Greek mythology

Cosmogony - The Gods - The Heroes - The troian war - The Odyssey
258 colour illustrations. Index of names

At a time when man was still in the initial stage of his civilization and his thought had not yet consciously come to serve objective truth, the resort to myth was the only way to supply an answer to the questions which exercised him, to interpret natural phenomena, and to preserve what he himself had seen, experienced and imagined and thought should not be forgotten. Particularly in the case of those myths which deal with human history, it is very likely that there is some kernel of actual history embedded in them, just as it is not impossible that some of the heroes of whom they tell were real people, whether they bore the names ascribed to them or others. Naturally, the tracing of the actual circumstances which gave rise to the creation of each myth is not possible, since the traditions in questions have been enriched with a host of poetical features, but also because the people and the bard who forget the myth did not regard themselves as under any obligation to remain faithful to historical truth.