The Greek and Roman Myths: A Guide to the Classical Stories Hardcover – November 15, 2010

Simple, compact, and I finished it in a few days. It is one of those books you highlight and notate to keep for future easy reference. Greek and Roman God references commonly come up in artwork, literature, and are especially heavy in the histories and biographies.This helps to jog my memory if the instance of mention is too obscure.

This pint-sized info and story packed volume must be in your collection--particularly if you love stories. This is not new material for many, but the author writes a brisk and lively overview--with depth when needed--like the best teacher or prof you ever had in school. It's surprisingly fresh and fun to read. Five stars!

Summations of the mythologies involved are usually too complex or too limited to help organize this huge subject in the mind of the reader. This book satisfies a the non-specialist’s need for a short encyclopedic volume that can help in further reading of specific elements of the mythologies while keeping the bigger picture in mind. The entertain quality of the writing ensure its all an engaging browse through the traditions.

Nice to read the stories in one place.

Very good

Came in great condition

This is a pretty good and short description of the Greek myths. However, I bought it for the Roman myths, which it does not include. I guess they added Roman to the title because the author occasionally included the Roman name of a Greek god.

This slim volume now takes pride of place on my bookshelf as a common refrence source. Despite 35+ years of casual interest and study of Greco-Roman culture, I had never before had a simple description of the hierarchy of the major deities and demi-gods.Even if you have no previous knowlege of the subject, or worse only the "knowledge" that appears in popular media, this book lays out a clear path, follows the path (with the brief side excursions clearly marked), and still leaves you wanting to know more.The only downside is the brevity, especially in the last few chapters, where the pace appears rushed and questions go unanswered. Overall, though, a worthy purchase, well worth the price.

very good factual book

Immaculate product and very happy with it

The book is good, I took off a star because the cover was damaged (but it was for a present so I didn't have time for a replacement).

I purchased this book wanting to introduce my children - 17 years and 11 years old to the Greek and Roman mythology. In the end the entire family young and old have enjoyed reading this book. Its a surprising gem and I recommend it to anyone who's interested in the classics. The book is engaging to the reader with a good sense of humour and it also links various mythological gods and heroes to our Modern World. Throughout the book the author has used illustrations from famous works of art such as paintings and sculptures which I found very good as it broadened my understanding of various artwork around the world . I liked this as it really shows how much of what we consider our "modern" world owes much to our classical historical past.Its not an in depth book so dont expect to be reading long essays about each God and Hero but there is enough to keep you interested and at times intrigued to want to read more.

As an avid reader and lover of Greek Mythology, I chose to buy this book as it had some of the best reviews compared to other books. Already owning books from Greece and other hardback mythology books, this has to be up there with one of my favourites.Although I haven't actually finished it, it's a very easy read and isn't completely populated with scripture or diagrams, but rather a balanced amount. Matyszak, the author, also goes about setting up the beginning and splitting the book into different chapters that make it easy to follow compared against other books on Greek Mythology. It's also very fun learning about Roman Mythology as the two subjects both tie in together quite nicely.Would definitely recommend! As a last note, it's a very pretty book too and looks great on any book shelf.