Donna Jo Napoli - Treasury of Greek Mythology Classic Stories of Gods, Goddesses, Heroes & Monsters

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Text copyright 2011 Donna Jo Napoli
Illustrations copyright 2011 Christina Balit
Compilation copyright 2011 National Geographic Society

National Geographic Society would like to thank Rosaria Munson, professor of classics at Swarthmore College, for her thoughtful review throughout the process of creating this book. In addition, the Society would like to thank Deborah Roberts, professor of classics and comparative literature at Haverford College, for her generous assistance with resources for this title. The publisher gratefully acknowledges Frances Lincoln, Ltd., for their kindness in licensing several previously published pieces of artwork by Christina Balit.

eBook ISBN: 978-1-4263-1191-8
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4263-0844-4
Hardcover Library Binding ISBN: 978-1-4263-0845-1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Napoli, Donna Jo, 1948
Treasury of Greek mythology : classic stories of gods, goddesses, heroes & monsters / by Donna Jo Napoli; illustrated by Christina Balit.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4263-0844-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4263-0845-1 (library binding : alk. paper)
1. Mythology, GreekJuvenile literature. I. Balit, Christina. II. Title.
BL783.N365 2011
398.20938dc23
2011024327

Photo Credits
All artwork by Christina Balit unless otherwise noted below:
, Mimmo
Jodice/ Corbis

v3.1

To the spirit of Margaret Reynolds and all classics teachers everywhereDJN

For the newest member of the gangEthan CroucherCB

GAIA
Mother Earth

URANUS
Father Heaven

CRONUS
Titan King

ZEUS
King of the Gods

HESTIA
Goddess of the Hearth

POSEIDON
God of the Seas

ATHENA
Goddess of Wisdom

HADES
God of the Underworld

DEMETER
Goddess of the Harvest

APOLLO
God of Music

ARTEMIS
Goddess of the Hunt

HERA
Goddess of Marriage

HEPHAESTUS
God of Metalworking

APHRODITE
Goddess of Love & Beauty

HERMES
Messenger of the Gods

ARES
God of War

HELIOS
Sun God

SELENE
Goddess of the Moon

DIONYSUS
God of Wine

PERSEUS
The Ill-Fated Hero

ORION
The Hunter

HERACLES
The Hero Who Became Immortal

JASON
Wanderer of the Seas

THESEUS
The King of Athens

HELEN
The Lethal Beauty

S ome things about daily life can be counted on. The sun rises, crosses the sky, sets. Stars come out at night. Rivers flow toward the sea. The air and land and waters burst with life. These life-forms feed one another: Plants are eaten by animals, which are eaten by other animals. But there are also interruptions: volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, storms. Life on Earth is complex.

From our earliest records of human activity, we can conclude that people recognized this complexity and wanted to explain it. So far as we know, humans are the only creatures who entertain a wide variety of questions about the nature of existence. The questions that people from different societies raise are often quite similar, but the answers they give and the relative importance they assign to these answers can be significantly different. And those answers define the human values of our societies. They are at once based on intellect, experience, and emotion. And from them, we draw our ethics, our rituals, and our storytelling.

In this book we find answers offered by the ancient Greeks to many of the questions humans long to understand. But we also find gods, goddesses, heroes, and monsters who love and hate and grow jealous and get duped; they are blessed and cursed with all the emotions that enrich and plague ordinary humans. In reading the myths, we begin to understand that the ancient Greeks must have wanted more than just the big answers from their gods. They must have also wanted their gods to be a reflection that could help them understand themselves.