Greek Mythology Books: Classics, Retellings, YA & Kids’ Stories

“The Greek word mythology does not contain only the ‘stories’, the mythoi, but also the telling (legein), a storytelling that originally was able to stir intimate resonance; it encompassed the idea that the tale concerned both the narrator and the listeners.“

Thus spoke the great philologist and historian of religion Károly Kerényi (1897-1973) in the essay The Gods and Heroes of Greece (Il Saggiatore, translated by V. Tedeschi), hinting that—perhaps precisely because of this—the Greek mythology has never ceased to fascinate us, with its allegories and its evocative descriptions of the world.

A world from which, not by chance, many Indo-European civilizations would take their origins, to which ancient Greece owes not only linguistically but also culturally, artistically, philosophically, politically, and scientifically.

In this historical moment, in which the collective need to find a center of gravity manifests itself through the rediscovery of the cornerstones of our collective imagination (also awakened by the recent release in cinemas of Christopher Nolan’s much-discussed Odyssey), delving into the beliefs, reflections, and legends conceived in the classical era seems inevitable, together with the desire to listen again to a system of values such as the Hellenic one.

And what better way to do so than through the books on Greek mythology at our disposal? Not only genuine collections of myths, but also tragedies intended for the theater, psychoanalytic studies and (in recent years, thanks to the push of #BookTok) novels that reread the deeds of gods, heroes, and heroines from a contemporary perspective.

Among classical texts, essays, anthologies, retellings (also in a YA mode) and works for children and adolescents, here is a selection of books on Greek mythology—which does not pretend to be exhaustive and whose titles are listed in order of their first Italian publication—through which one can dust off (or get to know more closely) the stories that for centuries have marked the West…

The Classics: Books and Retellings of Greek Mythology

Our journey dedicated to books on Greek mythology cannot help but begin with the origins, namely around the 8th century BCE, when the Iliad and the Odyssey are believed to have been conceived, traditionally attributed to the rhapsode Homer (8th–7th centuries BCE?).

From that moment on, an increasing number of intellectuals drew on the pantheon and the customs of Greece, writing down numerous variants of the classical myths, which sometimes asserted themselves in later tradition and other times pushed modern authors to tell a new version dictated by the sensitivity of the era in which they lived…

• Iliad by Homer (Ponte alle Grazie, translated by Daniele Ventre)
• Odyssey by Homer (Ponte alle Grazie, translated by Daniele Ventre)
• The Works and Days by Hesiod (Garzanti, translated by Graziano Arrighetti)
• Theogony by Hesiod (Einaudi, translated by Graziano Arrighetti)
• Fables by Aesop (Rizzoli, translated by Elena Ceva Valla)
• Oresteia by Aeschylus (Garzanti, translated by Ezio Savino)
• Prometheus Bound – The Persians – Seven Against Thebes – The Suppliants by Aeschylus (Garzanti, translated by Ezio Savino)
• Ajax – Electra – The Trachiniae – Philoctetes by Sophocles (Garzanti, translated by Ezio Savino)
• Oedipus Rex – Oedipus at Colonus – Antigone by Sophocles (Garzanti, translated by Ezio Savino)
• The Alcestis – The Cyclops by Euripides (Garzanti, translated by Umberto Albini)
• Helen – Iphigenia by Euripides (Garzanti, translated by Umberto Albini)
• Heracles by Euripides (Garzanti, translated by Umberto Albini)
• The Heracleidae – The Supplicants by Euripides (Garzanti, translated by Umberto Albini)
• The Phoenician Women by Euripides (Garzanti, translated by Umberto Albini)
• Iphigenia in Tauris – The Bacchae by Euripides (Garzanti, translated by Umberto Albini)
• Medea – Hippolytus by Euripides (Garzanti, translated by Umberto Albini)
• Timeo by Plato (Mondadori, translated by Federico M. Petrucci)
• Argonautica by Apollonius Rhodius (Mondadori, translated by Alberto Borgogno)
• Medea by Seneca (Garzanti, translated by Vico Faggi)
• Myths by Gaius Iulius Hyginus (Igino l’Astronomo) (Adelphi, edited by Giulio Guidorizzi)
• Love and Psyche by Apuleius (Garzanti, translated by Nino Marziano)
• The Romance of Calliroe by Caritone of Aphrodisias (Rizzoli, edited by Renata Roncali)
• Phaedra by Jean Racine (Garzanti, translated by Giuseppe Ungaretti)
• Iphigenia in Tauris by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Garzanti, translated by Roberto Fertonani)
• Electra by Hugo von Hofmannsthal (Garzanti, translated by Giovanna Bemporad)
• The Oresteia of Aeschylus by Pier Paolo Pasolini (Garzanti)
• Cassandra by Christa Wolf (E/O, translated by Anita Raja)
• Omeros by Derek Walcott (Adelphi, edited by A. Molesini)
• Medea by Christa Wolf (E/O, translated by Anita Raja)
• Encyclopedia of Mythology, edited by Pierre Grimal (Garzanti, translated by P. A. Borgheggiani)

