Stated paperback (Meridian) original. Stated first printing. First few pages loose and laid in. Book plate. Tight, square, sharpc, clean book with light toning. From the library of a university librarian.

A short, brisk yet comprehensive skip through all the major myths and legends of the Ancient Greeks by a respected scholar who also wrote a larger, more definitive text. The brief length ensures that there is no time to linger on anything - even the many stories of Herakles or epics such as Jason and the Argonauts only get two or three pages - but Rose did a good job of handling the often contradictory narratives without confusing them.

He splits the material into three categories: 'myths', which concentrate on the gods; 'sagas', the legends and stories of the heroes; and what he calls 'marchen', or folklore.

Of the myths, he successfully shows how most of the Olympians were originally imported deities. Of the major epics he felt certain that there was a real Troy and that a battle was fought there between Mycenaean adversaries, whilst with The Odyssey he took the view that 'it is vain to look for real places as the localities of the hero's wanderings', and that properly the whole story is folklore rather than legend.

Generally though the book is short on commentary. However, if you merely want an overview of this vast, endlessly rewarding field, this is a decent place to start.