Greek mythology

Greek mythology comprises the collected narratives of Greek gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines, originally created and spread within an oral-poetic tradition. Our surviving sources of mythology are literary reworkings of this oral tradition, supplemented by interpretations of iconic imagery, sometimes modern ones, sometimes ancient ones, as myth was a means for later Greeks themselves to throw light on cult practices and traditions that were no longer explicable. The historian must sometimes deduce from hints in imagery, such as in vase paintings, and offhand references the recognition of mythic themes tacitly expressed in cult practice.

Modern interpreters

A bibliography of modern works on Greek myth, beginning from Boccaccio's Genealogia degli Dei de Gentili: Carlos Parada, Greek Mythology Link.

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The developers of modern mythography and hermeneutics, starting from Bulfinch's genteel Christian tradition, in approximate chronological order:

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• Thomas Bulfinch
• Johann Jakob Bachofen
• James George Frazer
• Jane Ellen Harrison
• Walter Burkert
• Otto Rank
• Carl Jung
• Walter Otto
• Edith Hamilton
• Karl Kerenyi
• Robert Graves
• Claude Lévi-Strauss
• Michael Grant
• Joseph Campbell
• Timothy Gantz
• H.R. Rose