Edith Hamilton's Mythology

The Greeks knew that they could not win unless they took their enemies by surprise within Troy itself. Odysseus, ever cunning, devised a plan: he had a worker craft a large wooden horse with a...

The myth of Europa is the story of how Zeus, king of the gods, kidnaps and seduces Europa. To do this he turns himself into a tame white bull to encourage her to come close. She pets him, then...

Hamilton, writing in an earlier era less sensitive to cultural difference than our own, contrasts Greek myths to those fear-based myths of "primitive man," such as in "New Guinea," where human...

Baucis and Philemon are an elderly couple who offer hospitality to Jupiter and Mercury, two gods who come in disguise, seeking to determine how hospitable the people of Phrygia are: Hospitality...

The myths of Echo and Narcissus are wonderful and do have a moral lesson. Let me first give a short summary. Echo was a beautiful nymph that loved to talk. One day, Hera was looking for her...

Hamilton's depiction of Greek Mythology features a complex understanding of revenge as justice. Revenge in mythology comes out of a character having experienced an egregious wrongdoing....

Pentheus was the king of Thebes. His mother was Agave, who was the daughter of Cadmus, the founder of Thebes. When Pentheus became the king of Thebes, one of his actions was to ban the worship of...

This is a lot of question. I don't have the space in this format to address each item completely, but I'll do what I can in the space allowed. Hercules, one of the heroes written about in Edith...

Erebus (aka Erobos), the son of Chaos, was the primeval god of darkness. His sister-wife was Nyx (aka Night), also born of Chaos, who cast mists throughout the heavens and the earth to create...

Sinon has two key tasks in Book 2 of Virgil's Aeneid: it is his job first to confirm the rumor that the horse is a gift for Athena and persuade the Trojans to bring it into the city, and then to...

Greetings! I have only two things to add to the previous answers. Well, make that three! First, that the myth is an example of the "Rash Promise" theme, that is making a promise before you know...

I'll suggest some works you could read and study that contain mythological allusions: Shelley's Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus: read up on Prometheus and you'll catch the allusion. William...

In Mythology by Edith Hamilton, she puts together the myths and stories told about various figures from Greek and Roman mythology. The two accounts you are asking about, Medea and Orestes, are from...

One thing we need to keep in mind about the term hero is the difference between literary heroes and our modern day notion of what makes a hero. In our modern world, we think of a hero as someone...

You can read the story in full in the work, Golden Ass. Psyche did not want to leave her family to meet her new husband (Cupid). This is reasonable, because she was very close to her immediate...

I think that it is a challenge to find exact quotes from myths because the translation and recitation of myths always changes. It is this human quality to them where their thematic application...

Hamilton depicts different kinds of love in Greek mythology. In each of these cases, sacrifice becomes a critical element of love. This sacrifice motivates the characters to love and endure the...

At the beginning of the story "The Two Great Gods of Earth," which concerns Demeter and Dionysus, Edith Hamilton argues that humans are better off without the gods' interference. She begins by...

Patroclus is Achilles's friend. Achilles holds him in very high esteem; Edith Hamilton notes that Patroclus "of all men on earth was dearest to [Achilles]." To settle a debt, Agamemnon takes from...

It is flat out impossible to name all the Greek heroes. There are too many and more importantly, their lineages differ greatly. If you read the ancient sources, sources will differ (sometimes a...

Hamilton shows that mortals are always subject to a fated condition that is larger than individual free will. Hamilton's collection of myths shows that mortals who suffer when they believe their...

Edith Hamilton's theory can best be summed up thusly: Earth was the solid ground, and yet vaguely a personality, too. Heaven was the blue vault on high, but it acted in some ways as a human being...

Helen, married to the King of Sparta, Menelaus, was said to be the most beautiful woman in the world. She was also half divine, being the daughter of Zeus and Leda. When the goddess Aphrodite told...

I think that exact quotes in any retelling of a myth are challenging because translations always vary. It is important to keep this in mind in understanding how to pull details from myths. I do...

In Edith Hamilton's Mythology, Chapter I entitled "The Gods," is divided into The Gods and The Lesser Gods. Unlike other races, the Greeks believed that the heavens and earth were formed before the...

This is fairly interesting. The florist FTD uses the symbol of Hermes, the god of messengers, to imply their ability to delivery quickly. The winged and fleeted feet is also a symbol of FTD....

Interesting. I recall reading some theories that actually put Loki as being an earlier god (before Odin/Woden was worshiped) and he was sort of retconned into the outcast role. But his becoming the...

The word "panic" is derived from the Greek god Pan (Πάν). Pan was a rustic god, and the center of his cult was in the region of Arcadia. He was associated with wild beasts, hunting, and shepherds,...

There can be many explanations being offered through this myth. The first would be how beauty and the goddess of beauty entered the world. Arising from the sea and the domains of Poseidon, the...

For the goddess Ate (pronounced "Ah-tay"), I would look early on in the book where she discusses the early origins of the world and the gods. You might also consider checking the index in the back...

I'm assuming you're talking about the place in Fiji that comes up on Google... It doesn't say that it is named after Poseidon, but it surely must be. The way you can tell that is that A) it's an...

Th story of Europa and the Bull is a story best known from Greek mythology in which Zeus, king of the gods, plans to seduce Europa. To do so he turns into a tame white bull. She comes close to him...

According to Greek mythology, the world was created out of nothingness -- out of chaos. The goddess Eurynome then had a child, Eros, the god of love with either a giant serpent or with the north...

King Acrisius of Argos has been told by an oracle that he will never have a son but that his daughter will. But before Acrisius can start celebrating, the oracle goes on to tell him that this...