The Book of Greek and Roman Folktales, Legends, and Myths

Reviews

"One of CHOICE's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2017" "A dizzying, dreamy compendium of ancient stories. . . . Enchanting. . . . The collection aspires to be both a bedside tome that appeals to millennial attention spans and a hunger for cultural canapés elevated to an art form by Schott's Miscellanies, and at the same time a serious contribution to scholarship on ancient narrative. But somehow the stories themselves–in their sheer, buzzing mass–take on a life of their own and spill over this carefully crafted frame. After a period of full immersion, we begin to hear the voices of the tipsy philosopher, the deadpan Spartan, the bored Roman soldier, the misanthrope, the adulterous wife, and to imagine the ancient laughter echoing through these tales as they were read, heard and replayed. The thrill is anything but anodyne."—Victoria Rimell, Times Literary Supplement "William Hansen . . . has extracted from a lifetime of reading seemingly all of ancient literature's most wonderful anecdotes, eerie stories, Aesopian fables, trickster tales and philosophical parables. The resulting anthology is an extraordinarily entertaining bedside book. . . . These anecdotes aren't just classical, they're classic, as much a part of our culture as Grimm fairy tales or stories from the Bible."—Michael Dirda, Washington Post "William Hansen's enchanting collection of Greek and Roman folktales, legends and myths will prove indispensable. . . . The collection is as appealing to the advanced scholar as to a teenager first falling in love with the classics or to an aspiring author. . . . Hansen has succeeded in conveying to the reader his own love of and fascination with ancient storytelling, and his enthusiasm is infectious. The book is perfect reading for a summer holiday under Mediterranean skies. I cannot recommend it highly enough."—Edith Hall, Literary Review "Hansen is arguably the most eminent folklorist currently active in the realm of classical scholarship. This long-awaited, astonishingly comprehensive volume represents the culmination of his scholarly explorations over a period of more than 50 years. It is a work of remarkable depth and scope, the consummate achievement of decades of research and collecting, analyzing, and classifying the literary memorializations of Greek and Roman oral narrative fiction. . . . All the tales are lucidly translated by Hansen himself. . . . This aesthetically pleasing and most welcome publication not only provides an excellent introduction to the multidimensional world of Greek and Roman storytelling, but also constitutes a delightful repository of literary entertainment."—Choice "This is a remarkable book, whose enormous range takes us deep into the world of oral storytelling enjoyed by the Greeks and Romans. . . . It is wonderful to have this treasure house of good stories from classical antiquity available in English in a form that will satisfy the scholar as well as the lover of a tale well told."—Joseph Russo, Journal of Folklore Research Expand reviews