Cover 2017 Penguin paperback edition (fair use)

(5) ROBERT GRAVES –

THE GREEK MYTHS (1955)

Similarly to Bulfinch’s Mythology, this book by Graves is a general compendium of Greek myths, including the Odyssey.

However, The Greek Myths by Graves is distinct from Bulfinch’s Mythology in that it extends beyond mere summary to interpretation, albeit Graves’ idiosyncratic interpretation to his overarching “poetic theme” or monomyth of the Goddess, and hence arguably an adaptation.

Essentially, Graves’ study of Greek mythology comes in two parts, summary and interpretation.

The first is a conventional compendium of Greek mythology – literary retellings of the various myths from their sources – and it is this part that is the basis for the book as my favorite single volume study of Greek mythology, albeit somewhat dense in its prose style.

The second part – his interpretative notes or commentary – is where things get wilder, albeit all in good poetic fun. This is where Graves ‘decodes’ or reconstructs Greek mythology to his monomyth of the Goddess or prehistoric matriarchal religion – “Graves interpreted Bronze Age Greece as changing from a matriarchal society…to a patriarchal one under continual pressure from victorious Greek-speaking tribes. In the second stage local kings came to each settlement as foreign princes, reigned by marrying the hereditary queen, who represented the Triple Goddess, and were ritually slain by the next king after a limited period, originally six months. Kings managed to evade the sacrifice for longer and longer periods, often by sacrificing substitutes, and eventually converted the queen, priestess of the Goddess, into a subservient and chaste wife, and in the final stage had legitimate sons to reign after them”.

So there you go. Of course, the historical accuracy of Graves’ interpretation or commentary has been almost universally contested or considered to be idiosyncratic – “the interpretive notes are of value only as a guide to the author’s personal mythology”.

And that extends to his interpretation of the Odyssey, of which I’ll always remember his interpretation of recurring katabasis or descent to the underworld – death and rebirth. One scene that indeed strikes as a ritual burial of death and rebirth is that of the Phaeacians taking Odysseus – who is in a seemingly supernatural state of slumber – ashore on Ithaca, placing him and the treasures they gave him in a cave.