San Antonio College Library

Most Roman myths do not consist of stories about the gods and their actions, nor were they presented as fictional, magic stories. Ancient writers treated myths as history of the city, of its rituals and religious practices, and of important, noble Roman families. Myths were valued as illustrations of moral truths and virtuous behavior.

An introduction to the mythological world of the Greeks and the Romans, combined with a chronology of myths and a dictionary of key characters, objects, and events.

"It is often thought, for no good reason, that myth and history are mutually exclusive. But most mythic stories were believed by their tellers, and some of them were true. Was Lucretia a real woman, raped by the king's son? Did Horatius really hold the bridge alone against an army? Nobody knows; but figures like Spartacus, Cleopatra, Caligula and Nero were certainly real flesh and blood before they became figures of myth. The long history of the Roman...

"An Introduction to Roman Religion" offers students of ancient Rome and classical civilization entry into a distant world in which the state, the social life of the city, and religion were inextricably bound. Professor Scheid draws on the latest findings in archaeology and history to explain the meanings of rituals, rites, auspices, and oracles, to describe the uses of temples and sacred ground, and to evoke the daily patterns of religious life and...

This encyclopedia presents the mythology of ancient Greek and Rome. It examines the best-known figures of Greek and Roman mythology together with the great works of classic literature that are the sources for our understanding of mythology. This work also features numerous illustrations from both ancient and modern works of fine art to show how myths have been transmitted in visual form through the ages. Entries include Greek and Roman gods and heroes,...

The first anthology ever to present the entire range of ancient Greek and Roman stories--from myths and fairy tales to jokes Captured centaurs and satyrs, talking animals, people who suddenly change sex, men who give birth, the temporarily insane and the permanently thick-witted, delicate sensualists, incompetent seers, a woman who remembers too much, a man who cannot laugh--these are just some of the colorful characters who feature in the unforgettable...