Essays and anthologies on Greek mythology

Not only literary revisitations: also essays, anthologies, and all those books on Greek mythology that, especially from the 20th century onward, offer a varied and substantial production to explore the Greek culture.

Thanks to the studies of scholars such as Walter Otto (1874-1958) first and Giorgio Agamben later, as well as the work of popularizers like Giulio Guidorizzi, Matteo Nucci or Giorgio Ieranò, we can indeed penetrate the deepest meanings and at the same time the most relevant of the stories linked to the ancient Olympus…

• Iliad – The Poem of Strength by Simone Weil (Farinaeditore, translated by G. Baldanzi and V. Paramithiotti)
• Daughters of the Sun by Károly Kerényi (Bollati Boringhieri, translated by F. Barberi)
• Origins and Forms of the Greek Myth by Paula Philipsson (Bollati Boringhieri, translated by A. Brelich)
• Myths and Mysteries by Károly Kerényi (Bollati Boringhieri, translated by Angelo Brelich)
• The Greek Myths by Robert Graves (Longanesi, translated by Elisa Morpurgo)
• The Gods and Heroes of Greece by Károly Kerényi (il Saggiatore)
• The Gods of Greece by Walter Otto (Adelphi, translated by Giovanna Federici Airoldi)
• The Most Beautiful Legends of Classical Antiquity by Gustav Schwab (Newton Compton, translated by Stefania Di Natale)
• Nymphs by Giorgio Agamben (Bollati Boringhieri)
• Another Greece – The Western colonies between myth, art and memory by Donatella Puliga and Silvia Panichi (Einaudi)
• Ariadne – The Story of a Myth by Giorgio Ieranò (Carocci)
• Olympos – Vices, loves and adventures of the ancient gods by Giorgio Ieranò (Marsilio)
• The Wisdom of Myths by Luc Ferry (Garzanti, translated by E. Lana)
• The Tears of the Heroes by Matteo Nucci (Einaudi)
• The Invention of Mythology by Marcel Detienne (Bollati Boringhieri, translated by F. Cuniberto)
• The Heroes of the Trojan War – Helen, Ulysses, Achilles and the others by Giorgio Ieranò (Marsilio)
• In the Labyrinth by Károly Kerényi (Bollati Boringhieri, translated by Leda Spiller)
• I, Agamemnon – The Heroes of Homer by Giulio Guidorizzi (Einaudi)
• Mithos by Stephen Fry (Salani, translated by Guido Calza)
• The Great Tale of the Trojan War by Giulio Guidorizzi (Il Mulino)
• Ulysses – The Last of the Heroes by Giulio Guidorizzi (Einaudi)
• On the Iliad by Rachel Bespaloff (Adelphi, translated by Simona Mambrini)
• Archipelago – Islands and Myths of the Aegean Sea by Giorgio Ieranò (Einaudi)
• Traveling with the Gods – A Mythological Guide to Greece by Giulio Guidorizzi and Silvia Romani (Raffaello Cortina Editore)
• The Sea of Love – Eros, Tempests and Shipwrecks in Ancient Greece by Giorgio Ieranò (Laterza)
• Heroes – The Great Sagas of Greek Mythology by Giorgio Ieranò (Feltrinelli)
• Flight and Labyrinth by Piero Bevilacqua (Castelvecchi)
• The Gates of Myth by Maria Grazia Ciani (Marsilio)
• The Tale of the Gods – The Origin of the World and the Olympian Deities by Giulio Guidorizzi (Mondadori)
• Myths of the Greeks by Giuseppe Zanetto (Feltrinelli)
• The Tale of the Heroes by Giulio Guidorizzi (Mondadori)
• Demons, Monsters and Marvels – The Irrational and the Fantastic in the Ancient World by Giorgio Ieranò (Marsilio)
• The Sea of the Gods – A Mythological Guide to the Islands of Greece by Giulio Guidorizzi and Silvia Romani (Raffaello Cortina Editore)
• The Sicily of the Gods – A Mythological Guide by Giulio Guidorizzi and Silvia Romani (Raffaello Cortina Editore)
• Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece by Rosa Agizza (Newton Compton)
• The Myths of the Stars by Giulio Guidorizzi (Raffaello Cortina Editore)
• Homer – Nausicaa and the Unfulfilled Idyll by Giorgio Ieranò (Il Mulino)
• Atlas of Emotions in Mythology edited by Giovanni Nucci (il Saggiatore)
• Aphrodite Traveling Light by Francesca Sensini (Ponte alle Grazie)
• Siren and Other Monsters – Women of Myth Who Challenged Male Power by Jess Zimmerman (Blackie, translated by Sabrina Bottari)
• Ecstasy and Terror – From the Greeks to Mad Men by Daniel Mendelsohn (Einaudi, translated by Norman Gobetti)
• Iphigenia – The Three Lives of a Woman Who Became a Myth by Francesca Ghedini (Marsilio)
• Against Antigone – O of Social Egoism by Eva Cantarella (Einaudi)
• A Grecian Heart – A Return to the Classics in the Twentieth Century by Marina Valensise (Neri Pozza)
• Legendary Lives – The Great Figures of Ancient Greek History by Giorgio Ieranò (Sonzogno)
• The Scent of the Gods by Silvia Ferrara and Laura Bellinato (Il Mulino)
• 7 Lessons for Facing Life with Resilience and Inner Strength: The Odyssey Method by Sam Akbar (Corbaccio, translated by Sara Caraffini)
• The Most Beautiful Novel in the World – “The Odyssey” Told by Nicola Gardini (Garzanti)
• The Prudence of Daring – Aristotle, Odysseus, and the Courage of Action by Catherine Van Offelen (Ponte alle Grazie, translated by Michele Zaffarano)

