D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths

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O -- Oedipus: I loved how when he was asked the riddle he got the answer the first moment he was asked like the was adding a one and one and creating a two. It was so obvious to him. Whereas other people didn't know what the first part of the answer was let alone the other two parts. It was neat that he plopped out his eyes when he found out he had killed his father because that was the punishment he'd said and he lived up to it. Now updated with a new cover and an afterword featuring never-before-published drawings from the sketchbook of Ingri and Edgar D'Aulaire, plus an essay about their life and work and photos from the family achive. The bigger problem is that there is no pronunciation guide. Pronunciation of Greek names, since they in some cases came into English through the digestive tracts of Latin and Old French before landing in England in 1066, and in some cases are more modern borrowings, is wholly unpredictable by, well, any English speaker, let alone children. It is perhaps a shame that the popular culture doesn't make allusions to Hephaestus, Mnemosyne, Terpsichore, Dionysus, and Aeneas as an everyday matter, but the fact is it doesn't, and it's a shame to leave little kids at sea (like Perseus?). F -- Fates: The ones who said they knew the future, the ones who knew when people were going to die. It was the beginning of the end of my religiosity and the penultimate blow to my catholicism. It was the end of my acquiescence to unjust authority. It was the end of acceptance without questions. It catalysed my constant search for understanding. It was the beginning of my father's disdain for me, and his fear of my mind (the latter, I've always suspected, was close to the root of much of the abuse I suffered at his hands). It was the moment of my enlightenment. And I've loved this book deeply from the second I first closed its cover until today.

Brontë: One thing I like is that he has more than fifty wives. One thing I don't like is what Miloš said. I think so too.

D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths

Kids can lose themselves in a world of myth and magic while learning important cultural history in this beloved classic collection of Greek mythology. Now updated with a new cover and an afterword featuring never-before-published drawings from the sketchbook of Ingri and Edgar D’Aulaire, plus an essay about their life and work and photos from the family achive.

This book looks like a simple re-telling of ancient Greek mythology. And yes, it is that. But what makes this such a treasure is the way they put it together. There is a thread, much as the Fates spun theirs for humans. For example, when the chapter on Theseus concludes, the next chapter starts with the tale of Oedipus meeting Theseus. Thus, we learn the tale of Oedipus. With Lincoln, the publishers also needed to restore the original art. In the 1950s, the D’Aulaires’ publisher pushed them to put aside lithography and create cheaper, acetate editions of their books. In those acetate versions, the colors changed. “The D’Aulaires had painted this beautiful forest of trees in the moonlight,” says Berg. “They’re these lovely dusky grayish colors. In the revised editions, the trunks of the trees are purple.” The white stripe of a skunk turns green; a fawn gets a greenish cast as well. I devoured D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths in what was then record time, and within days I was debating my father on theology. I demanded to know why I couldn't worship Zeus instead of his God; I wanted to know why, if the Greek Gods came first, they had a flood, Heracles was resurrected, and Phrixus was saved from being sacrificed by his father by the presence of a golden ram, amongst other things. I wanted to know how Christianity could have such similar myths.PDF / EPUB File Name: DAulaires_Book_of_Greek_Myths_-_Ingri_dAulaire.pdf, DAulaires_Book_of_Greek_Myths_-_Ingri_dAulaire.epub For any child fortunate enough to have this generous book . . . the kings and heroes of ancient legend will remain forever matter-of-fact; the pictures interpret the text literally and are full of detail and witty observation.”— The Horn Book