The mythology of ancient Greece and Italy [for students at the University] / By Thomas Keightley.

  • Thomas Keightley
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The mythology of ancient Greece and Italy [for students at the University] / By Thomas Keightley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    in my opinion tends so strongly to refine, and at the same time to invigorate the intellect, but which I sometimes fear is lather on the wane in this country. Its size and necessary price (the present containing more by a fifth than the former edition) are perhaps insuperable impediments to its general adoption in schools; but I should hope that it wall continue to be used in the Universities, and that in schools the read- ing of it will be recommended to, though not enjoined on, the higher classes. I think I may speak with some confidence of the correctness of the narratives: it must be of advantage to know the opinions of the leading scholars of the continent; and as to my owm, as I advance them without dogmatism, 1 can see them rejected without displeasure. I confess I wish to entice as many as possible into the pleasing regions of my- thology, for I know from experience how delightful it is to escape at times from the dull realities of the actual world, and lose one^s self in the enchanted mazes of primeval fiction. In selecting Mythology I took possession of a field which lay totally unoccupied. This can hardly be said of any other part of classic literature, but many may be better cultivated than they have been hitherto. Thus the private life of the ancient Greeks and Romans may be more fully elucidated. That of the latter people I intend to make the subject of a future work; the former has for many years engaged the attention of my friend Mr. St. John, whose enthusiasm for Greece far exceeds mine; and his work, wdien it appears, will, I am confident, be found to contain a vast store of curious knowdedge, and will prove a valuable aid to the classic stu- dent. The reader will observe that I employ the Greek termina- tions os and on in mythic names instead of the Latin us and um. There is no good reason for this last usage, and I think Greek names should be so written as that they might be at once transferred to the original Greek characters. For this purpose the long e and o should be marked as they are in the Index, and#if we were to use k instead of c before e and i9 writing for instance Kimon and Kep/ialos instead of Cimon and Cephalus, it would be all the better.
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