Bulfinch's Birthday
I grew up on the tales from Greek and Roman mythology written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I had other books of mythology as well, including a storybook of the Trojan War that I will always remember for the fact that Agamemnon believed in his dreams. The mythology I read was colorful, literally and figuratively, and completely captured my imagination. The trouble was that they were not the canonical tales. It wasn't until high school that I encountered Ovid and Thomas Bulfinch. All of a sudden I didn't know mythology. Or at least I had an incomplete and childish impression of mythology. Although I have always held it against Bulfinch and Ovid that I was condsidered ignorant of a topic that had been my passion for almost 14 years, the two mythology compilers have a lot going for them. They really do cover the world of Greco-Roman mythology. In 1855 Bulfinch's mythology was published. It includes not only tales from Greek mythology but also tales of the Norse gods. Just as Ovid's mythology is not so named, but is instead named Metamorphoses, so Bulfinch's mythology has what seems like a misleading title, The Age of Fable; or Stories of Gods and Heroes.