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+++ title = "Greek Mythology Explained: A Deeper Look at Classical Greek Lore and Myth - Marios Christou, David Ramenah" date = 2019-01-05
[taxonomies] tags = ["book", "reviews", "greek mythology", "marios christou", "david ramenah"] +++
GoodReads Summary: Greek mythology explored like never before.
Fans of George R.R Martin’s A Song of Ice & Fire series and the Game of Thrones TV series will love Greek Mythology Explained, a unique retelling of Greek mythological tales featuring love, betrayal, murder and ruthless ambitions.
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When I saw "Explained" in the title, I thought the explanations would point things in the stories that reflected things in the Greek society at the time.
But no, explanations are way more simpler than that.
For example, the mith of Odysseus and his voyage back home, starting when he has to choose between facing Scylla or Chyrabdis, one a monster of 6 heads and another a huge whirlpool. The explanation: "between a rock and hard place". I mean, it doesn't take much to realize that either option is terrible. You don't need explanation for that.
On the other hand, some explanations are, actually, explanations about the chosen story. Some characters in Greek mythology have different narrations for the same story -- for example, there are, according to the book, 6 different tales of Artemis and Orion, all with the same start, the same ending, but different content "in between". This is nice.
And, even if the explanations aren't a huge thing, the select stories are pretty good.