The God Beneath the Sea

I grew up with Bulfinch's Mythology and have always loved Greek mythology, so I was thrilled to discover and read this collection of Greek creation myths of both gods and man, written in modern language for young people. These were the CREATION myths, as opposed to the HEROIC. The tales were fleshed out, starting with the birth of Hephaestus, the ugly son of Zeus and Hera, and how the other gods came to be and why they became gods of a particular thing. Then the book progressed to the titans, the war between gods and titans, the creation of man. More extensive than Bulfinch were the stories of Deucalion and the Flood, Demeter and Persephone, Pandora, Sisyphus, and finally the rape of Anticleia and birth of her son, Odysseus, growing up show more on rocky Ithaca. Apollo and Poseidon build the city of Troy; Anticleia's father writes her: "Perhaps, when he is a grown man, my grandson Odysseus will visit it."

Imaginative retellings in today's language and how one event led to another. The creative line drawings, by design not copies of ancient Greek ceramics, added much. Highly recommended. I certainly see how this book won the Carnegie Medal. show less