Greek Gods, Human Lives
Subtitle: What We Can Learn from Myths
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: May 10, 2005
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 304
ISBN-13: 9780300107692
Subjects: Myths & mythology; Social Science; Sociology; Ancient Greece; Ancient and Classical; Folklore & Mythology - Mythology; History / General; Folklore & Mythology
First sentence: The ancient Greeks did not have a sacred text like the Bible. 
Description: "In Greek Gods, Human Lives, preeminent classicist Mary Lefkowitz reintroduces readers to the literature of ancient Greece. Lefkowitz demonstrates that the Greek myths, although endlessly entertaining, are never frivolous. These stories - as told by Homer, Ovid, Virgil, and many others - offer crucial lessons about human experience. Greek mythology makes vivid the fact that the gods control every aspect of the lives of mortals, but not in ways that modern audiences have properly understood." "We can learn much from these myths, Lefkowitz shows, if we understand that they are stories about religious experience - about the meaning of divinity, the nature of justice, and the limitations of human knowledge. These myths spoke to ancient audiences and helped them to comprehend their world. With Mary Lefkowitz as an interpreter, these myths speak to us as well."--Jacket.