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So here's a question I'm curious about today:

Do you remember how/where you first encountered Greek mythology?

(It took me a while to remember mine)

#mythology #myths #storytelling #books
#books #storytelling #mythology #myths
cuan_knaggs
kids cartoons in the 80s most likely
Toxy 🔬🇪🇺🇸🇪🇬🇧🇺🇦
Via Ray Harryhausen. Jason & the Argonauts.
ikeacurtains
earliest I can recall was highschool when we learned about Oedipus.
Dr. Victoria Grinberg
I had a (not quiet) children's book on Greek mythology as a kid that I inherited from my parents. Loved it to bits. Bought a new illustrated version as a adult.
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Charnock
an encyclopaedia set from the 1950s which had the Nathaniel Hawthorne tellings of the myths in them. Tanglewood Tales etc. I was read them from the age of about 4. I first saw the Ray Harryhausen movies about a year or two later and was addicted for life.
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Rachel Wright
My parents had a whole bookshelf of "Myths And Legends Of <somewhere>". For some reason, I only ever read the Greece and Rome one!
o Viri [no alt text, no boost]
Maybe this book? It was my first contact, I think, and was from an internationally published collection about mythologies (a collection I couldn't find any significant information about yet). I was a child, 4-7 yo, so c. 1990.
Cover of a book titled "Monstruos, dioses y hombres de la mitología griega" (Spanish for "Monsters, gods and men from Greek mythology"), by Michael Gibson, illustrated by Giovanni Caselli. It shows a modern illustration of Perseus fighting Medusa. It has the logo of publishing house Anaya.
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Dr. Zalka Csenge Virág
Oooh yes! We didn't have this series in Hungary, but I discovered it when I studied in the US. I have been collecting the volumes :)
o Viri [no alt text, no boost]
I have a bunch of them in my mother's house: Greek, Roman, Celtic, Viking, Egyptian, Chinese, and Iberian (I think this was an Spanish-only adittion to the collection), that I can recall. Lovely books!

Needless to say, I'd appreciate any information anybody could bring to me about the collection. It is an important part of my childhood *and* I love to search, dive, learn, and know more about this kind of hidden humble stories (the collection's story)
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Dr. Zalka Csenge Virág
OMG there is an Iberian volume?!? Is it in Spanish? I do read Spanish.
o Viri [no alt text, no boost]
I remember it was worse than the others, but maybe is my prejudice.
Cover of a book with the title "Mitos, héroes y monstruos de la España Antigua" (Spanish for "Myths, heros and monsters of Ancient Spain"). It shows an Iberian warrior riding a horse and carrying ancient weapons. Texts by: Póllux Hermúñez. Illustrations by: Eusebio Sanblanco and María Teresa Sarto. Publishing house: Anaya.
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chiasm
nope. I remember a kid's book about sowing dragon's teeth, which I thought was really weird. But I have no idea if that was my first encounter. There were so many cultural allusions, and my parents played a lot of classical music, which has even more.
Ben F.
A bit hard to pin down exactly... But I loved fairy tales as a kid and there was one series of books in particular, a French collection by Fernand Nathan that I loved, and I suspect that was the first book that led me to mythology in earnest (see attachment). My guess is I must have been 9 or 10. Later, as an adult, I started collecting Gründ fairy tale books, all translated from Czech books (Artia) with fantastic illustrations. I think I own all those that were published in French. Anyway, long story short, 9 or 10 years old via the book attached.

Colin Rosenthal ❤️🇮🇱❤️
The earliest I can easily remember is reading Roger Lancelyn-Green's version, but I'm sure it wasn't my very first encounter. I may have to think longer about this.
Agarwaën
When i was a kid (less than 6, for sure, maybe 4 yo), i had a gorgeous Iliad & Odyssey for kids, illustrated by Alice & Martin Provensen (look at this beauty here : https://hobopok.blogspot.com/2009/05/et-de-troie.html ). I looooved this book.
Later, my parents gifted us with books about mythology. I must say my mom was a latin and ancient greek teacher.
Cover of the french edition of the adaptation of the Iliad & the Odyssey, text by J. Werner Watson, illustrations by Alice et Martin Provensen, published in 1953 by Les Deux coqs d'or. The illustration shows three armored greek riders in a style inspired by greek ceramics, black, white and pink on red ochre background.

Un de Troie

L'Iliade et l'Odyssée adaptés par J. Werner Watson, illustrées par Alice et Martin Provensen. Publiée en 1953 par les Deux coqs d'or, il s'...
hobopok.blogspot.com
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szakib
Literature classes in school, 5th or 6th grade I think.
Alex D
I think it was 5th or 6th grade school and I devoured it. I don't remember much today, but some bits still linger, like Prometheus, the Minotaur, Theseus, and of course, cyclops! (Medea for bonus memory)
TheOtherDibbler
Read a book in primary school. I don't remember the name of the collection, but I'm pretty sure it was one my dad owned.
anamuk
I can't fully remember, but I suspect it was quite early on in learning to read either at home or at school
Sweetling
Odyssey's journeys in a book when I was a little kiddo. I think preschool.
Dr. Zalka Csenge Virág
I am enjoying these so much, keep them coming! 😄
JoeMccon
Large format, hard bound children's books. Probably mid 1950s. First read to me, then again by myself. Long gone, I'm afraid. But I remember them with pleasure.
Sarah Burstein
D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths. Probably from the library
Grumbling Game Master
I vaguely recall this series of children's books I got like "norse mythology for kids" and "greek mythology for kids" etc back when I was learning to read, so around 5 or something, late 1980s. I don't remember the exact titles or details though.
SometimeHippy
I certainly read something at primary school, probably a simplistic cartoonish-style book when I was 9 minimum. This excludes anything I saw in mass media, which I'd struggle to provide detail on.
Σειληνός (Seilēnós)
I first encountered the Dodekatheon and Greek mythology in grade school here in the USA. There were also children's cartoons on television and theatrical films. The Mighty Hercules was a popular cartoon from 1963-1966. https://youtu.be/laoBvt9CcQo?si=LVmx5b5MuyyJkxeO

