Thank you to BooksGoSocial for providing me with an eARC of “The Meaning of Myth: With 12 Greek Myths Retold and Interpreted by a Psychiatrist” by Neel Burton for me to read and provide an honest review!

This book provides a unique take on several (mostly Greek) myths and their meanings. I was a bit lost in the beginning when the focus was on philosophers but I can mostly narrow that down to my own reader error as it was full of topics I am not very educated on. That being said I can now say I am a bit more educated on them now after reading this book, at least when it comes to the myths. I think my favorite chapter in this book was the section on Monsters. Burton provides lots of insight from his own knowledge as a psychiatrist and also from many other sources such as Plato and Socrates, among many others. I particularly found the entire “Myths Decoded” section very interesting and I learned a great deal. Plato’s “Myth of Er” was something I had never encountered, and I really enjoyed learning about it.

The Meaning of Myth by Neel Burton is an innovative and unique perspective on the most common myths of Greek Mythology. The author is a psychiatrist by trade, so he offers his perspective on some of the most famous stories from his area of expertise. The first part of the book breaks down the meaning of myths (i.e. the literal definition, their relation to religion). The second part breaks down twelve stories from Greek history. My favorite myth covered in this book is that of Theseus and the Minotaur.

The author has undoubtedly put in the work to create this book. It seems well-edited and succinct. All the explanations presented are very detailed and show signs of many hours of research. The Meaning of Myth had the potential to have a higher rating, but I lowered the score because there were times that it felt more like a college lecture than a fun engaging read. I wanted it to be informative and fun the whole way through. Burton does present the material in such a way it feels accessible and not “dumbed down”, but there are still moments where it feels like a professor presenting material instead of a storyteller weaving a picture.

If you want to learn more about the content of the stories, this is not the book to choose. If you want to learn more about the history surrounding the stories as well as the archetypes and psychology involved with each myth, then this might be a good choice. I wish he had gone into some of the lesser-known stories (i.e. I would love to see an analysis of the story of Athena and Arachne, with some references to arachnophobia if possible). Analysis of the stories of other cultures would be cool too.

I read this ARC for an honest review
All thoughts and opinions are mine

Handled in sections, I found this fascinating
First section looks at the character of myths and I enjoyed it
Second section spent time deconstructing myths which I found less interesting to be honest

Concentrated on Greek / Roman myths which was good, however, not the only parts of the world that have myths and I feel the author has missed a trick here

I found this a good overview of the meaning of myth, just as the title suggests, although I did find the writing uneven and disjointed at times, almost as if the whole thing had been put together in a bit of a hurry. The first half of the book explores the differences between myth, legend, fable and fairy tale, and the universality of all of them. It’s all presented in an accessible way, so easy to read, but sometimes I felt that there was a lack of depth. The second half of the book explores 12 key Greek myths, and here, although overall the interpretations were useful and to the point, I occasionally felt myself bridling at some of the conclusions. All in all, the whole book felt rushed and not thoroughly considered. A good introduction to the subject, however, and worth reading – just not quite as good as it could have been.

A bit of a curate's egg, if you don't mind a cliche. The first section which looks at the character of myths is quite good.
The section deconstructing myths is frankly a bit disappointing, I thought Freudian analysis had been done away with.
Another really serious issue is the concentration on Greek/Roman myth, what about the rest of the world?

I received a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review
Mythology in general is quite fascinating, and looking in depth at these, I was held in rapture from beginning to end.

My thanks to the publishers for a copy of this book to review. In it, the author begins with a mythographic exploration of what distinguishes myths from legends, fables and fairy tales and discusses some key elements which recur in many of the myths from the ancient world, not to mention in religious stories from more modern times.

He then takes several examples of myths, summarises their content and unwraps what he thinks they try to show us about life. He comes at the material as a sort of psychiatric philosopher and I found quite a bit of what he picks out interesting and thought provoking. He shines his torch quite widely and surprisingly over the ancient and modern worlds to illustrate the points he makes, which is fine if you are already acquainted with the content of Greek myths in particular.

If you were expecting to learn about the story content of ancient myths we encounter in life today, however, this would not be the best place to start and there are some quite obscurely pedantic word choices in the text too. Why use perdure when endure would do just fine and everyone would know what you meant to say.

Nonetheless some of the information in the book, such as the origin of some words like clews or clues and of practices such as Olympic relay races is quite fascinating and, overall, I enjoyed this slightly idiosyncratic volume and recommend it.

