Book description
The myths told by the Greeks and Romans are as important as their
history for our understanding of what they believed, thought and felt,
and of what they expressed in writing and visual art. Mythology was
inextricably interwoven with the entire fabric of their public and
private lives. This book discusses not only the purely fictional myths,
fairy-tales and folk-tales but the sagas and legends which have some
historical grounding. This is not a dictionary of stories, rather a
personal selection of the most important and memorable. Michael Grant
re-tells these marvellous tales, and then explores the different ways in
which they have appeared throughout literature. It is an inspiring
study, filled with quotations from literary sources, which gives the
reader a fascinating exposition of ancient culture as well as an
understanding of how vital the classical world has been in shaping the
western culture of today. Michael Grant was formerly a Fellow of
Trinity College, Cambridge, Professor of Humanity at Edinburgh
University, the first Vice-Chancellor of the Queen's University,
Belfast, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Khartoum. He is Doctor
of Letters at Cambridge and Honorary Doctor of Letters and Laws at
Dublin and Belfast respectively. He has also been President of the
Classical Association of England, the Virgil Society and the Royal
Numismatic Society, and is a Medallist of the American Numismatic
Society.