Contemporary Books and Retellings

We now move to the more contemporary Greek mythology books, since the classic epos continues to offer inspiration to today’s great writers and to younger authors, who write especially for the audiences of the Millennials and the Generation Z.

Their retellings, often grounded in a more feminist and inclusive view of mythology, have been booming for several years, particularly thanks to the #BookTok, and were propelled at the outset by the success of the American academic Madeline Miller, who authored – among others – the bestsellers The Song of Achilles and Circe.

Homer
Iliad

Homer
Odyssey

Euripide
Medea – Hippolytus

Károly Kerényi
Miti e misteri

Robert Graves
The Greek Myths

Stephen Fry
Mythos

Nicola Gardini
The Most Beautiful Novel in the World. The Odyssey Told by Nicola Gardini

Catherine Van Offelen
The Prudence of Daring

Margaret Atwood
The Song of Penelope

Francesca Sensini
Afrodite viaggia leggera

Hannah Lynn
The Secret of Medusa

Elsa Winter
Nausicaa. An Impossible Love

Terry Deary
Hit Parade of Greek Myths

• Itaca Forever by Luigi Malerba (Mondadori)
• My Life in the Forest of Spirits by Amos Tutuola (Adelphi, translated by A. Motti)
• Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson (La Lave di Teseo, translated by Sergio Claudio Perroni)
• The Song of Penelope by Margaret Atwood (Ponte alle Grazie, translated by Margherita Crepax)
• Omero – Iliade by Alessandro Baricco (Feltrinelli)
• Olympos – The War of the Immortals by Dan Simmons (Mondadori, translated by Gaetano Luigi Staffilano)
• Olympos – The Attack of the Voynix by Dan Simmons (Mondadori, translated by Gaetano Luigi Staffilano)
• Goddess – The Fate of the Goddess by Josephine Angelini (Giunti, translated by Marco Rossari)
• The Song of Orpheus by David Almond (Salani, translated by Giuseppe Iacobaci and Wendell Ricketts)
• The Gift of Ariadne by Marta Morazzoni (Guanda)
• The New Eroides by Aa. Vv. (HarperCollins Italia)
• Elena of Sparta by Loreta Minutilli (Baldini+Castoldi)
• An Odyssey – A Father, a Son, and an Epic by Daniel Mendelsohn (Einaudi, translated by Norman Gobetti)
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (Sonzogno, translated by Matteo Curtoni and Maura Parolini)
• The Odyssey Told by Penelope, Circe and Calypso by Marilù Oliva (Solferino)
• Odyssey by Nikos Kazantzakis (Crocetti, translated by Nicola Crocetti)
• Musa and Jett edited by Ritanna Armeni (Ponte alle Grazie)
• The Secret of Medusa by Hannah Lynn (Newton Compton, translated by Mariafelicia Maione)
• Circe by Madeline Miller (Sonzogno, translated by Marinella Magrì)
• Galatea by Madeline Miller (Sonzogno, translated by Marinella Magrì)
• The Canto of Calliope by Natalie Haynes (Sonzogno, translated by Monica Capuani)
• Omeros by Seymour Chwast (Quodlibet, translated by Fiorenza Conte)
• Stone Heart – The Sins of the Gods – A Prequel by Katee Robert (Newton Compton, translated by Mariafelicia Maione)
