Edith Hamilton is one of my personal heroes, and if I didn't own two copies of this book, I wouldn't release it! She was taught by her father to read Latin and Greek as a child, and she carried a love of the words and letters of the classical world with her for all her life. She began writing translations of Greek and Roman myths, and then realized she needed to give a sense of the culture of the Greek and Roman worlds. She did that in The Roman Way and The Greek Way. She also devotes individual chapters to specific authors, explaining what kind of people they were as individuals. She didn't begin publishing until she was 63 years old! In the 1950s, she was awarded multiple honorary degrees and was made an honorary citizen of Athens, decorated by the king of Greece.

Reading Edith Hamilton, more than anything else, gave me a sense of the classical world. Read what you're interested in, skip chapters you find tedious. I'm releasing into the world my copy that isn't covered in my own personal notes!