Description

Gustav Schwab's collection of Greek myths, a well-established and widely-used re-narration for young people, has since its first publication in 1838–1840 served as an introduction into classical mythology for many generations. The fact that it is closely modelled on ancient literary accounts is unknown to most and has attracted little attention from literary scholarship. By analysing the relationship of Schwab's re-narration with ancient Greek and Latin sources, many passages are revealed as almost verbatim translations from the original, whereas others seem to be only loosely based on them. Demonstrably, Schwab also made use of modern translations and other resources such as mythological dictionaries in many instances. In-depth analysis of many passages proves Schwabs's classical tales to be the product of an elegant and knowledgeable writer and schoolteacher, who does not however always live up to his intention of presenting ancient myths without moralising changes.