• The Sins of the Gods by Katee Robert (Newton Compton, translated by Beatrice Nigrisoli)
• The Pleasures of the Gods by Katee Robert (Newton Compton, translated by Mariacristina Cesa)
• The Beauty of the Gods by Katee Robert (Newton Compton, translated by Mariafelicia Maione)
• Divine Temptations by Katee Robert (Newton Compton, translated by Matilde Piccinini)
• The Game of the Gods by Katee Robert (Newton Compton, translated by Valentina Cabras)
• The Gods’ Revenge by Hannah Lynn (Newton Compton, translated by Micol Cerato and Mariacristina Cesa)
• The Mystery of the Amazons by Hannah Lynn (Newton Compton, translated by Valentina Lombardi and Valentina Legnani)
• The Queen of the Underworld by Hannah Lynn (Newton Compton, translated by Francesca Gazzaniga and Susanna Decio)
• The Daughters of Sparta by Claire Heywood (Newton Compton, translated by Beatrice Messineo)
• Medusa’s Gaze by Natalie Haynes (Sonzogno, translated by Ginevra Lamberti)
• Ariadne by Jennifer Saint (Sonzogno, translated by Ginevra Lamberti)
• Lore by Alexandra Bracken (Sperling & Kupfer, translated by Michela Albertazzi)
• The Tears of the Trojans by Pat Barker (Einaudi, translated by Carla Palmieri)
• The Plot of Helen by Francesca Sensin (Ponte alle Grazie)
• The Cry of Phaedra by Laura Shepperson (Newton Compton, translated by Paola Vitale)
• The Song of Medusa by Claire Heywood (Newton Compton, translated by Beatrice Messineo)
• Electra by Jennifer Saint (Sonzogno, translated by Ginevra Lamberti)
• Resist, Heart by Alessandro D’Avenia (Mondadori)
• The Pandora’s Vase – Women in Greek Myth by Natalie Haynes (Sonzogno, translated by Ginevra Lamberti)
• The Curse of Ariadne by Sara Benatti (Sperling & Kupfer)
• The Daughters of Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz (Garzanti, translated by Maria Giulia Castagnone)
• The Iliad Sung by the Gods by Marilù Oliva (Solferino)
• The Most Beautiful – The Elena Version by Brunella Schisa (HarperCollins)
• Nobody Sings My Name by Yann Martel (Piemme, translated by Velia Februari)
• The Truth of Medea by Natalie Haynes (Sonzogno, translated by Ida Amlesù)
• Sings My Name by Teodora Manes (Il castoro Off)
• Of the Same Substance as Dreams – Monologues of Myth by Giuseppe Conte (Bompiani)
• Homeward by Pat Barker (Einaudi, translated by Carla Palmieri)
• Nausicaa – An Impossible Love by Elsa Winter (Vallardi)
• Stellar Odyssey by Kim Bo-young (add, translated by Giulia Donati)
• Mestra by Madeline Miller (Sonzogno, translated by Marinella Magrì and illustrations by Ambra Garlaschelli)

Greek mythology books for children and adolescents

Among the many Greek mythology books to read, one should not overlook the works for children and teens, designed for a still-forming audience, who often do not know classical culture and are approaching its literary landscape for the first time.

