greeks: History, Culture, and Society (second edition, with Ian Morris) is widely used in college classrooms. He is currently preparing a translation of the Iliad and the Odyssey. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he and his wife Patricia enjoy the company of their children and grandchildren.
