Songs on Bronze : the Greek Myths Made Real

Songs on Bronze is the first major retelling of Greek mythology in half a century; a set of lively, racy, dramatic versions of the great myths, which, in a multicultural society, are recognized more than ever as stories without equal. Most of us would like to know the Greek myths better than we do, and the power of ancient texts still retain their power to enchant and enthral. And yet the modern translations of the Greek myths have sought to instruct, to edify, or to impart a personal philosophy. Songs on Bronze is different. With this book, Nigel Spivey – a young Cambridge classicist and rising broadcaster – gives us the Greek myths as the spellbinding stories they are. In bold, sensuous prose, he tells of Demeter and Persephone, of Jason and the Argonauts, of the wrath of Achilles and the travels of Odysseus, of Oedipus’s crime and Orpheus’s excursion into the underworld. In his hands, these stories are revealed anew as outsize tales of love and strife, of secret compacts and open rivalries, of lust and desire. S ongs on Bronze is a fresh revision of the classics that is likely to become a classic in its own right.