Greek mythology finally makes sense.
Start with the family: one tree, one map, fifteen stories, each from the ancient source named on its page.
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Twenty gods, one family tree.
Read it from the top down: grandparents, parents, children. Every god has a face, a chapter number and a place. Zeus and Hera are brother and sister, and married. The tree says so before you have to ask.
Where it all starts
The first father
He hid his children inside the earth, out of sight. Chapter 1.
The son who did the same
He swallowed his own children, one by one. Chapter 2.
The one who escaped
His mother handed Kronos a stone in a blanket. Zeus grew up and took the throne. Chapters 3 and 4.
Where it happened.
One map of their world, from Mount Olympus to Crete and the coast of Troy, with every chapter pinned. Ten chapters out of fifteen pass through Mount Olympus. Nobody ever moved out.
Meet the family, one seat at a time.
Each chapter is one of them, one role you will recognise, and the story that made it.
The First Bad Father
The father who could not stand his own children
He was the first father in the world, and the first to want his children out of sight.
The Father Who Ate His Children
The one who became his father
His father hid his children. He swallowed his. In this family, that counts as doing it differently.
The Son Who Took the Throne
The one everyone orbits
Three brothers split the whole world three ways. Nobody asked the sisters.
The Wife He Swallowed
When the boss hears a prophecy about his replacement
He kept the smartest person in the family exactly where she could never win: inside his head.
The Wedding of the Gods
The one who holds it together and remembers everything
Everyone said it would never last; it lasted forever, which is not quite the same as working.
Hera's Revenge
She doesn't forget, she doesn't forgive, she remembers dates
She couldn't win the argument with him, so she took it out on everyone he was ever nice to.
The Golden Child
The golden child
Two children answered an insult to their mother, and nobody on Olympus said a word against them.
The Son Nobody Wanted
The one who fixes everything and gets thanked last
He made himself the joke so the family could stop fighting. Nobody thanked him.
The Hothead
The one who says it out loud
He wasn't wrong. He just said it out loud, bleeding, to the one who sent her.
The Responsible One
The responsible one, the one they call when it's serious
Sent when it was serious. Finished what the others started. Thanked when Dad remembered.
The Go-Between
The charmer who gets away with it
One day old, caught red-handed, and he walked out of the trial with a job.
The Outsider
The outsider who had to earn a seat
They said his mother made him up, so he went down to the dead and brought her back to the table.
The Mother Who Wouldn't Let Go
The mother who would not let go
She got her daughter back, just never for good, and the son-in-law stayed.
The Cousin Who Said No
The cousin who takes your side and pays for it
He took their side at dinner. He paid for it every morning, for a very long time.
The Peacekeeper
The one who keeps the house warm and stays out of it
Everyone rode out. Someone had to keep the fire going.
Six pages per god. Here is chapter 7.
Every chapter follows the same path, so you always know where to look.
Page 1: the opening picture. A full-page scene from the myth, drawn in the style of the old red-figure vases. Chapter 7 opens on Apollo walking into his father's house while the whole family jumps up.
Pages 2 to 4: the story, made simple
Who is Apollo, how to say it and his Roman name. The story in nine scenes, one picture each. The odd facts, counted. Did you know? And at the foot of every page, the ancient source it comes from.
Pages 5 and 6: in your family
The same story at a family table today: six then-and-now pairs, drawn, and a checklist of eight tells to tick ("the fridge has run out of magnets and every one of them is holding something you made"). Then a few extras chosen for the chapter, like How it ended or The Greeks had a word for it, and two lines to fill in. Shown here: chapter 1.
The stories are stranger than the movies.
Every one of these is in the book, drawn, with the ancient source on the page.
Five children swallowed. The sixth was a stone.
Kronos swallowed each of his children at birth. Rhea saved the last one by handing him a stone in a baby blanket. He swallowed that too.
Athena was born from her father's head.
First came the only headache in the book. Then she stepped out, fully grown and armed.
Hermes stole fifty cows on his first day.
Born at dawn, playing the lyre by midday, and by evening he had walked off with his big brother Apollo's cattle.
