Classical Mythology: A Very Short Introduction VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide. The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes – a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology. Very Short Introduction available now: AFRICAN HISTORY BRITISH POLITICS John Parker and Richard Rathbone Anthony Wright THE AMERICAN BUDDHA Michael Carrithers PRESIDENCY Charles O. Jones BUDDHISM Damien Keown ANARCHISM Colin Ward BUDDHIST ETHICS ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw Damien Keown ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY CAPITALISM James Fulcher Julia Annas THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe ANCIENT WARFARE CHAOS Leonard Smith Harry Sidebottom CHOICE THEORY ANGLICANISM Mark Chapman Michael Allingham THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE CHRISTIAN ART John Blair Beth Williamson ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn CLASSICS Mary Beard and ARCHITECTURE John Henderson Andrew Ballantyne CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes Helen Morales ART HISTORY Dana Arnold CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland THE COLD WAR THE HISTORY OF Robert McMahon ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin CONSCIOUSNESS ATHEISM Julian Baggini Susan Blackmore AUGUSTINE Henry Chadwick CONTEMPORARY ART BARTHES Jonathan Culler Julian Stallabrass THE BIBLE John Riches CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea Simon Critchley COSMOLOGY Peter Coles THE FRENCH REVOLUTION THE CRUSADES William Doyle Christopher Tyerman FREE WILL Thomas Pink CRYPTOGRAPHY FREUD Anthony Storr Fred Piper and Sean Murphy FUNDAMENTALISM DADA AND SURREALISM Malise Ruthven David Hopkins GALILEO Stillman Drake DARWIN Jonathan Howard GANDHI Bhikhu Parekh THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS GLOBAL CATASTROPHES Timothy Lim Bill McGuire DEMOCRACY Bernard Crick GLOBALIZATION DESCARTES Tom Sorell Manfred Steger DESIGN John Heskett GLOBAL WARMING DINOSAURS David Norman Mark Maslin DREAMING J. Allan Hobson HABERMAS DRUGS Leslie Iversen James Gordon Finlayson THE EARTH Martin Redfern HEGEL Peter Singer ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood EGYPTIAN MYTH HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson Geraldine Pinch HINDUISM Kim Knott EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY HISTORY John H. Arnold BRITAIN Paul Langford HOBBES Richard Tuck THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball HUMAN EVOLUTION EMOTION Dylan Evans Bernard Wood EMPIRE Stephen Howe HUMAN RIGHTS ENGELS Terrell Carver Andrew Clapham ETHICS Simon Blackburn HUME A. J. Ayer THE EUROPEAN UNION IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden John Pinder INDIAN PHILOSOPHY EVOLUTION Sue Hamilton Brian and Deborah Charlesworth INTELLIGENCE Ian J. Deary EXISTENTIALISM INTERNATIONAL Thomas Flynn MIGRATION Khalid Koser FASCISM Kevin Passmore INTERNATIONAL FEMINISM Margaret Walters RELATIONS Paul Wilkinson THE FIRST WORLD WAR ISLAM Malise Ruthven Michael Howard JOURNALISM Ian Hargreaves FOSSILS Keith Thomson JUDAISM Norman Solomon FOUCAULT Gary Gutting JUNG Anthony Stevens KABBALAH Joseph Dan PHILOSOPHY OF LAW KAFKA Ritchie Robertson Raymond Wacks KANT Roger Scruton PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner Samir Okasha THE KORAN Michael Cook PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews PLATO Julia Annas LITERARY THEORY POLITICS Kenneth Minogue Jonathan Culler POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY LOCKE John Dunn David Miller LOGIC Graham Priest POSTCOLONIALISM MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner Robert Young THE MARQUIS DE SADE POSTMODERNISM John Phillips Christopher Butler MARX Peter Singer POSTSTRUCTURALISM MATHEMATICS Timothy Gowers Catherine Belsey MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope PREHISTORY Chris Gosden MEDIEVAL BRITAIN PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY John Gillingham and Catherine Osborne Ralph A. Griffiths PSYCHOLOGY MODERN ART David Cottington Gillian Butler and Freda McManus MODERN IRELAND PSYCHIATRY Tom Burns Senia Pašeta QUANTUM THEORY MOLECULES Philip Ball John Polkinghorne MUSIC Nicholas Cook RACISM Ali Rattansi MYTH Robert A. Segal THE RENAISSANCE NATIONALISM Steven Grosby Jerry Brotton THE NEW TESTAMENT AS RENAISSANCE ART LITERATURE Kyle Keefer Geraldine A. Johnson NEWTON Robert Iliffe ROMAN BRITAIN Peter Salway NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner THE ROMAN EMPIRE NINETEENTH-CENTURY Christopher Kelly BRITAIN ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler Christopher Harvie RUSSELL A. C. Grayling and H. C. G. Matthew RUSSIAN LITERATURE NORTHERN IRELAND Catriona Kelly Marc Mulholland THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION PARTICLE PHYSICS Frank Close S. A. Smith PAUL E. P. Sanders SCHIZOPHRENIA PHILOSOPHY Edward Craig Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone SCHOPENHAUER TERRORISM Charles Townshend Christopher Janaway THEOLOGY David F. Ford SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer THE HISTORY OF TIME SIKHISM Eleanor Nesbitt Leofranc Holford-Strevens SOCIAL AND CULTURAL TRAGEDY Adrian Poole ANTHROPOLOGY THE TUDORS John Guy John Monaghan and Peter Just TWENTIETH-CENTURY SOCIALISM Michael Newman BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce THE VIKINGS Julian Richards SOCRATES C. C. W. Taylor WITTGENSTEIN A. C. Grayling THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman Helen Graham THE WORLD TRADE SPINOZA Roger Scruton ORGANIZATION STUART BRITAIN John Morrill Amrita Narlikar Available Soon: AMERICAN POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY John Matthews and PARTIES AND ELECTIONS David Herbert L. Sandy Maisel GEOPOLITICS Klaus Dodds ANTISEMITISM GERMAN LITERATURE Steven Beller Nicholas Boyle BESTSELLERS John Sutherland THE GREAT DEPRESSION DOCUMENTARY FILM AND THE NEW DEAL Patricia Aufderheide Eric Rauchway THE EUROPEAN UNION MEMORY Jonathan Foster (NEW EDITION) John Pinder MODERN CHINA Rana Mitter and Simon Usherwood QUAKERISM Pink Dandelion EXPRESSIONISM SCIENCE AND RELIGION Katerina Reed-Tsocha Thomas Dixon GAME THEORY Ken Binmore SEXUALITY Véronique Mottier For more information visit our website www.oup.co.uk/general/vsi/ This page intentionally left blank Helen Morales classical mythology A Very Short Introduction 1 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York  Helen Morales 2007 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published as a Very Short Introduction 2007 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN 978–0–19–280476–1 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press Ltd, Gosport, Hampshire Contents Acknowledgements xi List of illustrations xii Introduction 1 1 Without bulls there would be no Europe 5 2 Contexts, then and now 19 3 Gods and heroes 39 4 Metamorphoses of mythology 56 5 On the analyst’s couch 68 6 The sexual politics of myth 82 7 Mythology, spirituality, and the New Age 100 Conclusion 115 Timeline 118 References 124 Further reading 130 Index 139