The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles

Padraic ColumProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.0
Word count
399K words
Chapters
40

Tags

English Originals Folk Literature Fantasy JourneyHeroic AdventureGolden FleeceTest of CourageComing of AgeClassical LegendsGreek MythologyIrish WriterMyth RetellingGods and Legends

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles by Padraic ColumAuthor: Colum, Padraic, 1881-1972,Language: English, Class: BL: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Religion: General, Miscellaneous and Atheism, Release Date: Nov 1, 2000

Editor's review

Padraic Colum retells in prose the full quest of Jason and the Argonauts for the Golden Fleece, weaving the side stories of Heracles, Orpheus, Theseus, and other heroes into the main narrative, so that the whole work reads like a web of Greek heroic lineage. A longtime collector of folk tales, Colum writes with a storyteller's rhythm, making the book suitable for reading aloud and as an entry point to secondary texts of Greek myth. Rather than listing genealogies like a textbook, it lets readers follow the ship's crew from island to island, meeting gods and monsters, and naturally absorb the characters' relationships through adventure. For readers who have already read simplified versions of Greek myth, this book fills in the complete arc of the Golden Fleece expedition; for writers, it offers a model for retelling myths. Note that this is an English public-domain e-book, and its prose carries an early twentieth-century style, so it is best read at a slower pace.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read the main Golden Fleece chapters first, then go back to the heroes' side stories; the relationships will be clearer.
  2. Prepare a character chart and note each hero's origin, lineage, and fate as you read.
  3. Read one or two chapters a day aloud to feel Colum's storytelling rhythm.
  4. After finishing, compare other versions of Greek myth and see how the same story is told differently.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40

FAQ

How is this book different from common collections of Greek myths? It takes Jason and the Argonauts' quest for the Golden Fleece as its main thread and embeds the stories of Heracles, Orpheus, Theseus, and other heroes into the same journey, forming a continuous group portrait of heroes rather than listing them one by one according to divine genealogy.
Can I read it without any background in Greek myth? Yes, but it helps to first learn the basic relationships among the major Olympian gods and a few core heroes. Colum's narration explains the background itself, but the characters are dense and beginners may easily confuse them, so taking notes on names as you read will help.
Is this a Chinese book or an English book? This is an English public-domain e-book released by Project Gutenberg. The text is in English, with no Chinese translation or notes. It suits readers with some English reading ability who want an authentic retelling of the myths.
Is it suitable for children? The book contains battle, betrayal, and death, and some passages are written in a more adult style. Older children can read selected passages with an adult, while younger children are better off starting with simplified versions of Greek myth before coming to this book.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Padraic Colum Author · Irish-American · 1881–1972

Padraic Colum (1881–1972) was an Irish-American poet, playwright, and writer of children's literature. He was born in Longford, Ireland, in 1881 and died in Connecticut, USA, in 1972. A central figure in the Irish Literary Revival, he settled in the United States in 1914. His work spans poetry, drama, and retellings of myth. Representative works include the poetry collection Wild Earth, the play The Land, and children's books such as The King of Ireland's Son, The Golden Fleece, The Adventures of Odysseus and The Tales of Troy, and The Children of Odin: The Book of Northern Myths. He was skilled at retelling Greek and Norse myths in clear, flowing prose suited to young readers, and his myth retellings have had a lasting influence on the popularization of classical legend in English children's literature. The library holds 8 of his works.