Hephaestus was thrown off Olympus twice.
Once by his mother, the day he was born. Once by his father, for taking her side.
Hestia was the eldest and the youngest.
Swallowed first and brought back last, so an old hymn calls her both.
Here's what really happened.
A novel retelling
- One god's side of the story
- Scenes and dialogue the author adds
- Read once, start to finish
The Greek Family Drama
- The whole family, every side at the table
- Every story from an ancient source, named on the page
- Look anyone up in seconds: tree, map, chapter list
Athena
The responsible one, Chapters 4 and 10
Plenty of people have tried to get into Greek mythology. The books made it hard.
- Every god has two or three names, and nobody says which one is Roman.
- The stories come out of order, so nobody knows who came first.
- Walls of text, no pictures, no family tree to come back to.
Not your fault. Nobody showed you the family.
Once you know who sits where, every story has a place to land.
- The tree on page 2 and the map on page 3, to come back to from any chapter.
- The Roman name on every god's page: Zeus is Jupiter, Hera is Juno.
- Fifteen chapters in family order, from the first father to the sister who kept the peace.
Next time someone mentions Hades, Hera or Percy Jackson, you'll know the whole family.
Made for one kind of reader.
Not for you if
- You want a novel with one hero and a love story
- You need a scholarly translation with footnotes
- You are looking for advice about your family
For you if
- You love the myths but never got the family straight
- Someone at your table is clearly a Zeus
- You like a book you can open anywhere and laugh
- You want the real stories, sources and all
A book for the shelf, not the bin.
A full-colour paperback, 8.5 x 11 inches, 96 pages on white paper, the art large enough to see every face. Printed for you, then sent free, with the family tree and the map inside to come back to.
One for you, one for the person you thought of on page 46.
Everyone reads it and thinks of someone. The 2 and 4 book packs ship together, free, and cost less per copy than one: two books save $7.95, four save $25.85.
Apollo
The golden child, Chapter 7
Artemis
The twin, Chapter 7
The Greek Family Drama
Just released
The first print run is shipping now. Printed for you and sent free.
The Greek gods as the family they were: 15 stories, the tree, the map and the quiz, in 96 full-colour pages.
- 15 family dramas, one per chapter, each with the family pages
- The full family tree and a map of their world
- Every story from an ancient source, named on the page
- 8.5 x 11 in paperback, full colour, made to keep on the shelf
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Damaged or misprinted? Reprinted free.
If your book arrives damaged, or a page is printed wrong, send us a photo. We print a new copy and send it free. You don't need to send anything back.
Prometheus
The cousin who said no, Chapter 14
Questions before you order
1.Is it for adults or for kids?
Written for adults. The myths are told the way the ancient sources tell them, fights and all, with a dry, comic face, and the family pages are about grown-up family life. Older kids who love myths enjoy the pictures; have a look first.
2.Do I need to know any Greek mythology?
No. Start at the family tree on page 2 and read in order. Every god is introduced on their own page, with their Roman name.
3.Is it accurate?
Every story comes from an ancient source, named at the foot of its page: Hesiod, Homer, the Homeric Hymns, Ovid and others. Where the sources disagree, the book tells you both versions.
4.Is it a self-help book?
No. It names family situations everyone recognises and lets you laugh at them. There is no advice and no therapy talk.
5.What exactly do I get?
A full-colour paperback, 8.5 x 11 inches, 96 pages: 15 chapters, the family tree, the map and the quiz. The 2 and 4 book packs ship together.
6.How long does shipping take?
Each copy is printed for you within 2 to 6 business days, then shipped free. Delivery in the US takes 4 to 13 business days.
7.What if it arrives damaged?
Send us a photo and we print a new copy and send it free. You don't need to send anything back.
8.Is there a quiz in the book?
Yes: "Which one are you?", six questions on pages 94 and 95 that end with your seat at the table. A code on page 95 opens more quizzes online.
Greek mythology finally makes sense.
Start with the family. 15 stories, the tree, the map and the quiz. Free shipping.