📚 6 picks
Where to start, where to go deep, and which retellings are worth it — the primer everyone is handed, the ancient sources it all comes from, and the modern novels that make the gods feel human again.
A rough order: start with Hamilton to get the map, read a Homer for the real thing, then Fry or Miller if you want the myths to breathe. Keep Apollodorus nearby as the index.
The primer nearly everyone starts with: clear, warm, and organized so the whole pantheon finally holds together in your head.
The rage of Achilles and the last weeks of Troy — the foundation the rest of the tradition is built on. Read a modern verse translation (Fagles, Wilson).
One soldier’s ten-year way home through monsters, witches, and his own cleverness. The original adventure story.
The myths retold with wit and warmth, in order from creation onward. The most enjoyable modern way in.
The Iliad reimagined as the love story of Achilles and Patroclus — the book that made a generation care about Greek myth again.
The ancient handbook: a dry but complete who-begat-whom of the entire mythology. The reference the retellings quietly rely on.
Edith Hamilton’s Mythology is the standard starting point — clear and complete. If you want something more fun, Stephen Fry’s Mythos tells the same stories with humor and in chronological order.
Chronologically the Iliad comes first (the Trojan War), and the Odyssey follows (the journey home). The Odyssey is the easier, more adventurous read if you want a gentler start.