Not one to count on the gods—or her looks—to take care of her, Helen sets out to get what she wants with steely determination and a sassy attitude. That same attitude makes Helen a few enemies—such as the self-proclaimed "son of Zeus" Theseus—but it also intrigues, charms, and amuses those who become her friends, from the famed huntress Atalanta to the young priestess who is the Oracle of Delphi.In Nobody's Princess, author Esther Friesner deftly weaves together history and myth as she takes a new look at the girl who will become Helen of Troy. The resulting story offers up adventure, humor, and a fresh and engaging heroine you cannot help but root for.

    From the first millennium BC until today, the myths have been repeated in an inexhaustible series of variations and reinterpretations. They can be found in the latest movies and television shows and in software for interactive computer games. This book combines a retelling of Greek myths with a comprehensive account of the world in which they developed their themes, their relevance to Greek religion and society, and their relationship to the landscape."Contexts, Sources, Meanings" describes the main literary and artistic sources for Greek myths, and their contexts, such as ritual and theater."Myths of Origin" includes stories about the beginning of the cosmos, the origins of the gods, the first humans, and the founding of communities."The Olympians: Power, Honor, Sexuality" examines the activities of all the main divinities."Heroic exploits" concentrates on the adventures of Perseus, Jason, Herakles, and other heroes."Family sagas" explores the dramas and catastrophes that befall heroes and heroines."A Landscape of Myths" sets the stories within the context of the mountains, caves, seas, and rivers of Greece, Crete, Troy, and the Underworld."Greek Myths after the Greeks" describes the rich tradition of retelling, from the Romans, through the Renaissance, to the twenty-first century.Complemented by lavish illustrations, genealogical tables, box features, and specially commissioned drawings, this will be an essential book for anyone interested in these classic tales and in the world of the ancient Greeks.

    The audacity.I AM THE OCEAN!I got capacity!Depths! Darkness! Delphic power!So his sweet little planWent big-time sourAnd his wife had a sonBorn with horns and a muzzleWho ended upIn an underground puzzle.What is it with you mortals?You just can’t seem to learn:If you play with fire, babies,You’re gonna get burned.Much like Lin-Manuel Miranda did in Hamilton, the New York Times best-selling author David Elliott turns a classic on its head in form and approach, updating the timeless story of Theseus and the Minotaur for a new generation. A rough, rowdy, and darkly comedic young adult retelling in verse, Bull will have readers reevaluating one of mythology's most infamous monsters.

    This book presents the great stories of the heroic age - "Dionysus", "Heracles", "Theseus", "The Quest for the Golden Fleece", and many more.

    Aged sixteen, Telemachus finds himself abandoned, his father’s house overrun with men pursuing his beautiful mother, Penelope, and devouring the family’s wealth. He determines to leave Ithaca, his island home, and find the truth. What really happened to his father? Was Odysseus killed on his journey home from the war? Or might he, one day, return to take his revenge?Telemachus's journey takes him across the landscape of bronze-age Greece in the aftermath of the great Trojan war. Veterans hide out in the hills. Chieftains, scarred by war, hoard their treasure in luxurious palaces. Ithaca re-tells Homer’s famous poem, The Odyssey, from the point of view of Odysseus’ resourceful and troubled son, describing Odysseus’s extraordinary voyage from Troy to the gates of hell, and Telemachus’s own journey from boyhood to the desperate struggle that wins back his home … and his father.

    Will she become the captive or the captor?Briseis struggles to protect her city, an ally of Troy, from marauding Greeks and her husband's arrogant violence. She finds strength in visions of a handsome warrior god until he appears before her in flesh and blood. When Briseis raises a sword against the mighty Achilles, she ignites a passion that threatens to betray everyone she holds dear.Hand of Fire, set against the backdrop of the Trojan War, blends history and myth in Briseis's untold story of adventure, hope and resilience. Immerse yourself in this richly depicted Bronze Age world where Greek gods walk the earth, epic heroes fight with sword and heart, and a woman dares to determine her own destiny.

            The stories are divided into three sections: The Age of Fable or Stories of Gods and Heroes (first published in 1855); The Age of Chivalry (1858), which contains King Arthur and His Knights, The Mabinogeon, and The Knights of English History; and Legends of Charlemagne or Romance of the Middle Ages (1863). For the Greek myths, Bulfinch drew on Ovid and Virgil, and for the sagas of the north, from Mallet's Northern Antiquities. He provides lively versions of the myths of Zeus and Hera, Venus and Adonis, Daphne and Apollo, and their cohorts on Mount Olympus; the love story of Pygmalion and Galatea; the legends of the Trojan War and the epic wanderings of Ulysses and Aeneas; the joys of Valhalla and the furies of Thor; and the tales of Beowulf and Robin Hood. The tales are eminently readable. As Bulfinch wrote, "Without a knowledge of mythology much of the elegant literature of our own language cannot be understood and appreciated. . . . Our book is an attempt to solve this problem, by telling the stories of mythology in such a manner as to make them a source of amusement."Thomas Bulfinch, in his day job, was a clerk in the Merchant's Bank of Boston, an undemanding position that afforded him ample leisure time in which to pursue his other interests. In addition to serving as secretary of the Boston Society of Natural History, he thoroughly researched the myths and legends and copiously cross-referenced them with literature and art. As such, the myths are an indispensable guide to the cultural values of the nineteenth century; however, it is the vigor of the stories themselves that returns generation after generation to Bulfinch.