The Mighty Hercules Opening Theme | THE MIGHTY HERCULES

The opening theme song to the animated classic The Mighty Hercules.The original animated adventures of the mighty Hercules, hero of song and story. He is gif...
YouTube
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Elizabeth Sudduth
I started kindergarten already being able to read. Our school's librarian figured out quickly that I was ready to move beyond picture books, but the official policy was no chapter books until first grade. So she led me to the short stories section, which apparently dodged that rule, and I was allowed to check out huge books full of stories, each of which individually was short. One of them was Greek myths.
Brad Patrick
@design_law Icarus because I really wanted to fly when I was a little kid and that scared the bejeezus out of me. Don’t remember the book, but the imagery is a core memory.
@Sarah Burstein
Dave
1982-83, more likely HBO versus in the theater… Clash of the Titans
Movie poster for Clash of the Titans : a 1981 fantasy adventure film directed by Desmond Davis and written by Beverley Cross, loosely based on the Greek myth of Perseus. Starring Harry Hamlin, Judi Bowker, Burgess Meredith, Maggie Smith and Laurence Olivier, the film features the final work of stop-motion visual effects artist Ray Harryhausen.
Johan K Sch
it might have been this TV Christmas calendar in 1981: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stj%C3%A4rnhuset

My kids have gained an amazing knowledge of Greek mythology through the Percy Jackson series.
LillyLyle/Count Melancholia
I read it instead of children's literature when I first learned to read. I found a book of Greek and Roman mythology at the school library. I think that's what kindled my slightly later thirst for super hero comics.

Isn't it rather prejudicial that people call the Greek, Roman and Nordic religions mythologies, while calling the mythologies of the middle east and India religions?
morrigan
3rd or 4th grade from Edith Hamilton's Greek Mythology book. It was text book for a class my mom was taking at college. It started a lifelong love of mythology and folklore from all over the world.
Ralf Stubner
Kids cartoons in the 80ies. I don‘t remember the name of the show. But often when one of the characters died, they got transformed into the corresponding constellation.
Later I read the very lengthy prose versions of Ilias, Odyssee etc. by Gustav Schwab (in German).
Antti Rasinen
as a child, my parents borrowed a book of collected tales from the library
Alex Pengaled
My immediate thought was learning them alongside a bit of astronomy at primary school (age around 10) but actually I read the Narnia books earlier than that & I think that's where I first came across characters from Greek myths...
Naomi P
D’Aulaires book of Greek mythology
Dr Alice Violett
I must have been eight, my year group at school did a play about the Trojan horse.
Em
Somewhere about age two. My mother preferred it to traditional fairy tales.
John Coates
Edith Hamilton, Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes. I hadn't realized until I googled it just now how old it is -- published first in 1942!

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rothko ☕️ ♏️
our school library had this big, beautiful illustrated book of greek myths by edgar and ingri d'aulaire, and i was obsessed with it. i was young, not more than ten years old, i'm sure. eventually my mother told me i shouldn't be reading about "false gods" and made me return it to the library. 🙄 yeah mom, like i'm going to join a dionysian cult as a second-grader. (christ, i can't imagine how she would have reacted if harry potter had been around back then...!)
Lisa Ligtbody
Does a “Thor” comic book when I was 7/8 count?
Artemisia Vulgaris
I’m Greek, so I can’t promise the very first wasn’t a song lyric or overheard conversation, or some fact about the ruins in my city, but the earliest thing I remember is these books, by the Stephanidis brothers. All my generation could say the same, no doubt. Click the link and scroll down for more examples of the striking and beautiful illustration style of Yiannis Stephanidis: https://stephanidi.pub/pc/elliniki_mythologia/
An illustration of Daedalus affixing wings on Icarus
The Life of Brian
Longish story. Back on the farm in the '50s, the only resource we had was a copy of Pears Cyclopedia. The saying when a question arose was. "look it up in Pears". I'd read it just to learn facts, rules, etc. The myth section was full of great info on Greek and Roman mythology. For such a small volume, Pears had a whole world of info in it.
Janice in GA
I think it was either D’aulaires Book of Greek Myths or maybe a copy of Hawthorne’s A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales. We also had a set of Childcraft Encyclopedias. IIRC it had some versions of myths in it.
#OldPeopleOfMastodon
#oldpeopleofmastodon
Ellen
I remember my dad mentioning Achilles once, so that was probably mine. I think I do still havea big Braille volume called The Greek Gods, which is where I encountered Arachne’s story.
Virginicus
My grandmother was a librarian at the public library. She gave me their discarded books. One of them was Bulfinch.
Elyse M Grasso
My parents had some sets of three volumes each of various categories of classics. The Greek set was a volume of Aristotle and the Butler prose translations of the Iliad and Odyssey. I read the Odyssey when I was 8 -- probably the Iliad as well, and books of mythology from the library, but the Odyssey is what stuck: by the time I moved out on my own, taking it with me, I had read it so many times the gilt decorations on the spine had worn away.
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