Bulfinch’s Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch
BULFINCH’S MYTHOLOGY is THE classic introduction to ancient and medieval myths. In three volumes, Thomas Bulfinch recounted and referenced classical stories of Graeco-Roman gods and heroes, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Norse and Hindu mythology, the Arthurian legends, Robin Hood, the Mabinogeon, and the tales of Chalemagne and his paladins. All three volumes are combined here in a single book. Besides making great reading on their own, these tales, and the values and ideals that they illustrate, are at the very heart of western literature and culture. Shakespeare, Milton, and most of the other icons of English literature drew on them repeatedly. The modern fantasy genre has its origins in this material. Tolkien was inspired by it. They are required reading for anyone who wants to be taken seriously as “educated.”
Bulfinch's Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch
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The great myths of the gods and goddesses, Greek and Roman antiquity, Scandinavian, Celtic, and Oriental fables and myths, and the era of chivalry have all been known via Bulfinch’s Mythology for about a century and a half.
The stories are broken up into three categories: Legends of Charlemagne or Romance of the Middle Ages; The Age of Fable or Stories of Gods and Heroes (first published in 1855); The Age of Chivalry (King Arthur and His Knights, The Mabinogion, and The Knights of English History) (1858); and The Age of Fable or Stories of Gods and Heroes (1863). Bulfinch referenced Ovid and Virgil for Greek mythology and Mallet’s Northern Antiquities for the northern sagas.
He offers engaging retellings of the myths of Zeus and Hera, Venus and Adonis, Daphne and Apollo, and their allies on Mount Olympus, as well as Pygmalion and Galatea’s love story, the Trojan War, and Ulysses and Aeneas’ epic journey. He also tells the stories of Beowulf and Robin Hood.
The stories are really easy to read. In Bulfinch’s words, “Much of the beautiful literature in our own language cannot be understood or enjoyed without knowledge of mythology. By recounting the mythological tales in a way that makes them entertaining, our book makes an attempt to address this issue.”
