30 Second Mythology: The 50 Most Important Greek and Roman Myths, Monsters, Heroes and Gods Each Explained in Half a Minute (30 Second)

by Robert A. Segal

30-Second Mythology offers the shortest path to a world of gods and monsters. So much modern culture traces its origins back to Greek and Roman mythology (witness 2010s Clash of the Titans and Percy Jackson and the Olympians). The stories provide wonderful references to make your conversation more heroic and raise your imagination closer to the gods. Sail through these fifty 30-second legends to discover what Hercules did to deserve his twelve labors, why Odysseus took ten years to travel 500 miles, and how Narcissus found the love of his life. The perfect reference book for creative writers, it covers gods and goddesses, heroes and monsters, story locations and the great storytellers. There are also condensed versions of the tragic tales alongside explanations of their modern legacies: from the Oedipus Complex to the Narcissus Syndrome.

• ISBN10: 1782400966
• ISBN13: 9781782400967
• Publish Date: 6 January 2014
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 29 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: The Ivy Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 160
• Language: English

Reviews

[Nessa Luna]

Read this review, and many more on my blog October Tune!

30 Second Mythology is exactly what it says, a book where you can learn about Greek and Roman mythology in under thirty seconds (per page/paragraph of course, you won’t get through the entire book in thirty seconds). I got a similar book last year for Christmas, 30 Second J.R.R. Tolkien, and though I liked it, I wouldn’t say it was the best biography I read about the author. Same with 30 Second Mythology.

What I liked:
Everything was divided neatly. There was a section where they talked about how the whole mythology thing happened in the first place, the ‘Creation’. Then there was a section about the Olympians; Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, etc. A section about their enemies, the monsters, like Medusa, the Minotaur and Polyphemus. There was also a part about how the world looked like, with Olympus, the Underworld, Tartarus, and so forth. A part about the heroes; Hercules, Odysseus; and a part about the ‘tragic figures’, like Oedipus, Jason, Icarus.

I liked reading about everything, but I did find the little pieces – one page per subject – a bit too short. Of course, a book like this is not the best way of learning more about mythology, but hey, I couldn’t help it. I love mythology and I would love to read every book about it (it would probably take me years and years though). My favourite parts was reading about how everyone cheated on everyone. I think almost every God and Goddess had children with either mortals, other Gods (than the ones they were married to) and even other creatures.

What I didn’t like:
Like I said before, the passages per subject were in my opinion too short. They could have easily explained it a bit more, like in the Tolkien book, and added only small pictures. Now, there was one page where you could read about the subject, and one page filled with a large picture (of a painting, a statue, etc). That was a bit of a shame.

And also my biggest dislike about this book, is that it’s only about Greek and Roman mythology. Since I’ve watched Thor, I have been a huge fan of the Norse Mythology, and I would just love to read a book like this completely about that. Unfortunately, Norse Mythology is not as popular as Greek or Roman is, but I just hope that some day people will realise that it is awesome!

Conclusion:
I liked 30 Second Mythology. It’s a good way of learning about the most important parts of Greek and Roman mythology. Of course, it’s not the best book to be learning about the Mythologies, but it gives you a good insight of what it’s like. If you want to learn more about mythologies, and you don’t know where to start (or you don’t feel like reading a big book about it), I’d suggest you pick up 30 Second Mythology!