the oracle at Delphi says-

[grassangel]

Apparently young people do not read Greek myths any more. Which is why critics say Percy and the Lightning Thief is a good thing, as opposed to Hercules or Xena.
I am vaguely confused by this, as I knew who Zeus was before I was eight. Okay, so I can't name all the Argonauts but the fact that I know what the Elysian Fields are is apparently ODD.

Basically what I really wanted to say is: I'VE READ HERODOTUS, I KNOW MORE PLACE NAMES THAN YOU DO.

(This is vaguely aimed at the Doctor Who fandom/canon where appropriation of Greek names is rampant.)
(Also, the all-caps statement above does not apply to about half of my flist, as I know some of you could name all the Argonauts.)

Comments

[grass-angel.livejournal.com]

Apparently Percy Jackson gets kids into Greek mythology, whereas Hercules and Xena didn't. :\ (That's both the live-action Hercules and the Disney movie. Both of which had HORRIBLE inaccuracies.)

[somersaulter.livejournal.com]

I remember being rather confused watching Percy Jackson as I kept wondering if Perseus is not the son of Zeus but of Poseidon.

I love Greek myths, but my readings of it are of the very basis. The sheer amount of literature of it is overwhelming. Know where I can start?

[grass-angel.livejournal.com]

My general rule of thumb is that if it's a half-god/half-human hero, it's Zeus' kid. :P

As to where to start... I have no idea. Definitely not Herodotus, as he talks about Alexander the Great more than anything. (And I only ever read one of the five 'books' of his. Also, he's extremely long-winded.)
If you aren't interested in taking Classical History too far, I'd start with one of those thick Greek Mythology books (from the adult non-fiction section) that isn't laid out like a kids one and then maybe from there read The Odyssey and Jason and the Argonauts. Those two are the epics and contain the more famous heros. (Although I would just opt for an abrigded version of The Odyssey at least, simply because the story covers something like 30 years od adventures, 10 of them being the Trojan war.)

Errr... I hope that helps?

[hikaru-9.livejournal.com]

With a given name like 'Athena' You tend to go search these things out. I get people all the time that come up to me and say, "oh that's pretty, wasn't she the goddess of love?"

:/

[grass-angel.livejournal.com]

The fact there are adults in the English speaking world going around not knowing these things scares me a little.

Theoretically, with my name, I'd be doing the exact same thing. (Which I have, which lead to me attempting to read 'Daphnis et Chloe' and learning that Chloris was a Greek goddess.)
Also, I'm vaguely jealous, because you get to have owls, chess and mpreg (kinda) related to your name, while I just get goats, pirates and plants.

[raelynae.livejournal.com]

Silly young people. I guess maybe we were doing it wrong? I thought Greek Mythology was still considered cool? Well maybe it will be again!

I had an advantage over most kids though, my parents would tell me kidified versions of myths as bed time stories. The tale of Zeus and Europa was fun~ haha