The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive

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From the creation out of chaos and the birth of the Olympians to the Labours of Hercules, the Trojan War and Odysseus's return, Robert Graves's superb retelling of the Greek Myths - now published for the first time in a single volume in paperback - has long been acclaimed as the definitive version. From sources scattered throughout ancient literature Graves used a novelist's skill to weave a crisp coherent narrative of each myth. Full commentaries offer cross-references, interpretations and explanations combining solid scholarship with the intuitive insight of a poet; even little-known variants are recorded when they reveal an extra dimension of ritual or historical meaning. (In principle, Graves boldly claimed, Greek mythology 'was no more mysterious in content than are modern election cartoons'.) A comprehensive index of names and their derivations adds to ease of use. The result is a classic among reference books, ideal of specialists, dippers of anyone seeking details of the gods, heroics and extraordinary events which inspired Homer, the Greek tragedians and so much subsequent European culture. And, since it naturally includes the tales of Tantalus and Theseus, Orpheus and Orestes, Midas and Medea, italso contains many of the greatest stories ever told.

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Robert Graves was born in 1895 in Wimbledon, the son of Irish writer Perceval Graves and Amalia Von Ranke. He went from school to the First World War, where he became a captain in the Royal Welch Fusiliers. After this, apart from a year as Professor of English Literature at Cairo University in 1926, he earned his living by writing, mostly historical novels, including: I, Claudius; Claudius the God; Count Belisarius; Wife of Mr Milton; Sergeant Lamb of the Ninth; Proceed, Sergeant Lamb; The Golden Fleece; They Hanged My Saintly Billy; and The Isles of Unwisdom. He wrote his autobiography, Goodbye to All That, in 1929, and it was soon established as a modern classic. The Times Literary Supplement acclaimed it as 'one of the most candid self portraits of a poet, warts and all, ever painted', as well as being of exceptional value as a war document. Two of his most discussed non-fiction works are The White Goddess, which presents a new view of the poetic impulse, and The Nazarine Gospel Restored (with Joshua Podro), a re-examination of primitive Christianity. He also translated Apuleius, Lucan and Suetonius for the Penguin Classics, and compiled the first modern dictionary of Greek Mythology, The Greek Myths. His translation of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (with Omar Ali-Shah) is also published in Penguin. He was elected Professor of Poetry at Oxford in 1961 and made an Honorary Fellow of St John's College, Oxford, in 1971.