BOOKS: “Mythos: The Illustrated Edition” by Stephen Fry

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Mythos: The Illustrated Edition: The Illustrated Edition (Stephen Fry's Greek Myths)Mythos: The Illustrated Edition: The Illustrated Edition by Stephen Fry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site

This book offers a humorous telling of many stories from Greek Mythology. One gets the well-known tales such as Prometheus, Sisyphus, and Pandora, but also the myths involving a number of lesser-known characters: god, demi-god, and mortal. As these myths are being told, there is also a substantial amount of nonfiction information presented by footnotes and such — e.g. how later authors (Shakespeare, for example) presented these myths or tales built upon them, how the myths inform popular culture and language to this day, and how Greek and Roman mythology related.

The art is nice, though I can’t say that it added much to the reading experience for me, personally. The art is done in a consistent style throughout and is colorful and visually interesting, though I couldn’t say much else about it in an intelligent fashion. It somewhat reminded me of William Blake’s art and somewhat of Soviet posters.

I enjoyed this book. It is light-hearted and even humorous without detracting from the tone of the myth and is a highly readable way to learn more about Greek Mythology.

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DAILY PHOTO: Blue Sky Bratislava

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“Long, too long America” by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]

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Long, too long America,
 Traveling roads all even and peaceful you learn'd from joys and prosperity only,
 But now, ah now, to learn from crises of anguish, advancing, grappling with direst fate and recoiling not,
 And now to conceive and show to the world what your children en-masse really are,
 (For who except myself has yet conceiv'd what your children en-masse really are?)

PROMPT: 30 Things

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List 30 things that make you happy.

1.) Movement; 2.) Learning; 3.) Chocolate Chip Cookies; 4.) Nature; 5.) Travel; 6.) Discovery; 7.) Spontaneity; 8.) Funny Comments; 9.) Music; 10.) Silence; 11.) Harmony; 12.) Freedom; 13.) Seeing Beauty; 14.) Flow; 15.) Transcendence; 16.) Tacos; 17.) Coffee; 18.) Quintessence; 19.) Paper Masala Dosa; 20.) Mushroom; 21.) Thwarting of Convention; 22.) Pad Thai; 23.) Novelty; 24.) Entrancement; 25.) The Unknown; 26.) Reading; 27.) Writing; 28.) Puzzling; 29.) Mango; 30.) Coming To The End Of Meaningless Lists.

DAILY PHOTO: Boulder in the Green

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Cow Camo [Senryū]

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cow camouflage:
 sitting in tall grass, stilly —
  unsuccessful.

“Fame is a Bee” (1788) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Audio]

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Fame is a bee.
 It has a song --
 It has a sting --
 Ah, too, it has a wing.

DAILY PHOTO: Indian Cityscape

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Hive [Haiku]

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the wasp hive:
 its crescent entrances
  see steady to & fro.

“Riverside Daffodils” by Chen Yuyi [w/ Audio]

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I still remember drinking on the Bridge of Noon
   With bright wits of the day.
 The silent moon
   On endless river rolled away.
 In lacy shadows cast by apricot flowers
   We played our flutes till morning hours.

O'er twenty years have passed like dreams;
   It is a wonder that I'm still alive.
 Carefree, I mount the tower bathed in moonbeams.
   So many things passed long
      Ago survive 
   Only in fishermen's midnight song.

Translation: This Song Dynasty poem was translated by Xu Yuanchong in: Xu Yuanchong [translator]. 2021. Deep, Deep the Courtyard. [庭院深深.] Cite Publishing: Kuala Lumpur, p. 212-213