The Adventures of Hermes: God of Thieves
Publisher: Pushkin Children's Books
This accessible introduction to Greek mythology unrolls in one hundred episodes, focusing on the god, Hermes. From birth, Hermes' insatiable curiosity about his world drives him into adventures, revealing how these stories might have originated. Son to Zeus, king of the gods, Hermes proudly becomes Zeus' messenger with winged sandals: he invents music, discovers fire and recognises beauty in Aphrodite.
His thirst for knowledge leads him into past and future, into the heavens and the underworld: he uncovers the intertwining lives, loves and rivalries of his fellow immortals: Apollo, Poseidon, Persephone, Prometheus, even meeting his great grandson, Odysseus (a wanderer himself!)
Placing Hermes at the nexus of the gods' complex relationships gives the stories fresh immediacy, and the smells and sights of Greece shimmer through.