The 10 Best Greek Mythology Books

Most readers who want one book on the Greek myths should start with Edith Hamilton's Mythology. First published in 1942, it moves from the creation stories and the Olympian gods through the great heroes, the Trojan War and the cursed royal families, in calm, clear prose. This hardcover anniversary edition adds new art by Jim Tierney. Hamilton often follows Roman poets such as Ovid, so some tales carry a Latin flavor, and a short Norse section closes the book.

Families have read D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths aloud since 1962, and it has never gone out of print. Each of its short chapters introduces one god, monster or hero, set beside big, bright drawings, so a young child can finish a story at bedtime. The oversized pages suit a lap better than a backpack. The tellings leave out the darkest parts of the myths, which helps little readers, but older teens will want a fuller account later on.

For a first read of Homer, Emily Wilson's Odyssey is the translation to pick up. Wilson, a classics professor, keeps her wording as plain as modern speech and matches Homer line for line, so the story moves quickly with no padding. Published in 2017, it was the first complete English translation of the poem by a woman, and her long introduction explains the world behind it. A few critics argue that her plain wording drifts from the Greek in places.

Kids who already love Rick Riordan's novels get the whole Greek pantheon in Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, told by Percy himself. He starts with how the world began, then gives each Olympian a chapter full of jokes, slang and eye-rolling, which makes the gods feel like a messy family. A full-color section of John Rocco's paintings adds to the fun. The wisecracking voice can wear on adults, and the jokes sometimes crowd out the stories themselves.

Robert Graves' Greek Myths retells the myths at great length in a single volume, and each story ends with a list of the ancient writers who tell it, which makes the book a handy map to the sources. The trouble is the commentary. Graves reads the myths through his own theory of a lost goddess religion, and Robin Hard, a translator of Greek myth, called those notes cranky nonsense. Enjoy the stories and treat the notes as opinion.

Many famous Greek myths, from Narcissus at the pool to Daedalus and Icarus, are best known from Ovid's Metamorphoses, a Roman poem of more than 250 tales about bodies changing shape. David Raeburn renders it in lively English verse, and this cloth-covered Penguin edition makes a handsome gift. It is not a book for children: the poem is full of violence, and several tales, including the story of Philomela, center on rape.

Readers who want the myths the way an ancient Greek reference book recorded them should try Apollodorus' Library. Compiled in the first or second century, it traces gods and heroes generation by generation, from the creation through the heroes who sailed to Troy. Robin Hard's plain prose translation adds notes and family trees that make the tangled lines easy to follow. It reads like an encyclopedia rather than a storybook, and the surviving text breaks off partway.

Richard Buxton's Complete World suits adults who want to understand the Greek myths, not only read them. Buxton, a retired professor of Greek at the University of Bristol, arranges the book by theme rather than by story, explaining where the myths came from, what they meant to the Greeks and how long their influence has lasted, with many pictures of ancient art. It summarizes instead of retelling, so it works best beside a good storybook.

Anyone who knows the familiar versions and wants a fresh angle should read Pandora's Jar by Natalie Haynes, a classicist and broadcaster. Each chapter follows one woman from the myths, such as Pandora, Medusa or Penelope, and shows how later writers and translators bent her story to fit their own times. Haynes writes with a comic's timing, and the book became a bestseller. It assumes you know the basic tales, so it makes a poor first book.

Teens who stall on long poems can follow Odysseus home in Gareth Hinds' Odyssey, a full-color graphic novel. Hinds condenses Homer's tale into panels where the storms, monsters and homecoming fight carry much of the story, and the painted art shifts mood from scene to scene. The publisher pitches it at junior high and early high school readers. Much of the poem is trimmed away, so it works as a doorway to the poem, not a replacement.