Great Books
THE GREEK MYTHS
The Greek Myths
by Robert
Graves retrieved ancient Greek mythology from the dustbin of children's stories and restored
them to their rightful place as the guiding light of most or all of Western literature that
matters. Author of the I, Claudius historical series and The White Goddess, where he explores "the psychological and
mythological sources of poetry", Mr. Graves personally believed that that's where it all went
wrong, when we went rational starting with Socrates. Better to stay in the pre-rational, the pre-Classical, if
you want to be a pure artist or writer; or if you simply want a vibrant understanding of your
existence. His writing is so poetic in The Greek Myths
that at least one writer has made a poem of his description of the
lives of Dionysus,
Orpheus, and Orion, The
Madness of Heracles (not to mention a couple of his other discussions on myth).
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