Classical Mythology - Book Report/Review Example

For each character, he has attached a very short yet very interesting summary of the highlights of their actions and significance in the mythological world. The author has tried his best to include almost all the characters, that too in a chronological order. Day has cleverly divided the book into two parts, the first being about the gods and goddesses and the characters associated with their tales and times. So, basically, he starts with the Primordial Gods which include Gaia, Cronus, Uranus, etc.

and then slowly moves on to the Olympus Gods, the Descendants of Titans and even the dark and shady creatures that resided in Hades. The second part of the book involves the legendary heroes such as Helen of Troy, Paris and Oedipus and Greco – Roman figures such as Penelope and Odysseus also have personal profiles and/or chapters dedicated to them within the pages of the book. The best thing about such an organized division is how the tales overlap and repeat time and again. It may seem annoyingly redundant in the first glance, but as a reader, one soon realizes that it only helps in the better understanding of the complexity of the relations between all the characters.

In short, if one fails to understand something at the start of the book or might miss out on something important, it is most likely that his/her concepts would still be cleared up by the time s/he has given the book a full read. Looking at the book from an analytical point of view, one can undoubtedly appreciate the effort Day has put into incorporating a number of universal themes into his stories. A few examples of those would be love, anger, deceit, jealousy, ambition, beauty and incest. Not only do such themes make the stories a fascinating read but also help in highlighting the countless references of such ideas in the arts and literature of different centuries.

Also, the inclusion of colored illustrations,