Ancient Greece

I was when i was just a lad. Have you ever read The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton, i'm sure you would enjoy it. You might also enjoy Mary Renault. She wrote a great many books based on Greco-Macedonian history, legend and myth. There was a trilogy of novels on Alexander III of Macedon (the one whom i refuse to call "Great"), and many, many very wonderful novels about legends, such as The King Must Die, The Bull from the Sea . . . so many good ones.

You can read a short bio of Miss Renault and see a list of her books by clicking here. It should be easy to get copies of her books from any decent library.

Ah, I remember The King Must Die; we read it in High School. And Edith Hamilton! Like an old friend.

You might like to get to know the Romans, too, cellochick7 -- Tacitus, Suetonius, Plutarch. Robert Graves' I, Claudius is a good read to get you into it.

Many Greek myths are still relevant today. I love the Perseus/Medusa myth as related by Edith Hamilton.

My preferred, no doubt, is Cupid and Psyche...

My favorite would be Zorba.

That's ancient, for sure!

Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.

Why would you fear them, George?

What you only need to do is never turn your back to them...

I enjoy Roman history as well. It's no fair- my best friend gets to go to Greece and Rome next summer.
My favorite myths would have to be about goddess'- my favorite goddess would have to be Athena.

Setanta's recommendations are spot-on. Among the Mary Renault novels about Alexander of Macedon, I perticularly enjoyed Fire from Heaven.

I also recommend The Metamorphoses by Ovid. It is the only source we have for quite a few legends. However, in the story of Arachne, Athena comes off looking rather petty and vindictive. That however, is one of the charms of Greek and Roman mythology and legend--just how "human" the gods are in their silly antics.

You can read the story of Arachne by clicking here. The author of this brief piece, however, has somewhat embellished Ovid's version of the tale, and i would be interested to know what she claims her sources are.