The Heroes

This delightful little book presents the stories of Perseus, The Argonauts and Theseus. It is clearly intended for young readers and the teachers of young people. This one concludes with a couple of pages on the pronunciation of the proper names that appear in the stories, a "Life of Charles Kingsley" and some Exercises in Composition. I personally treasure all these little books in the series. I find that Charles Kingsley is one of history's bright sparks whom I would love to have dinner with.

Charles Kingsley had a great admiration for the ancient Greeks, he wanted to share that with his children and so he wrote this book. His children were very young at the time, and the time was the late 1800s. All these things must be taken into account if you are going to read this book. The myths are toned down and all objectionable bits removed (except for the killing bits). At times there is moralizing and a condescending tone, which grates on our modern ears. That being said, it is still a very nice introduction into the Greek myths for young children. This particular edition is nice for teaching, as it has lots of interesting facts about the culture, history, archaeological finds and the nature of myths themselves at the end, and show more throughout there are illustrations copied from bits of vases and vocabulary words in the margins. It also includes the author's original preface at the end, which personally, I would skip. That is where the tone is the most grating. show less

Good translation, well-written for the intended audience. The later tales drag a bit, but this is a good entry point into Greek mythology.