A Companion to Greek Mythology [Hardcover]

A Companion to Greek Mythology presents a series of essays that explore the phenomenon of Greek myth from its origins in shared Indo-European story patterns and the Greeks’ contacts with their Eastern Mediterranean neighbours through its development as a shared language and thought-system for the Greco-Roman world.

• Features essays from a prestigious international team of literary experts
• Includes coverage of Greek myth’s intersection with history, philosophy and religion
• Introduces readers to topics in mythology that are often inaccessible to non-specialists
• Addresses the Hellenistic and Roman periods as well as Archaic and Classical Greece

List of Illustrations viii

List of Maps xi

List of Tables xii

Notes on Contributors xiii

To the Reader xviii

Acknowledgements xxi

Glossary xxii

Abbreviations xxv

Approaching Myth 1

1 Thinking through Myth, Thinking Myth Through 3
Ken Dowden and Niall Livingstone

PART I Establishing the Canon 25

2 Homer's Use of Myth 27
Françoise Létoublon

3 Telling the Mythology: From Hesiod to the Fifth Century 47
Ken Dowden

4 Orphic Mythology 73
Radcliffe G. Edmonds III

PART II Myth Performed, Myth Believed 107

5 Singing Myth: Pindar 109
Ian Rutherford

6 Instructing Myth: From Homer to the Sophists 125
Niall Livingstone

7 Acting Myth: Athl#3