The Gods of Olympus, Barbara Graziosi
The Gods of Olympus, Barbara Graziosi
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The Gods of Olympus
A History

Author: Barbara Graziosi

Narrator: Anne Flosnik

Unabridged: 8 hr 43 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 07/16/2019


Synopsis

The gods of Olympus are the most colorful characters of Greek civilization: even in antiquity, they were said to be cruel, oversexed, mad, or just plain silly. Yet for all their foibles and flaws, they proved to be tough survivors, far outlasting classical Greece itself. In Egypt, the Olympian gods claimed to have given birth to pharaohs; in Rome, they led respectable citizens into orgiastic rituals of drink and sex. Under Christianity and Islam they survived as demons, allegories, and planets; and in the Renaissance, they triumphantly emerged as ambassadors of a new, secular belief in humanity. Their geographic range, too, has been little short of astounding: in their exile, the gods and goddesses of Olympus have traveled east to the walls of cave temples in China and west to colonize the Americas. They snuck into Italian cathedrals, haunted Nietzsche, and visited Borges in his restless dreams.

In a lively, original history, Barbara Graziosi offers the first account to trace the wanderings of these protean deities through the millennia. Drawing on a wide range of literary and archaeological sources, The Gods of Olympus opens a new window on the ancient world, religion, mythology, and its lasting influence.

About Barbara Graziosi

Barbara Graziosi is Professor of Classics at Durham University. She is the author of Inventing Homer; together with Johannes Haubold she wrote Homer: The Resonance of Epic, and completed a commentary on Iliad 6 for the Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics series. Together with Emily Greenwood she edited Homer in the Twentieth Century: Between World Literature and the Western Canon, and she coedited The Oxford Handbook of Hellenic Studies, along with George Boys-Stones and Phiroze Vasunia.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Pam

A good refresher on the gods of Olympus, particularly as a survey of how they were viewed in different times and places. The author covers the gods from antiquity to the Renaissance and briefly beyond into the present. Their persistence has been remarkable even if they are no longer worshipped. Grazi......more

Goodreads review by Daniel

This was fun, but was a little less than what I was hoping. Graziosi traces the history of the Greek gods from their origins within the Greek cultural area through their evolution in time, merging with various Roman, Egyptian and Near Eastern gods, falling out of their religious context then being r......more

Goodreads review by Lauren

This book claims to be about the Olympian gods from "antiquity to the renaissance" and this is in my opinion a bit misleading. Graziosi devotes four parts of her six-part book to the ancient world. In fairness her observations are insightful and clearly illustrated with good examples. Graziosi clear......more

Goodreads review by Shaun

I enjoyed this though I think it helps that I went in with absolutely no expectations. Prior to reading this, I was familiar with the Olympian gods and the mythology surrounding them, and this was a nice review. I've also done some reading on the Greek and Roman empires, and this provided a nice summa......more