书名：Myths And Legends of Ancient Greece And Rome 古希腊罗马神话故事
难度：Lexile蓝思阅读指数1070L
作者：E. M. Berens
出版社名称：HarperCollins
出版时间：2016
语种：英文
ISBN：9780008180553
商品尺寸：11.1 x2.1 x 17.8 cm
包装：简装
页数：348

《古希腊罗马神话故事》流传至今已近3000年，是远古时期一代代人集体创作的结晶，反映了人类原始时期的社会秩序，体现了人类的情感、信仰、愿望和幻想。它们不仅是西方文明产生和发展的源头，更是全人类文明的重要组成部分，世界文学艺术宝库中的奇葩，深刻影响着人类的文化生活和精神追求，是极为重要的世界文化遗产。你可以从精彩生动的神话故事中，找到与自己心灵产生共鸣的情感体验，可以从富有智慧的语言中汲取营养、获得感悟、引发思考，为自己的人生营造一方纯净的圣土。
本书为柯林斯经典系列，原版进口，小巧轻便，含历史背景及作者介绍（Life & Times），后附英语词汇注释（Glossary of Classic Literature），生词表采用《柯林斯英语词典》的解释，有助于读者学习理解。
HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.
“This was the slaying of the Minotaur, which put an end forever to the shameful tribute of seven youths and seven maidens which was exacted from the Athenians every nine years.”
The gods, heroes and legends of Greek mythology and their Roman interpretations are as fascinating as they are instructive. They include the almighty Zeus and his many wives; heroic Perseus, slayer of the snake-headed Medusa; Helen of Troy, whose beauty caused a great war; Medea, driven mad by jealousy; and tragic Persephone, doomed to live half of each year in the Underworld, condemning the world above to winter.
First published in 1880, this comprehensive collection is an early modern retelling of the characters and tales of ancient Greece and Rome; a popular account which offers an important insight into the ancient civilisations that it evokes, and forms a basis for our understanding of the classical world.
Features: 
Glossary of Classic Literature—useful words and phrases at your fingertips, taken from Collins English Dictionary

《古希腊罗马神话故事》收集了古代希腊人留下的丰富多彩的民间故事100余篇。包括诸神的起源和传说；赫拉克勒斯的故事；俄狄浦斯的故事；特洛伊战争等等。
A guide to the pantheon of Greek and Roman gods and the myths weaved around them. Split into two parts, the first part giving biographies of the gods, the second part the famous legends. 

E. M. Berens was a classical scholar and author who wrote several books exploring the mythology and oral traditions of ancient civilisations.Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome is his seminal work and was published in 1894. 

The ancient Greeks had several different theories with regard to the origin of the world, but the generally accepted notion was that before this world came into existence, there was in its place a confused mass of shapeless elements called Chaos. These elements becoming at length consolidated (by what means does not appear), resolved themselves into two widely different substances, the lighter portion of which, soaring on high, formed the sky or firmament, and constituted itself into a vast, overarching vault, which protected the firm and solid mass beneath. 
Thus came into being the two first great primeval deities of the Greeks, Uranus and Ge or Gæa. 
Uranus, the more refined deity, represented the light and air of heaven, possessing the distinguishing qualities of light, heat, purity, and omnipresence, whilst Gæa, the firm, flat, life-sustaining earth, was worshipped as the great all-nourishing mother. Her many titles refer to her more or less in this character, and she appears to have been universally revered among the Greeks, there being scarcely a city in Greece which did not contain a temple erected in her honour; indeed Gæa was held in such veneration that her name was always invoked whenever the gods took a solemn oath, made an emphatic declaration, or implored assistance. 
Uranus, the heaven, was believed to have united himself in marriage with Gæa, the earth; and a moment's reflection will show what a truly poetical, and also what a logical idea this was; for, taken in a figurative sense, this union actually does exist. The smiles of heaven produce the flowers of earth, whereas his long-continued frowns exercise so depressing an influence upon his loving partner, that she no longer decks herself in bright and festive robes, but responds with ready sympathy to his melancholy mood. 
The first-born child of Uranus and Gæa was Oceanus, the ocean stream, that vast expanse of ever-flowing water which encircled the earth. Here we meet with another logical though fanciful conclusion, which a very slight knowledge of the workings of nature proves to have been just and true. The ocean is formed from the rains which descend from heaven and the streams which flow from earth. By making Oceanus therefore the offspring of Uranus and Gæa, the ancients, if we take this notion in its literal sense, merely assert that the ocean is produced by the combined influence of heaven and earth, whilst at the same time their fervid and poetical imagination led them to see in this, as in all manifestations of the powers of nature, an actual, tangible divinity.