Among the most prominent names are Laura Orvieto (1876-1953) and Gianni Rodari (1920-1980), and more recently Lodovica Cima and Roberto Piumini, not to mention a cult author like Rick Riordan, who has become famous worldwide for the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series…

• Stories of World History by Laura Orvieto (Giunti)
• Atalanta by Gianni Rodari (Einaudi Ragazzi)
• Hit Parade of Greek Myths by Terry Deary (Salani, translated by A. Gagni)
• The Adventures of Ulysses by Roberto Piumini (Einaudi Ragazzi)
• At the Feet of Olympus – Greek Myths for Young Readers by Saviour Pirotta (Einaudi Ragazzi, translated by M. Ventura Avanzinelli)
• Gods and Heroes of Olympus by Roberto Piumini (Mondadori)
• Ulysses Was a Fig by Luciano De Crescenzo (Mondadori)
• Iliad by Luisa Mattia (La Nuova Frontiera Junior)
• In Greece – Land of Myths, Gods and Heroes by Giuseppe Zanetto (Feltrinelli)
• The Most Beautiful Stories of the Greek Myths – Activity Book by Lodovica Cima (Ape Junior)
• Folo – The centaur by Roberto Piumini (EDB)
• The Odyssey Told to Children by Rosa Navarro Durán (Mondadori, translated by Carla Gaiba)
• The Travels of Ulysses by Lodovica Cima (Ape Junior)
• Greek Myths for the Little Ones by Stefano Bordiglioni (Edizioni EL)
• The Most Beautiful Stories of Greek Myths by Luisa Mattia (Gribaudo)
• The Staff of Zeus – Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Vol. 1 by Rick Riordan (Mondadori, translated by Loredana Baldinucci)
• The Sea of Monsters – Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Vol. 2 by Rick Riordan (Mondadori, translated by Loredana Baldinucci)
• The Curse of the Titan – Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Vol. 3 by Rick Riordan (Mondadori, translated by Loredana Baldinucci)
• The Battle of the Labyrinth – Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Vol. 4 by Rick Riordan (Mondadori, translated by Loredana Baldinucci)
• The Last Challenge – Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan (Mondadori, translated by Loredana Baldinucci and M. Salvi)
• The Cup of the Gods – Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Vol. 6 by Rick Riordan (Mondadori, translated by Laura Melosi and Laura Grassi)
• Ulysses, King of Journeys by Roberto Piumini (Giunti)
• Greek Myths – The Gods and Heroes of Ancient Greece by Federica Bernardo (De Agostini)
• The Return of Achilles by Luisa Mattia (Piemme)
• Stories of Very Ancient Children by Laura Orvieto (Mondadori)
• Odyssey – From Homer by Roberto Piumini (Einaudi Ragazzi)
• The Iliad Told to Children by Rosa Navarro Durán (Mondadori, translated by Carla Gaiba)
• The Greek Myths Told to Children by Annamaria Piccione (Mondadori)
• The Horse of Troy – What a Myth! by Hélène Kérillis (Gallucci, translated by FUSP – Foundation Unicampus San Pellegrino)
• The Myths and Us – Activity Book by Laura Vaioli and Giacomo Guccinelli (Salani)
• Olympus – The Great Adventures of the Gods and Heroes by Giulio Guidorizzi (Mondadori)
• The Greatest Greek Myths by Geronimo Stilton (Piemme)
• Greek Myths – Gods, Heroes, Creatures and Monsters of Ancient Greece by Jean Menzies (Gribaudo)
• The Most Beautiful Stories of the Iliad by Lorenza Cingoli and Martina Forti (Gribaudo)
• The Most Beautiful Stories of the Odyssey by Lorenza Cingoli and Martina Forti (Gribaudo)
• The Most Beautiful Stories of Mythology by Geraldine McCaughrean (Mondadori, translated by Valentina Beggio)
• I Am Persephone by Daniele Coluzzi (Rizzoli)
• The Great Book of Mythology Quizzes by Iacopo Cellini (Newton Compton)
• The Boy from Ithaca by Luisa Mattia (Piemme)
• The Muorissea – Accurate Summary of Odysseus’ Adventures Between Light and Shadows (Many, Too Many) from The Throne of the Dying (Mondadori)
• The Gifts of Ananke by Sabrina Gabrielli (Tunué)
• Archeo Tales – The Myth of Narcissus by Emanuele Apostolidis, Francesco Bellu and Rebecca Spagnesi (BeccoGiallo)
• Trojan War in Comics by Nicolás Schuff and Mariana Ruiz Johnson (Il Castoro, translated by Francesco Ferrucci)