UMass Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press

Gods & Heroes of the Greeks
The Library of Apollodorus

Translated with Introduction and Notes by Michael Simpson Book Jacket: "Gods & Heroes of the Greeks: The 'Library' of Apollodorus" trans. by M. Simpson
Drawings by Leonard Baskin

The immortal characters of Greek mythology enact their dramas, conflicts, and passions in the Library of Apollodorus. Probably composed in the first century A.D., it is the only Greek andbook of mythology to survive antiquity, and is a major source of our knowledge of Greek myths.

Beginning with the birth of the gods and ending with the death of Odysseus, the Library traces the destinies of such great mythic figures as Prometheus, Oedipus, Heracles, Daedalus, and the heroes of the Trojan War. Sir James G. Frazer called the Library "an accurate record of what the Greeks in general believed about the origin and early history of the world and their race."

Michael Simpson's new translation captures the fine simplicity and straightforwardness of the original. Leonard Baskin's drawings throw a unique contemporary light on this ancient world.

This book is more than a translation of Apollodorus' Library; it is a serviceable reference work of primary and secondary sources for Greek mythology. In an introduction to the translation, Simpson discusses the style of the original and enumerates the ancient sources used in its compilation. A definition of myth and remarks on the 'special character of Greek mythology' are also included here. Especially valuable are the notes, which cite Apollodorus' source or sources for each myth, indicate departures from these sources, comment on the significance of relevant aspects of each of the myths, and cite current bibliographical references which could serve as a neat point of departure for further research.

Classical Outlook

Michael Simpson is professor of classics in the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas. He is author of The 'Metamorphoses' of Ovid (University of Massachusetts Press, 2001).

Classics
320 pp., illus.
LC 75-32489
$20.95s paper, ISBN 0-87023-206-1
1976; new introduction, 1986
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