This is a really neat idea for a book — looking at 12 classic Greek myths and deconstructing them from the perspective of psychiatry — e.g., using the myths to reveal universal truths about how the human psyche works. But not only is it an interesting idea, it is well executed. Definitely will be of interest to lovers of mythology and the ancient world, but also to those seeking to understand and improve themselves.

I wish this was not the case, but I have to give a 1-star review to <i>The Meaning of Myth: With 12 Greek Myths Retold and Interpreted by a Psychiatrist</i> because I don’t see the point of reading this book for either the retelling or the analytic content.

The piece is split into two categories - the first half encompassing “The Meaning of Myth”, which covers comparisons between myths and other forms of storytelling (fairy tales, legends, fables, etc.), as well as discussions on the intersection of myth with religion, science, and the modern world. There’s also some analysis of different generalized characters within myths - monsters and heroes, for example. The second half includes the 12 “decoded” myths, of which each chapter includes a small summary of the myth, followed by Burton’s analysis.

First, the positive - the author obviously loves mythology, and is super enthusiastic about his subject matter. That’s always cool to see. I also liked all the pictures.

However, I had a lot of issues.
- Firstly, each chapter in the first portion is so short, and therefore there’s not actually a lot of real content. I felt like it skimmed the surface a lot. This actually reminded me of a primer or textbook-like handout you might read in a high school English class when covering a mythology module. I did find the “Monsters”, “Misogyny” and “Myths in the Modern World” sections interesting, but those are topics I knew I was already interested in. Readers should go to [book:Antigone Rising: The Subversive Power of the Ancient Myths|51734177] or [book:Not All Dead White Men: Classics and Misogyny in the Digital Age|38240525] instead for deep dives into these subjects. I suppose the first half could be interesting if you weren’t very familiar with mythology.
- The second section consists of myth retellings followed by analysis. I struggle trying to figure out who these retellings would be best for - I found them too short/uninspiring for first-time myth readers, and too familiar for anybody that’s into Greek mythology. The myths include Prometheus, Orpheus, Perseus vs. Medusa, Theseus vs. Minotaur, etc. These have been told and retold many times, and therefore I was bored reading the retellings. Perhaps this would have worked better with new, unfamiliar myths. For classic retellings, I’d go to [book:D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths|79626] or any of [author:Stephen Fry|10917]’s new retellings (those are great in audiobook format).
- As for the analysis of the myths, I felt they were super psychoanalytic, but from a very modern and contemporary perspective. For example, in the Perseus/Medusa chapter, the author says “If we want to see the truth, we must close our eyes to the world and look inside our self”. This is so fluffy. What does that even mean? He also claims that Medusa represents truth because it is hard to look truth in the face (since Medusa’s gaze turns people to stone). I mean…. okay… but is this what people hearing the myths in the past thought? What’s the actual psychology behind this? I was really unimpressed. The analysis was also confusing and jarring at times. For example, in the Echo/Narcissus chapter, the author talks about how the myth is a warning against vanity and self-love (I mean, duh, his name is Narcissus), and being trapped in the self. The final two sentences of the chapter are copied here: “In Greek myth, the hero has to die and travel through the underworld before re-emerging as a hero. He has to conquer himself, to die to himself, to become more than merely human. For nothing is harder than to come back from hell.” What is this about? Narcissus is never portrayed as a hero - the author doesn’t even mention that word anywhere else in this chapter. Narcissus also doesn’t go to the afterlife or underworld. Nothing about hell is mentioned anywhere in the chapter before this line! It’s so confusing, and this was only one of many examples where I felt sentences were dropped haphazardly.
- The author inserts himself into the book a lot - there are too many “I” statements for my preference. I typically like author involvement in investigative nonfiction, but it felt out of place here. He also references his own books too much… in at least five different instances.

While I love mythology, I cannot in any way recommend this book.

<i>I voluntarily obtained a digital version of this book free from Netgalley and BooksGoSocial in exchange for an honest review!</i>

Quite a good book, I really liked the blend of psychology and mythology and that's something new. The stories were interesting and connection with psychology sometime blew my mind. Would love to see more books like this but maybe with myths outside of Greek mythology

Overall, this book was a bit of a disappointment for me. This is primarily a book of retold Greek myths with a sprinkling of psychology. I expected something much deeper that really analyzed the myths with a psychoanalytical lens. What was written in here is what I've read in several other books about mythology. However, I am quite knowledgeable about the topic as I teach world literature, so for a relative newcomer to the topic, this would probably be an excellent book to start their journey. One thing that would have helped is if the author had gone into more detail about other pantheons rather than just sticking to ancient Greece.

