By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Ancient Greek mythology is full of classic stories which have become part of Western literature and culture; these stories have even given us some well-known words and phrases commonly used in English, and in other languages.
Below, we introduce 12 of the greatest and best-known tales from the world of Greek mythology, from curious women to brave men, people who overreached themselves and people whose greed got the better of them.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
The story of Prometheus stealing fire from the gods is, like the story of Pandora’s Box, an important ‘origin-story’ from Greek myth.
In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle looks at a common line associated with Helen of Troy
Who said, ‘Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?’ Most people know it was Doctor Faustus. Or rather, Christopher Marlowe, who gives Doctor Faustus these words in his play about the magician who sold his soul to the Devil (or rather to the Devil’s messenger, Mephistopheles):
The classical world gave us many things, from philosophy to democracy to clean drains (cue the Monty Python ‘what have the Romans ever done for us’ routine). And, of course, the ancient world gave us poetry. But which ancient world? Below we’ve selected ten of the finest examples of classical poetry from ancient times, ranging from Middle Eastern epics to Roman lyrics.
Anonymous, The Descent of Inanna. What’s the oldest epic poem in the world? We need to go back into the very hazy early years of literary history. That honour should probably go to The Descent of Inanna, a Sumerian poem in which the titular goddess descends into the underworld, in order to observe the funeral rites of Gugalanna,
In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle travels back 4,000 years to find the world’s first great epic
Disclaimer: as an Amazon Associate, we get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
In 1850, a series of clay tablets came to light in the Middle East, in what is now Iraq. They were shipped back to the British Museum, where they sat for some fifteen years before anyone got round to giving them any serious attention.