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Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes (Meridian)

Edith Hamilton

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Total reviews: 52 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

MYTHOLOGY by Edith Hamilton 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Mythology is classicist Edith Hamilton's book on Greek, Roman and Norse mythology, illustrated by Steele Savage (no kidding). The bulk of the work is devoted to the Greek, and the Norse is mentioned only in passing. Myths are arranged thematically, not chronologically (except for the initial creation), which is disruptive to the flow of the work.

Hamilton does several things well. First, she gives history on the authors from whom these stories have descended, and differentiates between their styles. Second, she gives good insight into the character of the people of the time as well as into the character of the mythological figures. She obviously knows the material and cares about it.

Mythology reads like a history book. Many stories get wrapped up too quickly, and quite a few are told too simplistically. Many details are left out. The writing is juvenile at times, and paragraph flow is occasionally an issue. This is almost a Cliff's Notes on mythology. Ultimately, Hamilton makes most of these myths boring. Others, with too many details cut out, the reader will find hard to get into.

Mythology has some good things to offer, but on the whole, this is an inferior way to enjoy the myths. This book may be useful to some as a quick-reference guide, but that's about it.

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT

Editorial Review:

Renowned for her love and knowledge of classical leterature, Edith Hamilton created a legendary bestseller in this masterful retelling of the great Greek, Roman, and Norse myths.

I, Claudius

Robert Graves

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Total reviews: 160 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Totally awesome 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

"I Claudius" was the first book that convinced me that history could be engrossing. Ridiculously fun to read - it delivers a thrill on a level with the first time you saw "The Mikado", heard the Saint-Saens cello concerto, Callas singing 'Casta Diva'. You get the picture.

It is a stroke of genius for Graves to choose Claudius, the drooling 'halfwit' among the Caesars, overlooked and ridiculed by his more ambitious relatives, as his mouthpiece. In a voice that is irresistibly gossipy and remarkably shrewd, he draws us in and makes the history completely and spellbindingly real. It's a stunning accomplishment.

This book, its sequel, and the extraordinary BBC adaptation for television, are high on the list of life's great pleasures.

Editorial Review:

Tiberius Claudius Drusu Nero Germanicus lived from 10 B.C. to A.D. 54. Despised as a weakling and dismissed as an idiot beause of his physical infirmities, Claudius survived the intrigues and poisonings that marked the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, and the mad Caligula, to become emperor of Rome in A.D. 41.

Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography

Simon Singh

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Total reviews: 252 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Codes have decided the fates of empires, countries, and monarchies throughout recorded history. Mary, Queen of Scots was put to death by her cousin, Queen Elizabeth, for the high crime of treason after spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham cracked the secret code she used to communicate with her conspirators. And thus the course of British history was altered by a few sheets of cryptic prose. This is just one link in humankind's evolutionary chain of secret communication, and just one of the fascinating incidents recounted in The Code Book, written by bestselling author Simon Singh.

Combining a superb storyteller's sense of drama and a scientist's appreciation for technical perfection, Singh traces the evolution of secret writing from ancient Greek military espionage to the frontiers of computer science. The result is an epic tale of human ingenuity, with examples that range from the poignant to the peculiar to the world-historical.

There is the case of the Beale ciphers, which involves Wild West escapades, a cowboy who amassed a vast fortune, a buried treasure worth $20 million, and a mysterious set of encrypted papers describing its whereabouts--papers that have baffled generations of cryptanalysts and captivated hundreds of treasure hunters.

A speedier end to a bloody war was the only reward that could be promised to the Allied code breakers of World Wars I and II, whose selfless contributions altered the course of history; but few of them lived to receive any credit for their top-secret accomplishments. Among the most moving of these stories is that of the World War II British code breaker Alan Turing, who gave up a brilliant career in mathematics to devote himself to the Allied cause, only to end his years punished by the state for his homosexuality, while his heroism was ignored. No less heroic were the Navajo code talkers, who volunteered without hesitation to risk their lives for the Allied forces in the Japanese theater, where they were routinely mistaken for the enemy.

Interspersed with these gripping stories are clear mathematical, linguistic, and technological demonstrations of codes, as well as illustrations of the remarkable personalities--many courageous, some villainous, and all obsessive--who wrote and broke them.

All roads lead to the present day, in which the possibility of a truly unbreakable code looms large. Singh explores this possibility, and the ramifications of our increasing need for privacy, even as it begins to chafe against the stated mission of the powerful and deeply secretive National Security Agency. Entertaining, compelling, and remarkably far-reaching, this is a book that will forever alter your view of history, what drives it, and how private that e-mail you just sent really is.

