Natural Phenomena in Greek Mythology

November 1, 2016

Gr 7 Up-With numbered source notes for each chapter and a nicely annotated set of suggestions for further reading and websites, these are scholarly discussions useful for homework purposes or deeper study by serious readers of mythology. Each book opens with a map of ancient Greece (circa 500 BCE) and a substantial introduction to some of the human interactions with the gods and the meaning and development of the myths in Greek sociology, intellectual life, and art. The five chapters that make up each volume cover many aspects of the mythical subjects and stories, as well as material on Greek history. The themes within the titles interconnect many of the characters and stories, and there's a fair amount of overlap among the books. All include a few handsome annotated images and many small insets noting Greek words and their modern counterparts.

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2017
It's all Greekmythology, that isin this scholarly Library of Greek Mythology series. In each volume, Nardo sets the scene for the topic with an overview of the rise of classical Greece. He then presents detailed examples of many kinds of myths. Natural Phenomena relates how the ancient Greeks, without modern science, used stories to explain plants, animals, weather, seasons, natural disasters, and other forces in nature. The interconnected books conclude with how Greek myths have been depicted in Western civilization and popular culture. They feature colorful scenes from myths, sidebars on great storytellers (e.g., Homer and Euripides), and word origins that give the ancient Greek and modern definitions of such words as cosmos and zoo. This series fits research needs across curricula in history, literature, and the arts.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)