As a wisp of a lad (fourth-grader) in Tampa, Florida, I discovered Greek mythology by accident. Really: I was already a hell of a reader, and I think I was just permitted to dig around in a closet while Mrs. Karp dealt with the rest of the class during reading period.
Ha. I found an illustrated account of the creation of the earth and sea and universe, and the Titans, and their overthrow by those who eventually came to be called the Olympians, and more. There were concretes which, I guess, helped me to connect with the subject: the names used for the gods, goddesses, and heroes were the Roman ones, not the Greek, and so here I was, 1968, during the height of American admiration for NASA (the first successful moon shot would be less than a year later), and here I'm reading about characters who have the same names as the planets I'm learning about. Probably didn't hurt that I already enjoyed Andre Norton, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, and Isaac Asimov.
Anyway, I was assigned a project: to write my own account of the tales of the gods, and I was assigned a partner. Don't recall his name anymore, but I do recall the writing process, because I had by this time discovered D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths, and in that book, the Greek names are used instead of the Roman ones. So, whenever I'd get hold of the pencilled manuscript, I'd erase every instance of Roman-name use. My writing partner would do the same in reverse: whenever he'd get it, out would go Ares, Zeus, and Aphrodite, and back in would go Mars, Jupiter, and Venus. This went on for weeks. What fun.
Decades later, in Alexandria, Egypt, my young son had the D'Aulaire book for his own reading.
So it was with excitement (and a bit of trepidation) that I approached this quiz, from the Guardian, and I highly recommend it to you.
I scored 80%, which the kind Guardian editors tell me is good enough for a Silver medal. I blush.
Posted by Craig Ceely at August 22, 2004 10:55 PM