Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes

Edith Hamilton (1867-1963) was an American classicist, author, and educator. The oldest of five children—four sisters and a brother—Hamilton spent her childhood in Indiana, where she was homeschooled by her parents. Her father, who held degrees from Princeton and Harvard, introduced her to Latin and ancient Greek when she was a child. She went on to study at Bryn Mawr College, receiving B.A. and M.A. degrees in Greek and Latin, then traveled to Munich for further graduate study, where she was the first woman to enroll in the university there. However, women were only permitted to audit classes at that time, sitting apart from their male classmates and prohibited from participating. She returned to the United States at the invitation of the president of the Bryn Mawr School, at the time the only college preparatory school for girls. Hamilton became the head of the school in 1906.

After her retirement in 1922, she began writing books for the general public about Greece and Rome, among other topics, including the bestsellers The Greek Way and Mythology, as well as translating classical texts. Hamilton received numerous awards and honors in her lifetime, including A National Achievement Award in 1951 and a Women’s National Book Award in 1958.