Included in the book is a worldwide Cipher Challenge--a $15,000 award will be given by the author to the first reader who cracks the code successfully. Progress toward the solution will be tracked on The Code Book website.

Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences (Routledge Classics)

M. Foucault

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Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Obtuse but Sharp 4 out of 5 stars.
11 of 16 people found this review helpful.

Foucault's stuff is hardly pleasure reading, but it rewards in other ways, more subtly. If you don't read Foucault without coming away with a deeper sense of the world around you, how power and knowledge is diffuse and not central, you would be a rare person. This book isn't so much concerned with power as it is the history of ideas, though.

Difficult but worth it 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 11 people found this review helpful.

This book is one of the most important philosophy texts of the 20th century, if for no other reason than as an eye-opener. The text is a difficult read (although nowhere near as opaque as Derrida). The section on how our culture and, hence, our world-view has been "set" by accepted taxonomies is worth the read all by itself. I have come back to these comments again and again. Taxonomies are useful, but we need to understand the constraints on understanding imposed by such

Editorial Review:

"The work numbers among those outward signs of culture the trained eye should find on prominent display in every private library. Have you read it? One's social and intellectual standing depends on the response." -- Michel de Certeau

The Complete World of Greek Mythology

Richard Buxton

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Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A full, authoritative, and wholly engaging account of these endlessly fascinating tales and of the ancient society in which they were created.

Greek myths are among the most complex and influential stories ever told. From the first millennium BC until today, the myths have been repeated in an inexhaustible series of variations and reinterpretations. They can be found in the latest movies and television shows and in software for interactive computer games.

This book combines a retelling of Greek myths with a comprehensive account of the world in which they developed—their themes, their relevance to Greek religion and society, and their relationship to the landscape.

• "Contexts, Sources, Meanings" describes the main literary and artistic sources for Greek myths, and their contexts, such as ritual and theater.
• "Myths of Origin" includes stories about the beginning of the cosmos, the origins of the gods, the first humans, and the founding of communities.
• "The Olympians: Power, Honor, Sexuality" examines the activities of all the main divinities.
• "Heroic exploits" concentrates on the adventures of Perseus, Jason, Herakles, and other heroes.
• "Family sagas" explores the dramas and catastrophes that befall heroes and heroines.
• "A Landscape of Myths" sets the stories within the context of the mountains, caves, seas, and rivers of Greece, Crete, Troy, and the Underworld.
• "Greek Myths after the Greeks" describes the rich tradition of retelling, from the Romans, through the Renaissance, to the twenty-first century.

Complemented by lavish illustrations, genealogical tables, box features, and specially commissioned drawings, this will be an essential book for anyone interested in these classic tales and in the world of the ancient Greeks. 250 illustrations, 120 in color.

Fingerprints of the Gods

Graham Hancock

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Total reviews: 264 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

His main ideas are good, his supporting theories flawed 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I want to like Graham more than I do. He seems like a nice british chap, writes a good story and obviously has loads of passion. But like many oter books in this genre he leaves a lot of stones unturned that are right in front of him. Some examples:

Hancock loves to reference the Piri Reis map as conclusive evidence that ancient seafarers existed thousands of years ago and the infomation in the Piri Reis map is evidence of this. However the chinese were, 1 or 2 hundred years before the Piri Reis map was drawn up, exploring many corners of the globe, had a civilisation considered more advanced than europe at its time and had a very plausible explanation of why they would sail and map the southern seas including antarctica. Hancock fails to even bring the ancient chinese sea explorers into the picture, which is suprising because it tells another tale of suppressed information (the chinese destroyed much evidence of the explorations for political reasons much like evidence is covered over today in light of other theories) that he could relate to. Further have you ever seen a piece of the Piri Reis map depciting Antarctica? Its always another more contemporary map thats shown. I belive this is because the only remaining piece of the Piri Reis map remaining does not show the portion of antarctica.

