Barry B. Powell

I'm struggling to decide who the intended audience for this prose version of The Odyssey is supposed to be. It's not really accessible enough for young readers, and I can see nothing designed to draw in adult readers. There's nothing wrong with the writing, but I just don't see anything to recommend it over any good translation.

I do have to give praise to Joanna Lisowiec's magnificent woodblock-style illustrations. I would happily buy a picture book version of The Odyssey if she illustrated show more it.

Received via NetGalley. show less

I used this book in my undergraduate Classical Mythology class. It's one of the few textbooks that I didn't sell back; because I wanted to keep for further reference. Even more amazing, I actually have used it for reference and perusal many times.

I recommend it actually exactly for that purpose. If you like Mythology at all, it's really handy to have in your collection because you just check the table of contents, find the myth and BOOM; short and sweet, easy to understand.

A Short Introduction to Classical Myth by Barry B. Powell was used in my Greek and Roman mythology class as a companion book to the original sources studied. Those included Hesiod's Works and Days, and Theogony, Euripides' The Bacchae, and The Women of Troy as well as excerpts from Homer's Iliad and Odyssey taken from Stanley Lombardo's Essential Homer. This was a readable and concise introduction that deals with the definitions and interpretation of myth, the background of myth, and the show more themes of myth. Along with an extensive index, the author provides further readings, maps and a table of the Greek and Roman Pantheon. It's a great book that provides a solid foundation for an introduction to Greek and Roman mythology. show less

Superb book.