Reddit reviews The Orchard Book of Greek Myths

There's loads of awesome Greek mythology.

Much of Greek myth is about the Gods squabbling, often through their human heroes.

So: a whirlwind tour through the most important characters and myths:

In the beginning was the Goddess Gaia, who was the Earth and primordial chaos. From this came Uranus and together they had children: the 12 Titans.

Cronus overthrew his father, castrating him and is one of the more important Titans.

Cronus, had several children by his consort, Rhea. However, there was a prophesy that Cronus would be overthrown by one of his sons. To stop this he ate all his children. One, however, was swapped by Rhea for a stone and raised in secret. That child was Zeus.

Once Zeus was grown he overthrew his father (as prophesied) and forced him to regurgitate the other children.

What followed was a war between the Titans and the new generation (the Olympians) which resulted in the Olympians, led by Zeus, to take their place at Mount Olympus and the Titans to be imprisoned.

The key players in Greek mythology are:

Zeus: king of the gods, god of thunder and also god of hospitality. Fond of boning mortals.
Hera: his wife. Jealous.
Athene: kick-ass goddess of wisdom and the noble arts of war. Athens was named after her. When she shows up you know things are going to go down and it's going to be awesome.
Ares: god of the war as well, but the bloodlust and the violent side.
Hades: god of the underworld.
Poseiden: god of the sea. Don't piss him off.
Hermes: messenger to the gods, also practical joker. (Like Loki, but less evil.)
Aphrodite: Goddess of love.

Some key mortals:

Helen: the face that launched a thousand ships.

Achilles: one of the greatest warriors in the Trojan wars, fought to get Helen back.

Odysseus: hero of the Odyssey, an epic about his ten year return to his wife, Penelope, from Troy after the Trojan wars. He manages to piss off Poseiden (got of the sea) and so gets shipwrecked. Athene takes pity on him and helps, and the final scene would make Quentin Tarantino proud.

Hercules: Son of Zeus and a mortal. He's given twelve tasks to complete, and is quite an archetypical "Zeus pissing around with mortals" story.

Oedipus: King of Thebes. His story is covered in the Theban trilogy, but the first part (Oedipus Rex) is best known. He (unwittingly) killed his father and (totally unknowingly) married his mother. I love the final play in the trilogy, which is Antigone.

Persephone: A story for why we have seasons. Also, a nice Hades story.

Daedalus and Icarus: A parable about pride. Beautifully told, though.

King Midas: Another parable about pride.

Perseus: Classic hero story. Has also been related to the story of Saint George.

Jason and the Golden Fleece: less familiar with this, but it's considered a classic.

Theseus: killed a minotaur (spoilers!) and pops up in other stories. Marries Ariadne.

Arachne: Shows how much of a dick the gods can be.

Also of note: Aesop's Fables. These feel quite like children's stories, but you may recognise the origin of several English idioms here.

Okay, this has been quite a shallow introduction (OH, ZEUS, OH ZEUS, I'VE LEFT SO MUCH OUT!!! SORRY TO EVERYONE WHERE I LEFT OUT YOUR FAVOURITE STORY!!!). Hopefully I've whet your appetite.

It's quite easy to dip in with one story or another. As you read more and more you'll find you get more and more of the context, but well written versions tend to be very good. I remember devouring this book (figuratively) many times as a child: The Orchard Book of Greek Myths