    

    The three Fates wove it into their looms for me to be born destined as his queen and rule the Underworld by his side. My name is Aerith. All my life I believed I was mortal: a terribly unlucky and cursed mortal. Klutz, uncoordinated, sloppy, unfashionable, nerd, geek were only some of the words used to describe me. I've always been an outcast, always bullied, never had a boyfriend, never even been kissed. Definitely far from being queen material. Join me as I get tutored by Olympian gods and goddesses themselves and the best teachers throughout history whose souls now belonged to the Underworld. Join me on my journey as I fall in love with my great king and learn HOW TO BE A QUEEN...

    The story’s focus is not on drama but on a bitter truth: both armies want nothing more than to stop fighting and go home. Achilles—the electrifying hero who is Homer’s brilliant creation—quarrels with his commander, Agamemnon, but eventually returns to the field to avenge a comrade’s death. Few warriors, in life or literature, have challenged their commanding officer and the rationale of the war they fought as fiercely as did Homer’s Achilles.Homer’s Iliad addresses the central questions defining the war experience of every age. Is a warrior ever justified in challenging his commander? Must he sacrifice his life for someone else’s cause? Giving his life for his country, does a man betray his family? Can death ever be compensated by glory? How is a catastrophic war ever allowed to start—and why, if all parties wish it over, can it not be ended?As she did in The Endurance and The Bounty, Caroline Alexander has taken apart a story we think we know and put it back together in a way that reveals what Homer really meant us to glean from his masterpiece. Written with the authority of a scholar and the vigor of a bestselling narrative historian, The War That Killed Achilles is a superb and utterly timely presentation of one of the timeless stories of our civilization.

    Read one way, each poem tells the story of a familiar myth; but when read in reverse, the poems reveal a new point of view! Readers will delight in uncovering the dual points of view in well-known legends, including the stories of Pandora’s box, King Midas and his golden touch, Perseus and Medusa, Pygmalion, Icarus and Daedalus, Demeter and Persephone, and Echo and Narcissus.   These cunning verses combine with beautiful illustrations to create a collection of fourteen reverso poems to treasure.

    

    Lose yourself in the majesty and romance of this great historical romance collection brought to you by seven top historical romance authors. This limited edition bundle includes: DEEP INTO DARKNESS by Kathryn Le Veque: Based on “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe, this story involves a hunky highlander, his lovely wife, a dark and creepy castle on the Scotland coast, and chains rattling in the night…. TAKEN BY THE HIGHLANDER by Eliza Knight: A warrior on a mission falls for a lady who has sworn off love. A LOVE THROUGH TIME By Terri Brisbin: An archway in time...A man in search of his future in the past...A woman who holds the key. MY FIERCE HIGHLANDER by Vonda Sinclair: Gwyneth, a scandalous English lady banished to the Highlands of Scotland, and Alasdair, an injured enemy chief, join forces against her malicious and violent family. As the danger and conflict surrounding them escalate, the two discover an explosive passion neither of them expected. TAMING THE WILD HIGHLANDER by Terry Spear: Edana is searching for her missing brothers and that leads Angus into a faux marriage with her, dungeons and more trouble than he ever thought possible. So why is the bewitching, fiery-haired lass making him think of marrying her for real? KILTS AND KISSES by Victoria Roberts: Her only refuge is in the arms of her enemy. HIGHLAND MOON by Gwyn Brodie: He held her life in his hands. She held his soul.

    He has left the sword behind him to become a healer in the greatest sanctuary in Greece, turning his back on war.But war has followed him to his refuge at Epidauros, and now a battle to end the freedom of Greece is all around him. The Mediterranean superpowers of Rome, Egypt and Macedon are waging their proxy wars on Hellenic soil, turning Greek farmers into slaves and mercenaries.When wounded soldier Philopoemen is carried into his temple, Alexanor believes the man's wounds are mortal but that he is not destined to die. Because he knows Philopoemen will become Greece's champion. Its last hero. The new Achilles.In Christian Cameron's latest historical novel the old orders of the world begin to fall apart as Rome rises to supremacy - and Greece struggles to survive.

    She's been keeping secrets her whole life. Two, actually. First, that she ages five times slower than average people, so that while she looks eighteen years old, she's well over eighty. Second, that her blood has a mysterious power to heal. For Elyse, these things don't make her special. They make life dangerous. After the death of her parents, she's been careful to keep her secret as closely guarded as possible. Now, only one other person in the world knows about her age and ability. Or so she thinks. Elyse is not the only one keeping secrets. There are others like her all over the world, descendants of the very people the Greeks considered gods. She is one of them, and they have been waiting for her for a long time. Some are waiting for her to put an end to centuries of traditions that have oppressed their people under the guise of safeguarding them. Others are determined to keep her from doing just that. But for Elyse, the game is just beginning-and she's not entirely willing to play by their rules.