Art and Myth in Ancient Greece (World of Art)

Ok. So the only change here is the images. But it's a HUGE change. almost every image is now in COLOR and rather than plates appearing at the end of each chapter, the images are located on or adjacent to the pages where the author actually discusses the image. So there's no more paging back and forth to read the commentary, study the visual, then return to the textual discussion. Also, IT'S NOW IN COLOR! So that's huge. Really. Really. HUGE.So why only 4 stars? Well...the text is unchanged. One would hope that there would be more scholarship surrounding this topic (and there is). Visual depictions of myth are gaining respect as viable iterations of myths in their own right rather than pale imitations of existing poetry/performances. That said, it hasn't become any easier to obtain these artifacts.Sadly, it's quite difficult to obtain color images of Greek art. Museums restrict rights, and private collections are even more elusive. Even artifacts that were available to Lawrence in this textbook are unavailable now (30 years later). In any case, it's wonderful to have color images to analyze.It's unfortunate that no more updated content was added. It's also worth noting that the scope of this textbook is very limited to Archaic and Classical Greek art. The author does this not only for stylistic reasons but also because attitudes toward the myths changed more significantly in the Hellenistic and later periods. I mention this here only to note that there's a wealth of representations of myth from Hellenistic, Roman, and Imperial Roman periods that are outside the scope of this textbook, but it's not so easy to get a hold of more content for the two periods under study by Lawrence.