In the month of January I read a book named Greek Myths by Olivia Coolidge. This book is a collection of short stories. My favorite story summarized is Heracles. In Heracles we see a small glimpse into his early life, and he later grows up to have a wonderful wife and children. Sadly, this isn’t how it ends. He’s driven mad and kills them all, but eventually he snaps out of it and goes to pray to the gods to know how to repent. To repent his sins, he has to preform ten labors for King Eurystheus which he really doesn’t want to do since he’s weak and a coward. He ends up preforming twelve labors instead of ten since Eurytheus voided both the fight against the 3 headed hydra for help, and cleaning King Augeas’s stables in one day for getting paid even though he never got help. I really liked this book because it was a compilation of entertaining Greek myths, some making me giggle a bit. I strongly suggest it for anyone who’s just starting to get into mythology, or even just as a book to pass the time. My favorite character is definitely Aegeus. He’s cool as hell! I mean he protects the weak, how is that not awesome? His character trait is kind and the quote that proves this is “‘Aegeus, the lover of justice, the protecter of the weak!’”. This trait shows that he is known to show hospitality to those who need it, showing he is kind. My favorite quote from the book is “The idea gave him exquisite pleasure and he used it dwell on it.” For context, this is referring to a sculpture he, Pygmalion, made and fell in love with. It’s my favorite because I find it kind of funny he fell in love with something he made. He even named it Galatea, who actually later came to life and embraced him because of Aphrodite, Goddess of Beauty, bringing her to life since Pygmalion was a life long devotee.
