Publisher's Synopsis
The transformation of human beings to animals, plants and stones is one of the commonest and most characteristic themes of Greek Mythology. Whereas many cultures contain some such stories, in none are they so popular as in the Greek myths. Transformations are also some of the most mysterious and fantastic episodes in Greek mythology.;Studies of Greek myths have usually tended to try to explain them away in terms of some external entity, whether it be some hypothetical ritual, some curious phenomenon of nature or some long-forgotten historical event. Dr Forbes Irving argues that this attitude ignores what is of most interest about Greek myths - their appeal as stories. He attempts to analyze the various ways in which these stories imagine and explore what it means for a person to change his or her form.