This was a wonderfully informative book that gave you a fresh look at well known myths and legends. Accessible without seeming dumbed down, and while avoiding the dry text book feeling you'll sometimes get in non fiction. While I would suggest it for people less familiar (read obsessed) with myths than I am, I still thoroughly enjoyed reading this title and learning Dr. Burton's view on these stories.

I was really interested in reading a psychiatrist's interpretation of the Greek Myths, but this book just didn't deliver.

The chapters felt disjointed, there was no real in-depth reading of the myths and the author was somewhat condescending in several chapters regarding ancient cultures.

Neel Burton has achieved a superb feat here, in creating a work that not only manages to condense an entire context of myth throughout the ages, but also successfully and authentically analyses a whole host of mythological stories from the ancient world. As a Classicist I was particularly appreciative of the discussion surrounding the complex, intertwined nature of myth, ritual, religion and magic, and Burton handled this notion sensitively and without bias.

A particular success in psycho-analysing these myths is that Burton has brought them to our level. He has made them enticing, comprehensive and, most importantly, relevant to our contemporary world, and I am convinced that even non-specialists/non-Classicists will be absorbed by his narrative. I particularly enjoyed the interpretations of Chiron and Medusa, and the frequent discussions involving Plato were an unexpected pleasure.

Thank you very much for allowing me to read this eARC - an absolute delight!

The myths you now analyzed by a doctor. Explains what they say about us as a civilization. I would consider this book to be highly informative and enjoyable.

This is a nice overview of myths, its history, how they relate to the modern-day, and worth anyone's investment of time and money. This is a concise survey of mythology and written by an author who is clearly well versed in this, and numerous other areas. The author is no bout a polymath of sorts, writes in a way that popular audiences will appreciate, but also writes in such a way where the reader is left pondering further the ideas he brought to the surface in his writing.

Overall a three. Was a very good blend of two things I'm very interested in, mythology and psychology. If another version was too every be made I would love to see more myths from outside of Greece and more social psychology and mental health over psychoanalysis.

This little book first examined what a myth actually is, alongside its close cousins the legend, parable, fable and fairy tale. The myth reaches parts of the psyche that neither the latter nor the world of 'objective' science can - they speak to the soul, and the human need to make sense of life in and reconnect to something beyond themselves.

The writer is a psychiatrist by profession, but he is clearly a very erudite scholar in Hellenic mythology. And it is to the Greek myths he turns to, to look at what lies behind their layered meanings and how the might apply to the various common human dilemmas of today.

A must for anyone who is interested in mythology and how European civilisation evolved, through examining the stories that have been passed down about it.

The Meaning of Myth is a book about myth written from the perspective of psychiatrist Neel Burton, He dissects the meaning of myth, differentiates it from legends and fairytales, examines the function of heroes, monsters, and magic, and explores the evolution of myths. The second part of the book takes a close look at 12 well known myths such as Eros and Psyche, Demeter and Persephone, Prometheus, Pandora etc... to uncover the deeper meanings and potential purposes of the myths.

This is a vast topic for any author to tackle and I thought Neel Burton was succinct in his writing. He concisely summarzied the myths and offered a deeper analysis of their meanings without getting lost in archetypal and mystical ideas.

I give this book 4/5 stars because the myths featured in this book have been over-analyzed by mythologists and psychologists, so the interpretations were not new or original. It would be nice to see some lesser known myths be explored in a future book,

The main things that I enjoyed about this book were the way that the writing style was presented as straightforward without falling prey to the inherent dryness of similar titles, and the obvious care and passion the author has for the topics at hand. I think perhaps that it wasn’t quite what I expected, however, and would perhaps be better suited for someone who was either less familiar with these myths in particular and had more use for the clean, concise summarizations and analyses of them, or someone who intently analyzes the myths themselves and may be curious about the specific perspective another. All in all, I might have given this piece a 3-star for my personal enjoyment of it, but I’ve bumped the rating for the fact that I believe that there are others who would enjoy it more, and because I could see the devotion the author put into the writing, even though “part 1” and the structure of the retelling (I think I’d expected more elaborate tales) weren’t exactly what I was looking for from it.

Many thanks for the ARC.