Songs on Bronze: The Greek Myths Made Real

The Greek myths are recognized as universal stories without equal. Here, Cambridge classicist Nigel Spivey presents them for precocious youth as the spellbinders they are.

Said Spivey, "I intended to write this book for my young children -- with due regard for their delicate sensibilities. They, however, grew up more quickly than I wrote. So, I accepted the violence and sensuality of the myths and make little effort to purify them."

In bold, easily understood prose, he tells of Demeter and Persephone, of Prometheus' creation of humankind, of Jason and the Argonauts, of the wrath of Achilles and the travels of Odysseus, of Oedipus’s crime and Orpheus’s excursion into the Underworld. In his hands, these stories are revealed anew as outsize tales of love and strife, of secret compacts and open rivalries, and of the overwhelming power of Eros.