Richard Buxton - 15 Dec

This is a FLAME TREE Book

Publisher & Creative Director: Nick Wells

Project Editor: Catherine Taylor

Editorial Board: Catherine Taylor, Josie Mitchell, Gillian Whitaker

Thanks to Will Rough

FLAME TREE PUBLISHING 6 Melbray Mews, Fulham, London SW6 3NS, United Kingdom

www.flametreepublishing.com

First published 2017

Copyright 2017 Flame Tree Publishing Ltd

PRINT ISBN: 978-1-78664-657-6

EBOOK ISBN: 978-1-78755-259-3

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

The cover image is created by Flame Tree Studio, based on artwork by Slava Gerj and Gabor Ruszkai.

A copy of the CIP data for this book is available from the British Library.

Introducing our new fiction list:

FLAME TREE PRESS | FICTION WITHOUT FRONTIERS

Award-Winning Authors & Original Voices

Horror, Crime, Science Fiction & Fantasy

www. flametreepress.com

Contents

Foreword by Richard Buxton

Publishers Note

Greek Mythology: Introduction

The Beginning

Introduction

Chaos and Nyx

The Egg Myth

The Titans

The Birth of Zeus

The Giants War

Prometheus

Pandora

The Great Deluge

The Major Olympians

Introduction

Zeus

Hera

Hestia

Poseidon

Demeter

Artemis

Phoebus-Apollo

Pallas-Athene

Ares

Hephaestus

Dionysus

Hermes

Aphrodite

Other Divinities

Introduction

Hades

Themis

Helios

Eos

Selene

Eros

Nike

Divine Punishment

The Muses

The Graces

The Fates

Nyx and Her Progeny

Asclepius

Sea Divinities

Pan

The Nymphs

Perseus the Gorgon-Slayer

Introduction

How Perseus and His Mother Came to Seriphos

How Perseus Vowed a Rash Vow

How Perseus Slew the Gorgon

How Perseus Came to the Aethiops

How Perseus Came Home Again

The Adventures of Heracles

Introduction

Young Heracles

Heracles and Eurystheus

The Twelve Tasks

Heracles Freedom

The Death of Heracles

The Heraclidae

Jason and the Argonauts

Introduction

How the Centaur Trained the Heroes on Pelion

How Jason Lost his Sandal in Anauros

How They Built the Ship Argo in Iolcos

How the Argonauts Sailed to Colchis

How the Argonauts Were Driven into the Unknown Sea

The End of the Heroes

Tales of Theseus

Introduction

The Wedding of Aethra

The Boyhood of Theseus

Adventures of Theseus

Theseus Finds His Father

Heralds Come for Tribute

Theseus in Crete

The Slaying of the Minotaur

The Theban Cycle

Introduction

Cadmus

Oedipus

The Seven Against Thebes

The Epigoni

Alcmaeon and the Necklace

Tales of Troy

Introduction

The Judgement of Paris

The Wooing of Helen of the Fair Hands

The Stealing of Helen

Trojan Victories

Battle at the Ships

The Slaying and Avenging of Patroclus

The Ransoming of Hector

How Odysseus Stole the Luck of Troy

The Death of Achilles

Odysseus Sails to Seek the Son of Achilles

The Slaying of Paris

How Odysseus Invented the Wooden Horse

The End of Troy and the Saving of Helen

Homers The Odyssey

Introduction

The Telemachia (Books 14)

The Wanderings (Books 512)

The Return to Ithaca (Books 1324)

Crime and Punishment

Introduction

Tartarus

The Punishments of Apollo

The Calydonian Boar Hunt

The Cattle of Admetus

Myths of Love and Courage

Introduction

Orpheus and Eurydice

Echo and Narcissus

Icarus and Daedalus

Bellerephon

Pelops

Ion

Philemon and Baucis

Loves of the Gods

Introduction

Eros and Psyche

The Rape of Persephone

Zeus Affairs

The Loves of Helios

Eos and Tithonus

The Loves of Apollo

Dionysus and Ariadne

The Link to Roman Mythology

Introduction

The Birth of Roman Mythology

Adventures of Aeneas

Biographies & Sources

Foreword:

Mary Shelley Horror Stories

Anyone turning the pages of yet another new collection of retellings of the Greek myths, like the present one, might be forgiven for wondering why publishers still go back to this material. The answer is simple. These stories are as powerfully relevant today as they have ever been. Its true that some of the locations Cyllene, Pieria, Tiryns may sound unfamiliar. So may some of the names: Andromache, Diomedes, Pentheus. But other places and names are still firmly part of our cultural heritage: Athens and Troy; Achilles and Odysseus. Greek mythical characters still make implied claims to status in numerous real-world twenty-first-century contexts: Eros is one of Londons iconic landmarks; the Heracles General Cement Corporation is a major industrial company in Greece and beyond; NASAs Apollo space program took humans to the Moon.

Even more significant is the fact that many of the issues raised by the myths remain live and contemporary. Take an episode usually referred to as The Judgement of Paris. When the Trojan prince Paris was confronted by three beautiful goddesses demanding to know which of them was the most beautiful, how was he to choose? He did so by ranking the three bribes which they offered: supreme political power (Hera), victory in war (Athene), or the sexiest woman in the world in his bed (Aphrodite). As to the choice he made, that is, as they say, history: and what followed his choice was the Trojan War, since that super-sexy woman was Helen, married to the Greek warrior Menelaus. But at the root of the myth is the fascinating idea of an insoluble dilemma. The same is true for Antigone, the woman who, in Sophocles unforgettable tragedy, has to choose between defying the ruler of the state, and burying the corpse of her traitorous brother. Greek myths constantly come back to dilemmas, to thought experiments. That is one major reason why they remain contemporary.

Another reason for us to keep going back to the Greek myths is that they are never simple, and often fascinatingly ambiguous. In Greek mythology, the truth is never a matter of black and white, of pure good and pure evil. There are plenty of unpleasant characters in the myths, but they all have a case to argue, a role to play, a justification to advance. For instance, the goddesses known as the Furies were physically repulsive, but they exercised a vital moral function: they pursued those guilty of crimes of blood against their own kin. Indeed not one of the Greek gods can be said to be simply good (or bad); they all have their personal agendas, their corners to fight. This same moral complexity applies to the humans too. Take the Suitors, those local Ithacan men who wooed Penelope in the absence of her husband Odysseus, as Homer narrates in the Odyssey. All our sympathies might seem to lie with Odysseus and against the Suitors. But maybe its not so straightforward. After all, everyone assumed that Odysseus was dead in which case it was absolutely logical and expected for Penelope to remarry. Even the Suitors have a justification to advance.