Encyclopaedia of Greco-Roman Mythology

Encyclopaedia of Greco-Roman Mythology. By Mike Dixon-Kennedy. Santa Barbara, CA, Denver, CO, and Oxford, UK: ABC-Clio, 1998. 370 pp. 39.95 [pounds sterling]. ISBN 1 57607 094 8 (hb) 1 5767 129 4 (pb)

The Preface to this volume claims, "the time is right for a book that takes the legwork out of finding reliable information about Greek and Roman beliefs." Unfortunately, the present volume fails to provide such information. There is a brief introduction to Greece and Greek civilisation. One is not encouraged by an introduction which assumes that the best view of Mycenaean culture is offered by the works of Homer, nor by an author who feels that entry to the Greek otherworld depended wholly on burial with an obolos on the tongue of the deceased. "No coin, no crossing. To their [the Greek] sensibilities the situation was that clear-cut," he claims. Perhaps, considering the inadequate introduction to the Greeks, it is just as well that the Roman half of the book's title seems to have been left out of this introductory section.

The criteria for selection of material are likewise odd. There are no citations following the entries, a fact which the author justifies by admitting that the research was done in a minimum number of volumes, namely Graves's The Greek Myths, Homer's epics and the Aeniad. Leaving aside the issue that this mixes primary and secondary sources, it surely misses a fundamental point in having an encyclopaedia in the first place, namely that readers unfamiliar with the material may very well need to be told in which epic a particular character occurs.

The idiosyncratic spirit of Robert Graves hovers over the volume, and from him come a number of dubious philological explanations, e.g. Sammu-Ramat as the source for Semiramis. Graves may also be the reason for the inclusion of a few Celtic items, such as Brennus, who was a historical not a mythological figure. Elsewhere, the Irish god Donn is linked to Dis Pater (this is a modern assumption and does not occur in any Roman or Greek source) and Sequana is given (without justification) as a general Celtic river goddess, not one specific to the Seine and its region. Interpretative information is seldom assessed. For example, do the remarks about Athena's origin (p. 54) represent modern research, or are these Graves's ideas which supported his poetic vision? Anyone consulting an encyclopaedia needs this kind of information.

The material is supplemented by what the author calls "original personal research"--and here there really is no excuse for omitting citations. In any case, one is left to wonder in what sense this research is "original," since the bibliography contains only works in translation. Thus, one is presented with an encyclopaedia of classical mythology which appears to have been compiled by an author with "little Latin and less Greek." At 39.95 [pounds sterling] this is not a good investment.

Juliette Wood, University of Wales Cardiff

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