Macmillan Collection of Greek Myths

A beautiful hardback treasury featuring an array of incredible stories, this is the ultimate collection of Greek Myths and the perfect gift for mythology lovers of all ages.

Orpheus and Eurydice, Persephone, Theseus and the Minotaur, The Golden Fleece, Perseus and Arachne . . . All the best-known Greek Myths are here, alongside extracts from The Iliad and The Odyssey.

With classic illustrations from iconic artists such as Arthur Rackham, Walter Crane and Heath Robinson; and a foreword from award-winning author and Children's Laureate, Joseph Coelho.

Presented in a lavish 352 page hardback, with a foiled cut-through cover, foiled edges and a ribbon marker, The Macmillan Collection of Greek Myths is a very special book to give, share and treasure.

Inspired by over 175 years of publishing history it also contains an illustrated account of the authors and artists behind Macmillan's original story collections, first published in the 1800s and early 1900s.

The companion book to The Macmillan Fairy Tales Collection and The Macmillan Collection of Myths and Legends.

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Macmillan's collections - Fairy Tales and Myths and Legends - have become one of the highlights of the winter season. Greek Myths stands tall with these fabulous books. Our colour theme this year is bronze and silver, with gold on the spredges and a bronze coloured ribbon. (For comparison, Myths was blue and silver in basically every aspect, and Fairy Tales was gold.)

A few of the stories from Myths show up again here, expanded and lengthened - Thesus' adventure in particular is much longer than the last version. Since these are explicitly Greek, there's no place name with each story, but we do have a map at the start of the book which features most of the places named in the stories. The forward by Joseph Coelho points out how these stories remain relevant and how there are echoes of them in a lot of modern tales as well.

One of my favourite things about these volumes is that they use illustrations from across the history of Macmillan, so the same story might have two or three images in different styles - reading that back, you would think they'd clash, but actually they work beautifully together. Some samples, and the beautiful back cover which is hidden by the packaging, below:

This is an amazing addition to the collection; I can't imagine how Macmillan will better it next year, but I look forward to spending many hours with this one and its' sisters. This should definitely be on your Christmas lists.

The Macmillan Collection of Greek Myths publishes on the 12th of October, 2023. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.