Books by Philip Matyszak - The Greek and Roman Myths

Everything you never learned about the Greek myths at school. This book not only talks you through things like the difference between a nymph and a neriad, but weaves the technical stuff into a fascinating set of interlinked tales of incest, cannibalism and murder most foul. In this book we meet the great heroes of Greek myth and follow their sometimes morally questionable adventures. But there is more the book than that. We also look at the afterlife of the gods in great works of western art, and find characters of Greek myth popping up in unexpected places such as Hermes scarves, Titan rockets and the sci-fi planet Pandora.

The Greek myths are a vital part of western culture, and these stories not only help us to understand how the Greeks and Romans saw the world, they also tell us much about the world and society we live in today.

'The Greek and Roman Myths crafts the first truly effective linear examination of the rise of the Greek and Roman pantheons that I've ever encountered.
....
What a treat.'

Glenn Dallas, San Francisco Book Review

This was a tricky book to do. As often happens, this book started because I was looking for something on the Greek and Roman myths, and could not find what I needed. So I researched and wrote it.

The myths which the Greeks and Romans had in common are a single tale enlarged and embellished by generation after generation of storytellers for over a thousand years. I wanted a straightforward explanation of that story.

The events of this story are often taken out of context to show megalomaniac, spiteful gods and silly heroes. I wanted to see how the myths fitted into a belief system that was both valid and convincing to intelligent individuals. I quickly discovered that to see the myths as the Greeks and Romans saw them, I had to see the world as the Greeks and Romans saw it. Getting to grips with that very different viewpoint was one of the tricky parts of writing the book.

I started as someone who had trouble telling my Antigone from my Actaeon. Yet the chronology and characters started to make sense the more I worked with the material. This was reassuring. If the subject were as chaotic as it first appeared, them the more I learned, the more confusing it would become. Instead, I rapidly found out what went where, who was important,and which characters were around at any particular point. In short started understanding how the story worked.

Explaining the story is the main theme of the book, yet perhaps the most enjoyable part was showing how our mythical past has never gone away. The ideas and characters are everywhere in our modern world. While writing on my computer (an Asus) I listened to the Pandora music service. I was not wearing any Nike sports clothing, but I could have been. If you don't know how Asus, Pandora and Nike are related to Greek myth, you need to read this book!