Hercules, [Robert Graves'] Shipmate (A Book Review)

[emo_snal]

   I actually only recently became aware of Robert Graves' book The Golden Fleece AKA Hercules, My Shipmate, which is a tot late to the game for a book originally published in 1944. It sets out to be a retelling of the story of Jason and the Argonauts that reconciles all the myth with plausible reality, which alarmed me a bit because that's

Comments

[acelightning]

Read Graves, The White Goddess. Every Wiccan coven I've ever had anything to do with encouraged its members to read it. And nobody ever manages to make head nor tail of it. But it's beautiful poetry and inspiring mythology.

[emo_snal]

Ah I am not at all surprised he's written a mother goddess book, like I said, it seemed like he had some theory about that in this one that he was just itching to get out there. Funny too that nobody can make heads or tales of it ahahahaha. He clearly IS a good writer he just seems to need a good editor who can tell him "look all this, I knoow it's 40% of your book, but it's distracting frass you need to get rid of it mate"

[acelightning]

It''s become one of the core books of modern Wicca, despite its incoherence. A former covenmate of mine was an expert on all sorts of mythology (beginning with Celtic and Hindu and getting even more esoteric as time went on), and he picked holes in Graves' scholarship, but he was forced to admit that the poetry worked well in rituals. (I don't know if I've ever mentioned this to you, but it's in my profile on LJ and DW: I have been a Wiccan Priestess for more than forty years. It's no secret, of course, but you might want to know.)

[fauxklore]

You might enjoy The Jason Voyage by Tim Severin. He’s an Irish historian who recreates mythical voyages (starting with building appropriate ships) to try to figure out what real historical basis they have.

[emo_snal]

Oh sounds interesting I'll definitely try to check it out!

[wpadmirer]

Very cool that you weren't eliminated this round!

[chocolate_frapp]

If you liked I, Claudius you might want to check out Claudius the God. It covers a lot of what happens in the TV show.