Myths of Ancient Greece

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 35, 10 February 1939, Page 12

Myths of Ancient Greece

Classic Collection Of Myths Revised

A NEW edition of Guerber’s "Myths" can only be looked upon as az event. First published in 1907, it has often been reprinted, but this is the first time a new revised edition has appeared, and the editor has performed an onerous task faithfully and well, Many of the oid theories of the origins of some of the classical myths have been exploded or medified during the last thirty years -three decades which have been rich in fruitful research, and Guerber, which for so leng has been a standard text, was becoming in danger of losing its authority. Not oniy have the statements and assertions been checked and weighed in the light Sf recent diseovery, but the many Greek and Latin texts from which excerpts have been quoted have been carefully conned over, and frequently augmented. "D.M.S." — perhaps better known as a poet than as a elassicist-has done her work weil, A book such as this deserves a dark blue-gold, stamped buckram,

dignified format. Messrs. Harrap printed it on good paper in an attractive Caslion type and (most commendable trait in a publisher) allowed plenty of illustrations, bound, not pasted into the text. The iliustrations, indeed, are a feature of the book-there are 48 photographs of famous pictures or statues; and as frontispiece a coloured reproduction of Lord Leighton’s "Bacchante." Among the photographs one finds with delight not only the usual excellent Watts and BurneJones pictures, but such gems as Picart's Enceladus under Mount Hina and Harry Bates’s delightful little Pandora. This is not a child’s book but a production which will give pleasure alike to the scholar who has delved some distance into classical mythology and to the layman with an interest in the subject, even though it is backed up by

little detailed knowledge-

C.S.

P.

"Myths of Greece and Rome." H. A. Guerber. Revised by Dorothy Margaret Stewart. Harrap, London. Our copy from the pwhlishers,