what are some of your favourite books on mythology and ancient

Mythology - Edith Hamilton

>>8463574
I'm new to /lit/.
you're memeing, right?

>>8463578
Yes.

>>8463578
Why would he be memeing, it's been a classic introduction to the classics since publication.
Or you can allocate the next 6 months to reading translations of Hesiod, Apollodorus, Homer

>>8463569
I highly recommend Prometheus Bound to everyone here.

It's an ancient play, one of the oldest we have, about a simple man who was horrifically punished by the powers that be for the terrible crime of trying to bring light to the common people.

In the words of Aeschylus, "No good deed goes unpunished".

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>Jung, Man and his Symbols
>Ovid, Metamorphosis
>Hesiod, Theogony

Should be a good start. By ancient I assumed you meant greek

>>8463582
>>8463584
I've heard that its a terrible book from numerous people

no idea why

>>8463584
Do both.

>>8463595
>a simple man
He's not a man and he's not at all 'simple', you dolt. And he deserved what he got. Sure, Zeus is an ungrateful tyrant, but Prometheus is being stubborn and unrepentant for breaking the supreme god's will, and one just doesn't do that. Not only he refuses to apologize, but he keeps blackmailing Zeus with some important piece of knowledge he may have but he ain't telling, until he manages to really piss off the big guy.

history of religious ideas by mircea eliade

a dictionary of symbols by j.e. cirlot

secret teachings of all ages - m.p. hall (minus some outdated stuff like thinking the table of isis was legit)

>>8464147
he was just too proud

>>8464147
Yeah, but in the end he did more good than bad.

>>8463615
It really isn't. Go and read it.

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>>8463569
You will be interested in Joseph Campbell.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell

>>8463569
The histories-Heredotus

>>8463595
you cant be serious

>>8463569
I may sound like a little kid saying this but I believe Rick Riordans books are very good because the fact they drop hints from many myths from different mythologies plus once you delve deep enough you discover he has tied every series together showing that gods are all the same just perceived differently depending on who views the God and also hints at the fact that the gods were in fact human creations that our belief was so strong it created creatures and magic that became real to the point these beings interacted even now in our everyday lives

OK last part is kind of a hunch but all are good stories

>>8463578
Hamilton is not (just) a meme. She isn't perfect but is a great start. Apollodorus is more thorough but way less readable and palatable--very dry, even if short.

>>8463584
These actually great suggestions, except for the time frame. You can literally read each Homeric epic in 2 days, Hesiod in 1-2 days, and Apollodorus in maybe 5-6 hours. Homer is, what, 800 pages total? Of verse that doesn't fill the page? Hesiod is extremely short, and Apollodorus is only like 120 pages.

>>8463595
Great recommendation, not great analysis. An okay start, but PB goes way deeper than that.
>What succor in creatures of a day?
Fuck the Oresteia; PB is my favorite Aeschylus. Absolutely worth reading not so much for the mythology, OP, but the symbolism: make sure you get an edition with a critical apparatus which will outline the different levels of that symbolism (human/god, man/tyrant, etc).

>>8464147
Yes, but remember that "the supreme god" was at that point the NEW supreme god, the usurper Prometheus helped (reluctantly) to enthrone.
>Do you think I will crouch before your gods--so new--and tremble?
The supreme will is supreme but not eternal, so Prometheus doesn't give a fuck. He has to suffer, but won't die:
>Death he cannot give me.
And Zeus will inevitably come around:
>And though his temper now is oaken hard, it shall be softened
Because even Zeus bows to Necessity (capital N, heads up to OP as a Greek newbie, this is a huge motif in Greek thought):
>Who then is the steersman of necessity?
>The triple-formed Fates and the remembering Furies.
>Is Zeus weaker than these?
>Yes, for he, too, cannot escape what is fated.

PS what do you make of the sidetrack with Io? It seems like a minor avenue made to show a new angle of Zeus' tyranny, but it has some of my favorite lines (and some of the most brutal ones) in Greek tragedy:
>You groan too soon: you are full of fear too soon: wait till you hear besides what is to be.

can you guys recommend anything on symbols and symbolism, as it relates to ancient culture and art specifically?

>>8463569
Start with Iliad and Odyssey, after finishing those you'll understand 60% of Greek mythology. For the remaining 40%, read classic poets and Hamilton. But Illiad is the backbone.