Greek Myths and Legends - Emilie Kip Baker

First published as Stories from Old Greece & Rome in 1913, this is actually a very old book masquerading as a new one. The Roman stories have been dropped, the names of Greek deities standardised, and the whole repackaged into an attractive, budget friendly ornate hardback edition with gold leaf embossing, full-colour end paper designs and stencilled page edges. It's always nice to have attractive books on the shelf, but what of the contents? Unfortunately with this edition, all that glitters is not gold, for some pretty egregious errors abound here. These mistakes, along with the gilt leaf very easily rubbing off when handled, leads me to believe the book was not intended to be read at all, but simply admired. Which is a shame, because Greeks myths are fantastic tales that should be known by everyone. 

This is by no means a definitive collection. It's more of a whistle stop tour of Greek myth, or a compedium of the greatest hits. Don't go in expecting the depth and thoroughness of Robert Graves, or you'll be disappointed. Notable absences are the Trojan War and the events of The Odyssey - the final story is 'The Apple of Discord', which launched the former events. The origins of Greek myth are also notably sparse. There is almost nothing of the Titans and the creation of the world, and the story of Zeus' birth and overthrowing of Kronos is absent. The erasure of the Titans means that Apollo has been given Helios's role, and it is he who rides the chariot of the sun. Baker plays fast and loose with both the original mythology and Ovid's later additions in Metamorphoses, which can get a bit messy and confusing. 

Being very dated in language, the stories seem to be written for ten year olds from over a century ago. Antiquated phrases such as 'pledged their troth' make frequent appearances, and all references to sex and rape are removed or softened. Which leads me onto the book's editing, which is absymal. AI was most certainly involved, for the word 'sorceror' is printed as 'SorsDemeter' each time, and the multiple errors in the foreward indicate it was certainly not checked by a human being. Dionysus is listed twice on the list of gods, and Heracles is incorrectly credited as slaying the Minotaur. Whilst the stories themselves are fun and easy to read, the dreadful formating brings this edition down to 2 stars. I hope the others in the series have better proofing.

Rating: 2/5