An issue that bothers me is the theory of Antarctica being 'Atlantis'. Now the idea that Antarctica was in a different geographical location, had less ice in our recent past or was influenced by rapid earth crust displacement is a genuine argument. However to suggest it was the mythical 'Atlantis' doesn't make sense logically. It doesn't match up with Plato's description and it doesn't fit a logical location in comparison with the america's as a whole or a part of the america's. Its not a stretch of the imagination to believe south america and africa were trading for a long time and much evidence indicates this was in fact so. For the ancient greeks and egyptians to know of such a place likely means it was in the central america's not to the extreme far south of south america at antarctica. Ancient civilisations that really progressed somewhere tend to be in more fertile areas around the middle equatorial band and not to the extreme north and south of our planet. I wonder if Hancock simply pushes Antarctica because no one else does as rigorously and so he can get better access to covering that theory to himself. I.e it sells books to push it as an extreme theory.

Hancock also frequently discusses the ideas of a great event - a catastrophe but its all very rhetorical. He mentions earthquakes, floods and then goes on to show how the pyramids were build with advanced astronimical infrastructure. But he never really discusses meteor impacts, comet strikes or other theories relating to the disaster. Quite obviously if the pyramids were dynamic to a earthquake why would they house astronimical information? Graham doesn't do a good job and bring these pieces together. It feels like he's repeating other books. The history of early Pyramids is never discussed of course...always the Giza pyramids. None of these new age writers seem bothered to write about the failed pyramids attempts and how practice makes perfect. He still pushes the idea that large ramp was used for the pyramids and doesn't pick up on other theories of ramp making, the slopes that could be used in conjunction with rounded timber wheels that could be connected to stone blocks to roll them up the ramps. Japanese groups have done experiments to show how easily a small group of people can roll a 2 tonne stone block up the required ramp using semi circular pieces of fabricated timber that make the entire block like a cylinder. Its appaling to the reader to be rehashed ideas about the pyramid construction from 30 years ago. Hancock continually bounces around in time frames and never connects the dots, never discusses how trade and knowledge exchange could occur and how other evidence could in fact support him.

Geologically he contain his theory of antartica around crustal displacement. Now this sort of geological behaviour may be possible, but an event such as a comet or supernova influencing the earth 13,000 years ago is going to be complex. There's no reason why the author can't tie up a few of these theories together because I think it would make far more interesting reading and make his argument more bouyant. Eg a comet or supernova debris, or debris from a comet broken loose from a companion binary star or similar solar system/galaxy event slams into north america 13,000 years ago. At the time south america is quite advanced. Perhaps not advanced enough to make spacecraft but enough to know how to smelt metal,move large stone blocks and importantly run a society. It took us 20 years to put a man on the moon, take a country about 10 years to prepare for an olympic games so its no stretch to imagine a stone age culture developing sophisticated masonry skills over hundreds or thousands, or perhaps even hundreds of thousand years. So they had cities...its really no suprise. So they sailed, perhaps not around the globe, but certainly between south america and africa. They each exchanged knowledge. Thus similarities occur between south america and the rest of the world.

He also has another book 'Supernatural'. Hancock is game enough to go and do some ayahuasca in South America. He surely understands the power of these plant psychedelics and he should be game enough to try discussing the role of drugs in our ancient past with these books in more detail. While most of us are currently bound by legal laws regarding drugs, our past was not. Its impossible they didn't play a role in shaping out belief's and development given their power. I would like to see someone write a book that ties in our use of 'sacred plants' more succinctly. Hancock should condense 3 of his books underworld, supernatural and fingerprints into 1 book.

These books are not meant for strict scientific analysis though ultimately...to me they are more like updated Von Daniken books. Its a shame because Hancock is quite correct in saying the mainstream scientific community wont touch this stuff, thats very normal in professions and he's likely correct, like many others, that something devastating happened on earth 13,000 years ago. If Hancock explored more contemporary information that's out there he could do a better job because he could deepen the story into something truly thought provoking rather than rehasing old theories and ideas we've heard before. The rhetoric gets boring quick.

Editorial Review:

The bestselling author of The Sign and the Seal reveals the true origins of civilization. Connecting puzzling clues scattered throughout the world, Hancock discovers compelling evidence of a technologically and culturally advanced civilization that was destroyed and obliterated from human memory. Four 8-page photo inserts.

The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions

Karen Armstrong

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Total reviews: 48 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the ninth century BCE, the peoples of four distinct regions of the civilized world created the religious and philosophical traditions that have continued to nourish humanity to the present day: Confucianism and Daoism in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, monotheism in Israel, and philosophical rationalism in Greece. Later generations further developed these initial insights, but we have never grown beyond them. Rabbinic Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, for example, were all secondary flowerings of the original Israelite vision. Now, in The Great Transformation, Karen Armstrong reveals how the sages of this pivotal “Axial Age” can speak clearly and helpfully to the violence and desperation that we experience in our own times.

