Books: Young Readers' Zeus Who

GREEK GODS AND HEROES (160 pp.) —Robert Graves—Doubleday ($2.95).

Keeping the Greek myths untangled is something the Greeks themselves were never very good at. One reason is that, for religious, political and artistic reasons, the myths were always being changed. Another is that the Olympians, the lesser gods and the mortal heroes were virtually omnigamous; the nymphs were, if not nymphomaniacal. at least nymphoeccentric. But precisely because the myths are complex, they are best learned by the young, and it is hard to imagine a better —or more decorous—introduction than Robert Graves's new book.

The dust jacket of Greek Gods and Heroes suggests...