Classical Mythology

Most of the Greek and Roman texts cited are available in many different translations. The editions listed here refl ect my own preferences and an attempt to offer a balance in different translating styles.) Aeschylus. Aeschylus I. Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides, trans. Richmond Lattimore. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953. This poetic translation succeeds in conveying the fl avor of Aeschylus’s Greek. Apollodorus. The Library of Greek Mythology. Trans. Robert Hard. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. A clear and readable translation; includes very useful genealogical tables. Euripides. Euripides I. Includes Medea, trans. Rex Warner, and Hippolytus, trans. David Grene. In The Complete Greek Tragedies, D. Grene and R. Lattimore, eds. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1955. Clear, readable translations. . Euripides V. Includes. The Bacchae, trans. William Arrowsmith. In The Complete Greek Tragedies, D. Grene and R. Lattimore, eds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959. Excellent, highly readable translation. Hesiod. Theogony, Works and Days, Shield. Trans. Apostolos N. Athanassakis. Baltimore, London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983. Excellent translation with thorough and helpful notes. The Homeric Hymns. Trans. Apostolos N. Athanassakis. Baltimore, London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976. Clear, readable translation with useful notes. 150 Bibliography Kirk, G. S. The Nature of Greek Myths. London, New York: Penguin Books, 1974. A clear, concise introduction for the general reader. Contains chapters on defi nitions of myth, approaches to myth, the appearances of Greek myths in literature, and the nature of Greek heroes. An excellent place to begin any study of classical myth or of theories about myth in general. Livy. The Early History of Rome. Trans. Aubrey de Sélincourt. London, New York: Penguin Books, 1960. Translates the fi rst fi ve books of Livy’s great work; includes an account of Romulus and Remus. Excellent introduction. Ovid, Metamorphoses. Trans. Rolfe Humphries. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1983. Fast-paced, readable translation; very free at times, but good at capturing Ovid’s “tone.” The Oxford Classical Dictionary. 3rd ed. Simon Hornblower and Anthony Spawforth, eds. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. The standard one-volume reference work on Greek and Roman antiquity. Segal, Robert A. “Joseph Campbell’s Theory of Myth,” in Alan Dundes, ed., Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1984, pp. 256–269. A succinct, clear exposition of the objections many scholars have to Campbell’s theory. Sophocles, The Three Theban Plays: Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York, London: Penguin Books, 1982. This edition is particularly useful for the introduction and notes by Bernard Knox. Virgil, The Aeneid. Trans. Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Vintage Books, 1984. This is probably the most frequently used translation in college literature courses. It translates Virgil’s hexameters into quick moving, fl uid, and very readable lines of iambic pentameter. The line numbers of the original are given at the foot of each page, which is helpful to the student who is reading supplementary materials that include line references.