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Giovanni Boccaccio. Genealogy of the Pagan Gods. Volume I: Books I-V. Translated by Jon Solomon. I Tatti Renaissance Library, 46. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2011. xxxvii + 887 pages.
We have waited centuries for an English translation of the Genealogia deorum gentilium, Boccaccio's survey of Greek and Roman myth. Edmund Spenser and John Milton read it in Latin. A French translation of Books I-XIII appeared as early as 1498, and an Italian translation by 1547. Why did we have to wait so long? Because it is a titanic task, fifteen books long.
Drawing on more than 200 Greek and Latin authors, the Genealogy is a feat of erudition that shows a Boccaccio barely seen in the Decameron. It is "a veritable encyclopedia of mythological information" (x) and for the better part of two centuries it was Europe's guide to the gods. The gods and goddesses, their liaisons, and progeny seemed a hopeless confusion. How many Hermes were there? Who says Minerva was a mother? How many women did Jupiter seduce? As best he could, Boccaccio sorted out the affairs and families of the gods. He admitted he couldn't make sense of it all. Why try?
Sometime between 1347 and 1349, Hugo, King of Cyprus, isle of Venus, sent an officer to ask Boccaccio to research and write the Genealogia. Boccaccio demurred, saying he had "a slow wit and a fluid memory" and was unequal to the task. The officer insisted. Boccaccio replied that many books had been...