Armstrong traces the development of the Axial Age chronologically, examining the contributions of such figures as the Buddha, Socrates, Confucius, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the mystics of the Upanishads, Mencius, and Euripides. All of the Axial Age faiths began in principled and visceral recoil from the unprecedented violence of their time. Despite some differences of emphasis, there was a remarkable consensus in their call for an abandonment of selfishness and a spirituality of compassion. With regard to dealing with fear, despair, hatred, rage, and violence, the Axial sages gave their people and give us, Armstrong says, two important pieces of advice: first there must be personal responsibility and self-criticism, and it must be followed by practical, effective action.

In her introduction and concluding chapter, Armstrong urges us to consider how these spiritualities challenge the way we are religious today. In our various institutions, we sometimes seem to be attempting to create exactly the kind of religion that Axial sages and prophets had hoped to eliminate. We often equate faith with doctrinal conformity, but the traditions of the Axial Age were not about dogma. All insisted on the primacy of compassion even in the midst of suffering. In each Axial Age case, a disciplined revulsion from violence and hatred proved to be the major catalyst of spiritual change.

Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

Anthony Everitt

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Total reviews: 44 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

He found Rome made of clay and left it made of marble. As Rome’s first emperor, Augustus transformed the unruly Republic into the greatest empire the world had ever seen. His consolidation and expansion of Roman power two thousand years ago laid the foundations, for all of Western history to follow. Yet, despite Augustus’s accomplishments, very few biographers have concentrated on the man himself, instead choosing to chronicle the age in which he lived. Here, Anthony Everitt, the bestselling author of Cicero, gives a spellbinding and intimate account of his illustrious subject.

Augustus began his career as an inexperienced teenager plucked from his studies to take center stage in the drama of Roman politics, assisted by two school friends, Agrippa and Maecenas. Augustus’s rise to power began with the assassination of his great-uncle and adoptive father, Julius Caesar, and culminated in the titanic duel with Mark Antony and Cleopatra.
The world that made Augustus–and that he himself later remade–was driven by intrigue, sex, ceremony, violence, scandal, and naked ambition. Everitt has taken some of the household names of history–Caesar, Brutus, Cassius, Antony, Cleopatra–whom few know the full truth about, and turned them into flesh-and-blood human beings.

At a time when many consider America an empire, this stunning portrait of the greatest emperor who ever lived makes for enlightening and engrossing reading. Everitt brings to life the world of a giant, rendered faithfully and sympathetically in human scale. A study of power and political genius, Augustus is a vivid, compelling biography of one of the most important rulers in history.


From the Hardcover edition.

Caesar: Life of a Colossus

Adrian Goldsworthy

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Total reviews: 51 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

As Adrian Goldsworthy writes in the introduction to this book, “in his fifty-six years, Caesar was at times many things, including a fugitive, prisoner, rising politician, army leader, legal advocate, rebel, dictator . . . as well as husband, father, lover and adulterer.” In this landmark biography, Goldsworthy examines all of these roles and places his subject firmly within the context of Roman society in the first century B.C.

Tracing the extraordinary trajectory of Caesar’s life from birth through assassination, Goldsworthy covers not only Caesar’s accomplishments as charismatic orator, conquering general, and powerful dictator but also lesser-known chapters during which he was high priest of an exotic cult, captive of pirates, seducer not only of Cleopatra but also of the wives of his two main political rivals, and rebel condemned by his own country. Ultimately, Goldsworthy realizes the full complexity of Caesar’s character and shows why his political and military leadership continues to resonate some two thousand years later.

Civilization and Its Discontents

Sigmund Freud

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Total reviews: 36 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

For the 75th anniversary, a new edition of the seminal work with an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Louis Menand.

Civilization and Its Discontents may be Sigmund Freud's best-known work. Originally published in 1930, it seeks to answer ultimate questions: What influences led to the creation of civilization? How did it come to be? What determines its course? In this seminal volume of twentieth-century thought, Freud elucidates the contest between aggression, indeed the death drive, and its adversary eros. He speaks to issues of human creativity and fulfillment, the place of beauty in culture, and the effects of repression.

Louis Menand, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Metaphysical Club, contributor to The New Yorker, and professor of English at Harvard University, reflects on the importance of this work in intellectual thought and why it has become such a landmark book for the history of ideas.

Not available in hardcover for decades, this beautifully rendered anniversary edition will be a welcome addition to readers' shelves.